Newspapers / Zion’s Landmarks (Wilson, N.C.) / Nov. 15, 1876, edition 1 / Page 4
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Zion’s Landmark: Wilson, N. C. FREE-WILL. Plymouth, April 10th, 1876. Brother Gold:— After giving my impressions in a letter recently mailed to you, I have concluded to write to you again, and hope that it will be comforting to the diildren of Gosl. Free-will is a term used by Chris tians, expressed generally to mean that the will of man is as free to do good as it is to do evil ; or, in plain er words, it is in man’s own power, and just as easy for him to will good as it is for him to will bad, or to will to go to heaven or to hell ; or to will holiness or sin; or, in other words, that man possesses in himself a determin ing volit’on or powerover his own will, to turn it in which way he pleases, just as free to good as to evil, under no control but man himself; that a man can be a Christian, or let it alone. I don’t believe a word of such doc trine, and my reasons I will assign: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” David, person ating God speaketh to his Son; by which text you can plainly see that men have no svill to I eve, nor serve, nor be saved by Jesus Christ, until Christ, in the day of liis power, by the Spirit, makes them willing to be saved by him. This my heart knovvs to be an experimental as well as Bible truth, and no man has a will to be saved by Christ by nature. If he has, why and wherefore is their will in this text attributed to the day of Chris’s power, so that the will of man is undf^r control and he wills not to be saved |by Christ until Christ by his ]>o»(ver^iv^ it to liim. Then a will by jx)wer, not a free will, but given and only free after given.— Phli. 2 : 13. For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Now you can see from this text that God works the will in a sinner, to do his good pleasure and that pleasure is to believe in Jesus Clirist; for this is the will of the Father, that every one tliat seeth the Son and believeth on him should not perish but have ever lasting life. Then, a sinner has no will to do good, no will to come to Christ to be .saved by him, no will to go to heaven in God’s way until God by his Spirit works this will in his heart. Had he not worked this will there would have been no doing good in a right way, from right prin- ciple.s. Therefore it is said in John, 6th chapter and 44th verse, “No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” ‘‘ It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of the Lord.” “Every man therefore that hath hoard and hath learned of the Fath er, cometh to me.” You can see in these venses, spoken by Jesus, that a •inner has no will to come to him, by whom is the only way to be saved, and therefore needs the drawing of the Father, or the operation of his Spirit to influence his will to come to Christ, or to teach him to hear and learn of God how to come to Christ, So that the cause of any sinner’s com ing to Christ is of God’s operation on his will, and without wliich ope ration of God’s Spirit to draw, to teach, and to lead the sinner, none ever did, none can, nor any ever will come to Christ, nor have a will to be .saved by Christ only.— See John 6 : 67. But there are .some of you that believe not; for Jesus knew from the beginning, that is, as soon as Judas joined his little band, who they were that believed not, al luding to Judas and others who should betray him, and .said, “ There fore I said unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given him of my Father.” The popular theory of the day ignores this senti ment inculcated by Christ, yet such claim to be his disciples. Now what say you, can or cannot man of his own free will, come to Christ? If he can, then it ceases to be the gift of the Father. If he can not, then the gift of God’s Spirit to produce motive in the soul, to influ ence the will ot the sinner, must be necessary, and that without this gift the sinner has neither motive nor will to come to Christ, and as Christ .says he cannot come without this gift of the Father, will you dare then to say that a sinner has a free will and can be a Christian if he chooses, or let it alone if he choo.ses. The truth is he chooses to let it alone and not come to Chri.st, unless Gcxl gives him the power so to do. Then God gives the will and the doing. So that man has no free will to do good, but Is bound ill chains of Iust,'^nd is in bondage to the beggarly elements of the world until the time this will is given of God to the sinner. Now i recollect that this was said on the account of Judas, who Kapmed to Jiavc' had a will, yea,^ to h^’e come to Christ; for he was one of the twelve and had joined and come into com pany with the disciples to whom it had been given to come to Clirist.— He was purser, preacher, and pur chaser of all the nece.s.saries of the lit tle flock. Yet with all this he had not believed nor come to Christ; and why ? Because it had not been given him of the Father so to do. Then you must shut your eyes or see that God gives this gift of will, this gift of his Spirit and fiiith to some and not to others. “Ye will not come unto me that ve might have life.” — Jno. 5 : 4. Here you see the will of all men by nature. Then to have a will to come to Christ and be sav ed by him is the gift of God, and no man has it nor can have it. Take the 19 chapter and 14th verse, We will not have this man to reign over us.” This is the nature of the human heart with all the mighty boasted free will. Yea, free indeed, but to sin and not come to Christ, nor have him as ruler over tliem. Nor has the sinner power over this will—this wicked will— free to sin and not to good. The parable of our Lord, compar ing the gospel and its dispensation, to a marriage feast will, I think, place the rnatlcr in a fair light, but not on the ground free-willers and free-agent men wish to take it. This ground we will take; but let it be under stood, in the first place, that the marriage feast is made bv ’God the Father for his Son Jesus Christ and his church. You can have it for sinners, or for all mankind, or for as many sis feel willing to come, it will make no difference; for when the command, “ come, all things are now read,” was given, they began to make excuses, one saying, Pray have me exciKsed, &c. Now, sir, did these men have a free will to come? You know better, but say you, they might have come. How so, when one’s farm, and another’s oxen, and an other’s wife, influenced them another way? Could they give thernseves the will, contra ry to their will, a thing not in the power of man, but in God alone.— The second invitation found the halt, the lame, and the blind. They were not indiflerent when they heard the me.s.sage. Wliy so? Because they were characters of necessity, which shows us that no sinner will come to Christ until brought by grace to a state of necessity, like the prodigal .son, forced to his father’s house becau.se death was everywhere else. Lastly, Go out and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Now sir, answer me, why did he not compel the first? he could but would not: if you say he could not subdue them, you limit his power, which would involve him in darkness and uncertainty, like our selves. Here then, you must see that grace is discriminating. Some are constrain ed to repent and believe in Christ and fill places in his Church, while others are suffered to pursue their own carnal wills and love of riches until death, and then fall into hell. And although all are, or may be, in- -vet . , . it k L - feyo in?flieT>aine (;^.rT.st,''^iven to home to Christ, are drawn, quicken- .ed, enlightened, taught, lead, made willing in the day of God’s power. In a word, God takes them by the hand when dead in sin, without will e«r desire, life or light, and of his own will, mercy and grace, and works in them to will and do of his owm good pleasure. Now sir, if you have got a religion that you were not constrained to have, I would not give you a brass pin for it. If you have got a religion of free will, that you can have or let alone, it is worth nothing. If you have got a religion that you were not forced to seek, but under the nece.ssity of hav ing one that you could not get rid of, but was laid bn you of necessity—it is nota true religion. Such a religion that comes of the will of men, is nothing but the relig ion of hypocrites, witches and devils in human form. Such was the re ligion of Judas, Simon Ningu.s, Ba laam and many others.—Jude 1:13. But, true go.spel religion is not ot bhx)d nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God : I ask you, what will had you in your first birth ? None. So in your sec ond birth, if you over experienced it, you will attribute the praise to Gol. So that, the doctrine of Free-will, or, that a man can be religious or let it alone, is a false doctrine. Hear, I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds I will write them ; I will be to them a God, and they shall be my people. I will bring the blind by a way they know not, and ai many as are lead by the Spirit of God. some it it given to be- are the son.s of God, If any man have not the Spirit of Cnri-'t, he i.s not of him. His salvation Ls by grace or the gift of God ; and, that doctrine that contradicts thl.sin whole or in part, is false; for, a sinner i.s dead and cannot give himself life, he is bound and cannot enlighteii himself, he is deaf and cannot give himself hearing, be is lost and can not find himself, he is not willing to come to Christ and cannot give him- S"lf that will, he is the captive of tiie devil, therefore not free, he i.s helpless and cannot help himself, polluted and cannot wash himself, he i.s poi.r, aul naked, and ignorant of God’s .salva tion, a mi.serable, wretched child of wrath, and the works of the devil he will do unless God take.s him in hand and by his Spirit and influence make.s him a new creature. So you see you must loe born again, or Ijo damned. To .say a m.an may or many not btj religioas, or that he Is left to bis own free will, as it is called, just to do ae he may in this matter, is to give scripture the lie. For the scriptures rev^ealed, in all the promises tiiat are made, show to the contrary. And P" the scriptures will recognize the grounds of all true religion.—- Religion is sought and received from necessity. Religion is compelled on persons, that is, they are led to havm it, for it is a gift. Tins iiecessitv'^ and compulsion make men willing in the day of Christ’s power. Without which, a .sinner never ha'^ a free-will^ to good ; all bough a mao may wijll to }>ray, to profess, to preach sLkI do all the,duties of s'^’.gV i5n, au(|pyet ftavm'no at^al!(, for want of a right m.olive to influ ence the will—wliich motive the Spirit alone can give by renewing the mind. And it was the want of this motive that made the religion of the Pharisees nothing worth but to receive the greater damijation, lie- cau.se there was no spirit in all tlieir work.s. They were only the works of the flesh, and the will of the flesh, and not fruits of God’s Spirit. And here is the grand mistake that men make, in putting the will and works of the flesh for those of the Spirit.—• The tree must be gooil before the fruit can be good ; and the man that says that a man, before he lives by gi'ace is capable of faith, and that holy desire, does not know tlie first letter in the Christian alpiiabet—if the tree must l>o made good, bow can a sinner, of himself, have holy desires or a free will to good, or faith either, since faith Is the gift of God ? For such a doctrine is wholly suspending the .salvation of sinners in a self- determining power of the free will of tiie .sinner, and frequently those fashionable religious gentry exclaim with a sanctimonious tune. It is all of grace: if salvation is conditonal all .sinners may refuse and neglect si> great a salvation and be lost. And so Chrl.st has died in vain. Hear God’s religion : I will give life to the dead, eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, to seek, find and save the lost, to lead and guide, com fort and keep by his power to salva tion, ])ut his fear in their hearts tlrat they shall not depart from him, plant and rejoice over, and bring safe to ■i f
Zion’s Landmarks (Wilson, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 15, 1876, edition 1
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