not pretend to deny. He is the Great First Cause of all things. He is
the Creator of all mankind, and in Him alone, all men, whether
Christians or heathens, "live and move and have their being." All this
is unquestionably true. In this sense Paul told the Athenians, a poet of
their own had truly said, "we are His offspring." (Acts xvii. 28.) But
this sonship gives no man a title to heaven. The sonship which we have
by creation is one which belongs to stones, trees, beasts, or even to
the devils, as much as to us. (Job i. 6.)
That God loves all mankind with a love of pity and compassion, I do not
deny. "His tender mercies are over all His works."--"He is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."--"He
has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." All this I admit to the
full. In this sense our Lord Jesus tells us, "God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life." (Ps. cxlv. 9; 2 Peter iii. 9;
Ezek. xviii. 32; John iii. 16.)
But that God is a reconciled and pardoning Father to any but the members
of His Son Jesus Christ, and that any are members of Jesus Christ who do
not believe on Him for salvation,--this is a doctrine which I utterly
deny. The holiness and justice of God are both against the doctrine.
They make it impossible for sinful men to approach God, excepting
through the Mediator. They tell us that God out of Christ is "a
consuming fire." (Heb. xii. 29.) The whole system of the new Testament
is against the doctrine. That system teaches that no man can claim
interest in Christ unless he will receive Him as his Mediator, and
believe on Him as his Saviour. Where there is no faith in Christ it is a
dangerous error to say that a man may take comfort in God as his Father.
God is a reconciled Father to none but the members of Christ.
It is unreasonable to talk of the view I am now upholding as
narrow-minded and harsh. The Gospel sets an open door before every man.
Its promises are wide and full. Its invitations are earnest and tender.
Its requirements are simple and clear. "Only believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and, whosoever thou art, thou shalt be saved." But to say that
proud men, who will not bow their necks to the easy yoke of Christ, and
worldly men who are determined to have their own way and their sins,--to
say that such men have a right to claim an interest in Christ, and a
right to call themselves sons of God, is to say what never can be proved
from Scripture. God offers to be their Father; but He does it on certain
distinct terms:--they must draw near to Him through Christ. Christ
offers to be their Saviour; but in doing it He makes one simple
requirement:--they must commit their souls to Him, and give Him their
hearts. They refuse the _terms_, and yet dare to call God their Father!
They scorn the _requirement_, and yet dare to hope that Christ will save
them! God is to be their Father,--but on their own terms! Christ is to
be their Saviour,--but on their own conditions! What can be more
unreasonable? What can be more proud? What can be more unholy than such
a doctrine as this? Let us beware of it, for it is a common doctrine in
these latter days. Let us beware of it, for it is often speciously put
forward, and sounds beautiful and charitable in the mouth of poets,
novelists, sentimentalists, and tender-hearted women. Let us beware of
it, unless we mean to throw aside our Bible altogether, and set up
ourselves to be wiser than God. Let us stand fast on the old Scriptural
ground: _No sonship to God without Christ! No interest in Christ without
faith!_
I would to God there was not so much cause for giving warnings of this
kind. I have reason to think they need to be given clearly and
unmistakably. There is a school of theology rising up in this day, which
appears to me most eminently calculated to promote infidelity, to help
the devil, and to ruin souls. It comes to us like Joab to Amasa, with
the highest professions of charity, liberality, and love. God is all
mercy and love, according to this theology:--His holiness and justice
are completely left out of sight! Hell is never spoken of in this
theology:--its talk is all of heaven! Damnation is never mentioned:--it
is treated as an impossible thing:--all men and women are to be saved!
Faith, and the work of the Spirit, are refined away into nothing at all!
"Everybody who believes anything has faith! Everybody who thinks
anything has the Spirit! Everybody is right! Nobody is wrong! Nobody is
to blame for any action he may commit! It is the result of his position.
It is the effect of circumstances! He is not accountable for his
opinions, any more than for the colour of his skin! He must be what he
is! The Bible is a very imperfect book! It is old-fashioned! It is
obsolete! We may believe just as much of it as we please, and no
more!"--Of all this theology I warn men solemnly to beware. In spite of
big swelling words about "liberality," and "charity," and "broad views,"
and "new lights," and "freedom from bigotry," and so forth, I do believe
it to be a theology that leads to hell.
(_a_) _Facts_ are directly against the teachers of this theology. Let
them visit Mesopotamia, and see what desolation reigns where Nineveh and
Babylon once stood. Let them go to the shores of the Dead Sea, and look
down into its mysterious bitter waters. Let them travel in Palestine,
and ask what has turned that fertile country into a wilderness. Let them
observe the wandering Jews, scattered over the face of the world,
without a land of their own, and yet never absorbed among other nations.
And then let them tell us, if they dare, that God is so entirely a God
of mercy and love that He never does and never will punish sin.
(_b_) _The conscience of man_ is directly against these teachers. Let
them go to the bedside of some dying child of the world, and try to
comfort him with their doctrines. Let them see if their vaunted theories
will calm his gnawing, restless anxiety about the future, and enable him
to depart in peace. Let them show us, if they can, a few
well-authenticated cases of joy and happiness in death without Bible
promises,--without conversion,--and without that faith in the blood of
Christ, which old-fashioned theology enjoins. Alas! when men are leaving
the world, conscience makes sad work of the new systems of these latter
days. Conscience is not easily satisfied, in a dying hour, that there is
no such thing as hell.
(_c_) _Every reasonable conception that we can form of a future state_
is directly against these teachers. Fancy a heaven which should contain
all mankind! Fancy a heaven in which holy and unholy, pure and impure,
good and bad, would be all gathered together in one confused mass! What
point of union would there be in such a company? What common bond of
harmony and brotherhood? What common delight in a common service? What
concord, what harmony, what peace, what oneness of spirit could exist?
Surely the mind revolts from the idea of a heaven in which there would
be no distinction between the righteous and the wicked,--between Pharaoh
and Moses, between Abraham and the Sodomites, between Paul and Nero,
between Peter and Judas Iscariot, between the man who dies in the act of
murder or drunkenness, and men like Baxter, George Herbert, Wilberforce,
and M'Cheyne! Surely an eternity in such a miserably confused crowd
would be worse than annihilation itself! Surely such a heaven would be
no better than hell!
(_d_) The _interests of all holiness and morality_ are directly against
these teachers. If all men and women alike are God's children, whatever
is the difference between them in their lives,--and all alike going to
heaven, however different they may be from one another here in the
world,--where is the use of labouring after holiness at all? What motive
remains for living soberly, righteously, and godly? What does it matter
how men conduct themselves, if all go to heaven, and nobody goes to
hell? Surely the heathen poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome could
tell us something better and wiser than this! Surely a doctrine which is
subversive of holiness and morality, and takes away all motives to
exertion, carries on the face of it the stamp of its origin. It is of
earth, and not of heaven. It is of the devil, and not of God.
(_e_) _The Bible_ is against these teachers from first to last. Hundreds
of texts might be quoted which are diametrically opposed to their
theories. These texts must be rejected summarily, if the Bible is to
square with their views. There may be no reason why they should be
rejected,--but to suit the theology I speak of they must be thrown away!
At this rate the authority of the whole Bible is soon at an end. And
what do men give us in its place? Nothing,--nothing at all! They rob us
of the bread of life, and do not give us in its stead so much as a
stone.
Once more I warn all into whose hands this volume may fall to beware of
this theology. I charge you to hold fast the doctrine which I have been
endeavouring to uphold in this paper. Remember what I have said, and
never let it go. No inheritance of glory without sonship to God! No
sonship to God without an interest in Christ! No interest in Christ
without your own personal faith! This is God's truth. Never forsake it.
Who now among the readers of this paper _desires to know whether he is a
son of God_? Ask yourself this question, and ask it this day,--and ask
it as in God's sight, whether you have repented and believed. Ask
yourself whether you are experimentally acquainted with Christ, and
united to Him in heart. If not you may be very sure you are no son of
God. You are not yet born again. You are yet in your sins. Your Father
in creation God may be, but your reconciled and pardoning Father God is
not. Yes! though Church and world may agree to tell you to the
contrary,--though clergy and laity unite in flattering you,--your
sonship is worth little or nothing in the sight of God. Let God be true
and every man a liar. Without faith in Christ you are no son of God: you
are not born again.
Who is there among the readers of this paper who _desires to become a
son of God_? Let that person see and feel his sins, and flee to Christ
for salvation, and this day he shall be placed among the children.--Only
acknowledge thine iniquity, and lay hold on the hand that Jesus holds
out to thee this day, and sonship, with all it privileges, is thine
own. Only confess thy sins, and bring them unto Christ, and God is
"faithful and just to forgive thee thy sins, and cleanse thee from all
unrighteousness." (1 John i. 9.) This very day old things shall pass
away, and all things become new. This very day thou shalt be forgiven,
pardoned, "accepted in the Beloved." (Ephes. i. 6.) This very day thou
shalt have a new name given to thee in heaven. Thou didst take up this
book a child of wrath. Thou shalt lie down to night a child of God. Mark
this, if thy professed desire after sonship is sincere,--if thou art
truly weary of thy sins, and hast really something more than a lazy wish
to be free,--there is real comfort for thee. It is all true. It is all
written in Scripture, even as I have put it down. I dare not raise
barriers between thee and God. This day I say, Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be "a son," and be saved.
Who is there among the readers of this paper that _is a son of God
indeed_? Rejoice, I say, and be exceeding glad of your privileges.
Rejoice, for you have good cause to be thankful. Remember the words of
the beloved apostle: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." (1 John
iii. 1.) How wonderful that heaven should look down on earth,--that the
holy God should set His affections on sinful man, and admit him into His
family! What though the world does not understand you! What though the
men of this world laugh at you, and cast out your name as evil! Let them
laugh if they will. God is your Father. You have no need to be ashamed.
The Queen can create a nobleman. The Bishops can ordain clergymen. But
Queen, Lords, and Commons,--bishops, priests, and deacons,--all together
cannot, of their own power, make one son of God, or one of greater
dignity than a son of God. The man that can call God his Father, and
Christ his elder brother,--that man may be poor and lowly, yet he never
need be ashamed.
II. Let me show, in the second place, _the special evidences of the true
Christians relation to God_.
How shall a man make sure work of his own sonship? How shall he find out
whether he is one that has come to Christ by faith and been born again?
What are the marks and signs, and tokens, by which the "sons of God" may
be known? This is a question which all who love eternal life ought to
ask. This is a question to which the verses of Scripture I am asking you
to consider, like many others, supply an answer.
(1) The sons of God, for one thing, are all _led by His Spirit_. What
says the Scripture which heads this paper? "As many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 14.)
They are all under the leading and teaching of a power which is
Almighty, though unseen,--even the power of the Holy Ghost. They no
longer turn every man to his own way, and walk every man in the light of
His own eyes, and follow every man his own natural heart's desire. The
Spirit leads them. The Spirit guides them. There is a movement in their
hearts, lives, and affections, which they feel, though they may not be
able to explain, and a movement which is always more or less in the same
direction.
They are led away from sin,--away from self-righteousness,--away from
the world. This is the road by which the Spirit leads God's children.
Those whom God adopts He teaches and trains. He shows them their own
hearts. He makes them weary of their own ways. He makes them long for
inward peace.
They are led to Christ. They are led to the Bible. They are led to
prayer. They are led to holiness. This is the beaten path along which
the Spirit makes them to travel. Those whom God adopts He always
sanctifies. He makes sin very bitter to them. He makes holiness very
sweet.
It is the Spirit who leads them to Sinai, and first shows them the law,
that their hearts may be broken. It is He who leads them to Calvary, and
shows them the cross, that their hearts may be bound up and healed. It
is He who leads them to Pisgah, and gives them distinct views of the
promised land, that their hearts may be cheered. When they are taken
into the wilderness, and taught to see their own emptiness, it is the
leading of the Spirit. When they are carried up to Tabor or Hermon, and
lifted up with glimpses of the glory to come, it is the leading of the
Spirit. Each and all of God's sons is the subject of these leadings.
Each and every one is "willing in the day of the Spirit's power," and
yields himself to it. And each and all is led by the right way, to bring
him to a city of habitation. (Ps. cx. 3; cvii. 7.)
Settle this down in your heart, and do not let it go. The sons of God
are a people "led by the Spirit of God," and always led more or less in
the same way. Their experience will tally wonderfully when they compare
notes in heaven. This is one mark of sonship.
(2) Furthermore, all the sons of God _have the feelings of adopted
children towards their Father in heaven_. What says the Scripture which
heads this paper? "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba
Father." (Rom. viii. 15.)
The sons of God are delivered from that slavish fear of God which sin
begets in the natural heart. They are redeemed from that feeling of
guilt which made Adam "hide himself in the trees of the garden," and
Cain "go out from the presence of the Lord." (Gen. iii. 8; iv. 16.) They
are no longer afraid of God's holiness, and justice, and majesty. They
no longer feel as if there was a great gulf and barrier between
themselves and God, and as if God was angry with them, and must be angry
with them, because of their sins. From these chains and fetters of the
soul the sons of God are delivered.
Their feelings towards God are now those of peace and confidence. They
see Him as a Father reconciled in Christ Jesus. They look on Him as a
God whose attributes are all satisfied by their great Mediator and
Peacemaker, the Lord Jesus,--as a God who is "just, and yet the
Justifier of every one that believeth on Jesus." (Rom. iii. 26.) As a
Father, they draw near to Him with boldness: as a Father, they can speak
to Him with freedom. They have exchanged the spirit of bondage for that
of liberty, and the spirit of fear for that of love. They know that God
is holy, but they are not afraid: they know that they are sinners, but
they are not afraid. Though holy, they believe that God is completely
reconciled: though sinners, they believe they are clothed all over with
Jesus Christ. Such is the feeling of the sons of God.
I allow that some of them have this feeling more vividly than others.
Some of them carry about scraps and remnants of the old spirit of
bondage to their dying day. Many of them have fits and paroxysms of the
old man's complaint of fear returning upon them at intervals. But very
few of the sons of God could be found who would not say, if
cross-examined, that since they knew Christ they have had very different
feelings towards God from what they ever had before. They feel as if
something like the old Roman form of adoption had taken place between
themselves and their Father in heaven. They feel as if He had said to
each one of them, "Wilt thou be my son?" and as if their hearts had
replied, "I will."
Let us try to grasp this also, and hold it fast. The sons of God are a
people who feel towards God in a way that the children of the world do
not. They feel no more slavish fear towards Him: they feel towards Him
as a reconciled parent. This, then, is another mark of sonship.
(3) But, again, the sons of God _have the witness of the Spirit in their
consciences_. What says the Scripture which heads this paper? "The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children
of God." (Rom. viii. 16.)
The sons of God have got something within their hearts which tells them
there is a relationship between themselves and God. They feel something
which tells them that old things are passed away, and all things become
new: that guilt is gone, that peace is restored, that heaven's door is
open, and hell's door is shut. They have, in short, what the children of
the world have not,--a felt, positive, reasonable hope. They have what
Paul calls the "seal" and "earnest" of the Spirit. (2 Cor. i. 22; Eph.
i. 13.)
I do not for a moment deny that this witness of the Spirit is
exceedingly various in the extent to which the sons of God possess it.
With some it is a loud, clear, ringing, distinct testimony of
conscience: "I am Christ's, and Christ is mine." With others it is a
little, feeble, stammering whisper, which the devil and the flesh often
prevent being heard. Some of the children of God speed on their course
towards heaven under the full sails of assurance. Others are tossed to
and fro all their voyage, and will scarce believe they have got faith.
But take the least and lowest of the sons of God. Ask him if he will
give up the little bit of religious hope which he has attained? Ask him
if he will exchange his heart, with all its doubts and conflicts, its
fightings and fears,--ask him if he will exchange that heart for the
heart of the downright worldly and careless man? Ask him if he would be
content to turn round and throw down the things he has got hold of, and
go back to the world? Who can doubt what the answer would be I? "I
cannot do that," he would reply. "I do not know whether I have faith, I
do not feel sure I have got grace; but I have got something within me I
would not like to part with." And what is that "_something_"? I will
tell you.--It is the witness of the Spirit.
Let us try to understand this also. The sons of God have the witness of
the Spirit in their consciences. This is another mark of sonship.
(4) One thing more let me add. All the sons of God _take part in
suffering with Christ_. What says the Scripture which heads this paper?
"If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if
so be that we suffer with Him." (Rom. viii. 17.)
All the children of God have a cross to carry. They have trials,
troubles, and afflictions to go through for the Gospel's sake. They have
trials from the world,--trials from the flesh,--and trials from the
devil. They have trials of feeling from relations and friends,--hard
words, hard treatment, and hard judgment. They have trials in the matter
of character;--slander, misrepresentation, mockery, insinuation of false
motives,--all these often rain thick upon them. They have trials in the
matter of worldly interests. They have often to choose whether they will
please man and lose glory, or gain glory and offend man. They have
trials from their own hearts. They have each generally their own thorn
in the flesh,--their own home-devil, who is their worst foe. This is the
experience of the sons of God.
Some of them suffer more, and some less. Some of them suffer in one way,
and some in another. God measures out their portions like a wise
physician, and cannot err. But never, I believe, was there one child of
God who reached paradise without a cross.
Suffering is the diet of the Lord's family. "Whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth."--"If ye be without chastisement, then are ye bastards, and
not sons."--"Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of
God."--"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution." (Heb. xii. 6, 8; Acts xiv. 22; 2 Tim. iii. 12.) When
Bishop Latimer was told by his landlord that he had never had a trouble,
"Then," said he, "God cannot be here."
Suffering is a part of the process by which the sons of God are
sanctified. They are chastened to wean them from the world, and make
them partakers of God's holiness. The Captain of their salvation was
"made perfect through suffering," and so are they. (Heb. ii. 10; xii.
10.) There never yet was a great saint who had not either great
afflictions or great corruptions. Well said Philip Melancthon: "Where
there are no cares there will generally be no prayers."
Let us try to settle this down into our hearts also. The sons of God
have all to bear a cross. A suffering Saviour generally has suffering
disciples. The Bridegroom was a man of sorrows. The Bride must not be a
woman of pleasures and unacquainted with grief. Blessed are they that
mourn! Let us not murmur at the cross. This also is a sign of sonship.
I warn men never to suppose that they are sons of God except they have
the scriptural marks of sonship. Beware of a sonship without evidences.
Again I say, Beware. When a man has no leading of the Spirit to show me,
no spirit of adoption to tell of, no witness of the Spirit in his
conscience, no cross in his experience,--is this man a son of God?
Whatever others may think I dare not say so! His spot is "not the spot
of God's children." (Deut. xxxii. 5.) He is no heir of glory.
Tell me not that you have been baptized and taught the catechism of the
Church of England, and therefore must be a child of God. I tell you that
the parish register is not the book of life. I tell you that to be
styled a child of God, and called regenerate in infancy by the faith and
charity of the Prayer-book, is one thing; but to be a child of God in
deed, another thing altogether. Go and read that catechism again. It is
the "death unto sin and the new birth unto righteousness," which makes
men _children of grace_. Except you know these by experience, you are no
son of God.
Tell me not that you are a member of Christ's Church, and so must be a
son. I answer that the sons of the Church are not necessarily the sons
of God. Such sonship is not the sonship of the eighth of Romans. That is
the sonship you must have if you are to be saved.
And now, I doubt not some reader of this paper will want to know if he
may not be saved without the witness of the Spirit.