Spurgeon's
Peculiarities
And now I may just hint at one or two
peculiarities in that which I have ever preached to you,
which peculiarities I desire you most anxiously to inquire
into. Now, take nothing at second hand from me, but try all
of it by the written Word.
I believe, and I teach that all men by nature
are lost by Adam’s fall. See whether that be true or not.
I hold that men have so gone astray, that no
man either will or can come to Christ except the Father draw
him. If I be wrong find me out.
I believe that God, before all worlds, chose
to himself a people whom no man can number for whom the
Savior died, to whom the Holy Spirit is given, and who will
infallibly be saved. You may dislike that doctrine; I do not
care: see if it is not in the Bible, See if it does not
there declare that we are “elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father,” and so on.
I believe that every elect child of God must
assuredly be brought by converting grace from the ruins of
the fall, and must assuredly be “kept by the power of God,
through faith, unto salvation,” beyond the hazard of ever
totally falling away. If I be wrong there, get your Bibles
out, and refute me in your own houses.
I hold it to be a fact that every man who is
converted will lead a holy life, and yet at the same time
will put no dependence on his holy life, but trust only in
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And I hold, that every man that believes, is
in duty bound to be immersed. I hold the baptism of infants
to be a lie and a heresy; but I claim for that great
ordinance of God, Believer’s Baptism, that it should have
the examination of Scripture. I hold, that to none but
believers may immersion be given, and that all believers are
in duty bound to be immersed. If I am wrong, well and good;
do not believe me; but if I am right, obey the Word with
reverence.
I will have no error, even upon a point which
some men think to be unimportant; for a grain of truth is a
diamond, and a grain of error may be of serious consequence
to us, to our injury and hurt. I hold, then, that none but
believers have any right to the Lord’s Supper. that it is
wrong to give the Lord’s Supper indiscriminately to all, and
that none but Christians have a right either to the
doctrines, the benefits, or the ordinances of God’s house.
If these things be not so, condemn me
as you please; but if the Bible is with me, your
condemnation is of no avail.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon, Search the
Scriptures
