{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_52646/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_52646","id":"gutenberg_52646","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52646","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Gospels -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Transcribed from the [1865] William Hunt and Company edition by David\nPrice, email ccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\n                                   THE\n                            BREADTH, FREENESS,\n                                   AND\n                     Yet Exclusiveness of the Gospel.\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  BY THE\n                         REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.,\n            _Incumbent of Trinity Church_, _Tunbridge Wells_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                        WILLIAM HUNT AND COMPANY,\n                   23, HOLLES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE.\n                          IPSWICH: WILLIAM HUNT.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BREADTH, FREENESS, AND YET EXCLUSIVENESS OF THE GOSPEL.\nJOHN III. 16.\n\n\nTHE subject has, I presume, been chosen for our discussion, in order to\nmeet the aspersions of those who claim for their own system the merit of\nbreadth, comprehensiveness, and large-heartedness, while they speak of\nour Gospel as the narrow-minded theology of a body of men whose\ncontracted intellects are so cramped and stunted that they are unable to\ntake in the broad views of the nineteenth century.  Such persons consider\nthemselves broad, and us narrow; and their teaching to be characterized\nby largeness, ours by narrowness; theirs by generosity, ours by bigotry;\ntheirs by comprehensive philanthropy, ours by an exclusive interest in a\nsmall section of the human family.\n\nNow there is something very noble in broad, large, and comprehensive\nviews of the dealings and character of God, and something, on the other\nhand, exceedingly repulsive in any disposition to contract God\u2019s message,\nor to half close the door which God has opened wide for the world.  And,\nmore than that, there is something so grand in the magnificence of\ncreation, that we cannot be surprised if our judgment naturally decides\nin favour of that which claims to be the broader view of the religious\ngovernment of God.  We fully acknowledge therefore the attractiveness and\npersuasiveness of breadth, and are fully prepared to admit that the broad\nhas much more to commend it than the narrow, and that the probability of\ntruth lies on the side of the broadest, the widest, the freest message.\n\nBut, while freely admitting that the broadest statement of the Gospel is\nmost probably the truest, we have yet to decide the question, which\nstatement is really the broadest, and on which side is the narrowness to\nbe found? and if this question be fairly considered, it may possibly turn\nout that that which calls itself the broad is really the narrow, and that\nwhich some men call narrow is possessed of a breadth, and length, and\ndepth, and height, that can only be measured by the infinity of God.  It\nis well therefore to consider whether the Gospel, as revealed in\nScripture, is really broad or really narrow,\u2014applying the tests of\nbreadth and fulness to the message of salvation as proclaimed in the\nGospel of the grace of God.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nI.  _Its breadth_.\n\nIs there in all language, a wider, broader, fuller, and more\ncomprehensive statement, than is found in the words of our blessed\nRedeemer,\u2014\u201cGod so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,\nthat whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife\u201d?  It describes a Divine and eternal love, originating a salvation\nunmerited, unlooked for, and as far above all human thoughts as heaven is\nabove the earth.  It declares the object of it to be the world, the whole\nworld, and nothing short of the world; for it is just as unreasonable to\nmaintain that the world in this verse means the elect, as it would be to\nmaintain that \u201cthe elect of God,\u201d in Col. iii., means the world.  It\nproclaims the most magnificent possible offer as the result of it.  God\nforbid that we should ever cramp, fetter, or limit it!  It is the New\nTestament exposition of the Old Testament invitation,\u2014\u201cHo, every one that\nthirsteth, come ye to the waters,\u201d and it is the foundation of the\nmessage heard from heaven,\u2014\u201cThe Spirit and the Bride say, Come: and let\nhim that heareth say, Come: and let him that is athirst come: and\nwhosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.\u201d  Our Lord\u2019s words\non earth are one with His words in heaven, and both proclaim an\nunqualified invitation to all, without the exclusion of an individual.\nThe invitation is as broad as the world itself, and there is no man,\nwoman, or child under the whole heaven, to whom God, in His unbounded\nmercy, has not sent the gracious message of free and complete salvation.\n\nIf we look more closely at the details, we find that the glad tidings are\nnot limited,\u2014\n\n1.  _By nationality_.\n\nWhen Wilberforce pleaded in the House of Commons for the admission of\nmissionaries to India, it was argued that the Gospel was not adapted to\nthe Indian mind, and that it was not in the nature of things that Hindoos\nshould be converted to God.  So persons, laying claim to great\nanthropological wisdom, appear to regard the Gospel as something never\nmeant for the African.  But there is no limitation in Scripture.\nAfrican, Indian, American, New Zealander, are all alike included in the\nmessage as found there.  The Jew of old believed that it was only for the\nJews, and some English in modern times seem to regard it as intended only\nfor the European.  But the Word of God says it is for _all_; experience\nproves it to be for _all_; and the comparatively recent missionary\nefforts of the Church of Christ have been sufficient to prove that\nclimate makes no difference as to faith; and, whether it be under a\ntropical sun, or in an arctic frost, the knowledge of Christ is followed\nup by the same results,\u2014the same change of heart, the same love, the same\nfruits of the Spirit, the same joy and peace in believing, and the same\nblessed hope to fill the soul in the dying hour.  Our missionary spirit\ntherefore should be wide as the world; and those who boast of the\nsuperior broadness of their principles, ought to lead the way in a\nlarge-hearted effort to follow up the directions of their Saviour:\u2014\u201cGo ye\ninto all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.\u201d\n\n2.  It is not limited by _ecclesiastical order_.\n\nGod forbid that I should say one word that should appear for one moment\nto make light of Christian order, for I believe it to be a subject far\ntoo much forgotten by devoted men in the present day.  Evangelical zeal\nis considered by some to have full license to override all authority, and\nbreak through every regulation.  There are many excellent, zealous,\nfaithful, and fervent spirits, who are contending manfully for the\ninspiration of the whole of Scripture, but who appear completely to\nignore such words as those by St. Paul, in 1 Thess. v. 12, 13.  I believe\ntherefore, that it is one of the special duties of the day to urge\ndevoted Christians to investigate what Scripture says of order.  But,\nhowever important it be, we must still remember that the glad tidings of\nthe Gospel are not limited to any order or any system whatever.  Our\nepiscopacy is gathered from facts recorded in Scripture, but is never\nestablished by the authority of a command.  We adopt it because we\nbelieve it to be in harmony with Apostolic practice as revealed in\nScripture; but we dare not pronounce it an essential: for it is not so\npronounced in Scripture.  There is not one word there to lead us to\nsuppose that episcopacy is like one great conduit pipe, through which\nalone grace can flow.  The blessed message is not limited to any one\nchannel.  The Holy Spirit is free as the winds of heaven; and it is\nperfectly clear that God, in saving souls, has not tied Himself down to\nthe employment of any particular Church organization.  As the message is\nsent to all men, in all countries, and under all circumstances, so also\nis it conveyed through all kinds of instrumentalities;\u2014Episcopalian and\nNonconformist,\u2014ordained and unordained,\u2014Churchmen, Dissenters,\nPresbyterians,\u2014Churches at home and Churches abroad,\u2014teachers, preachers,\npastors and evangelists; for there is a breadth in the agency as well as\nin the sphere of action, and the same Lord over all, who is rich unto all\nthat call upon Him, is rich also unto all who labour for His Name.\n\n3.  Once more: there is no _doctrinal limitation_.\n\nI presume that we are perfectly agreed as to the Scriptural truth,\u2014that\nour salvation in Christ Jesus is to be ascribed entirely to the Father\u2019s\nelecting love.  We know that it was not our fallen, ruined, sin-corrupted\nwill which chose Him, but His own boundless grace which chose us to life.\nIn other words, we know that salvation is the result of God\u2019s election,\nand we believe in the words of our Lord,\u2014\u201cNo man can come to Me except\nthe Father which hath sent Me draw him.\u201d  But we have all probably felt,\nat some time or other, the difficulty of reconciling such a fact with the\nfree offer of life to all.  It is not unnatural that men should argue,\nthat if the elect alone are saved, to them alone must the salvation be\noffered.  I am not prepared to find any fault with the logical process\nwhich leads to this conclusion, for I fully admit that to my own mind the\nlogic seems correct; but God\u2019s eternal counsels rise high above all human\nlogic, and there are deep mysteries in His infinite mind, which we finite\nthinkers are utterly unable to unravel.  So it is in this instance.  Our\nlogic breaks down, but His Word stands fast; and that Word teaches us\nthat God\u2019s election does not neutralize the free offer, any more than the\nGodhead of the Lord Jesus Christ neutralized His Manhood.  How it is we\ncannot explain, any more than we can the union of two natures in the one\nPerson of our Blessed Saviour.  But, thanks be to God, we find in\nScripture the universal offer side by side with electing love; so that,\naccepting Scripture as we find it, we learn that election does not narrow\nthe breadth of the offer, or take away its universality.  It does not\nblot out the \u201cwhosoever\u201d from the words of our Saviour.  It does not\ncontract the glad tidings; but it leaves the Gospel perfectly open to\nevery man, without qualification, without limitation, and without the\nnecessity of any evidence of election to precede a trust in the Lord\nJesus for pardon, life, and immortality.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nII.  But we must pass on to the _freeness_.  For there might be an offer\nmade to every one, but yet on such terms that no one could accept it; and\nso would this have been, had God required that there should be one act of\nsinless obedience on our part, as a preliminary qualification to our\nbeing saved in Christ Jesus.  The person who is possessed of nothing is\nas little able to pay one pound as a hundred; and the ruined man, dead in\nsin, is as little able to produce one act of life as a hundred.  So long\nas he is dead he can produce nothing; for he is not only without God, but\nalso without strength.  Oh, the depth of the riches of the tender\nlovingkindness of our God!  Oh, the wonders of that grace that does not\nwait till the sinner can produce a something, however small that\nsomething be; but freely, and graciously, and mercifully, and lovingly,\nbestows a free, full, perfect, complete, and everlasting reconciliation\non the poor ruined sinner, even at the very time of his utter ruin!  I do\nnot pretend to know all the various religious systems of the world; but\nthis I can most safely say,\u2014that I never yet heard of anything but the\nblessed Gospel of the grace of God, which proclaims reconciliation to men\nwithout a claim, and at the very time that they are without a claim.  In\nevery other system the order is amendment first, and forgiveness second:\nbut in the Gospel the order is reversed, and we find the forgiveness\nfirst, as a free gift, while the amendment follows, as the blessed fruit\nof the Spirit in a repentant and loving heart.  The language of Scripture\nis not what any natural moralist would have written,\u2014\u201cThere is\nforgiveness with Thee if I can but fear Thee sufficiently:\u201d but God\nreverses the order, so that those who cannot, for one moment, stand\nbefore Him, are taught to say,\u2014\u201cThere is forgiveness with Thee that Thou\nmayest be feared.\u201d  I should like to know from those who boast of the\nsuperior benevolence of their system, what that system does for the\nhelpless,\u2014for the man whose soul is paralyzed, and whose power to rise is\ngone, being deadened by his sin.  I fearlessly ask the advocate of mere\nnatural religion, what the religion of nature can do for such an one.\nHis moral sense may teach him his duty, and his conscience may bring him\nin guilty of not having fulfilled that duty; but what does natural\nreligion do to reinstate and restore him?  Our Gospel proclaims to him\npardon, and our Saviour gives him life, even at the time of the deepest\nruin.  But what does nature do for him?  What does conscience do to\nrestore him?  It leaves him condemned, ruined, sunk, and helpless; and\nholds out to him nothing better than the hope, that when he has got out\nof the pit, he may find mercy through the benevolence of God.  If that\nwere the Gospel, it would be glad tidings to those only who have already\nrecovered themselves from their ruin.  The Lord Jesus would be a Saviour\nfor only such as do not need one.  It would be a promise of life to those\nonly who have already raised themselves from death; but it would be a\nsentence of everlasting exclusion against all those who have failed as\noften as we have done, and have had to learn from bitter experience the\nsad lesson of their utter helplessness.  But, praised be God, the whole\nransom has been paid, the whole claim of the law satisfied, the utmost\ndepth of ruin fully provided for; so that now there is life in the midst\nof death, and full, complete, and final reconciliation presented to the\nsinner, at the very time when he is lost in his fall.  Did the world ever\nproduce an offer so free? and was there ever yet a religious system in\nthe world which presented such a salvation, on such terms, to the sinner?\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nIII.  But still there is an _exclusiveness_ in the Gospel.\n\nLet us however clearly understand, when we speak of exclusiveness, that\nwe do not mean exclusiveness in the glad tidings, for, as already shown,\nthese glad tidings are freely sent to every man; but what we do mean\nis,\u2014that Christ Jesus is the only Saviour, and that \u201cthere is none other\nname under heaven, given amongst men, whereby we must be saved.\u201d  We do\nmean that God has not promised salvation through a conscientious devotion\nto Buddha, or Vishnu, or Mahommed, or reason, or the light of nature; but\nthat God, in giving Christ as our life, gave Him as the only Source of\nlife, and not as one amongst many Saviours.\n\nNow this exclusiveness appears to be the necessary consequence of the\nbreadth and freedom of the offer; and had I had the framing of the\nthesis, I should have preferred to have stated it as \u201cThe breadth,\nfreeness, and _consequent_ exclusiveness of the Gospel:\u201d for if we\nconsider the great origin of the Gospel,\u2014the eternal love of God; the\nmarvellous plan of the Gospel,\u2014the sacrifice of the Son of God; the\nboundless mercy of the Gospel,\u2014as seen in the offering such a salvation\nto every poor sinner under heaven; and the unutterable grace of the\nGospel,\u2014in offering it freely to poor sinners, at the very time that\nthose sinners are hopelessly sunk in the ruin of their sin;\u2014it does\nappear to be an act of the deepest presumption for men to suppose that\nthere may be other ways through which men can be saved, other systems\nthrough which men can be restored.  If men could be saved any other way,\nwhy did the Lord Jesus come? why did He die?  If self-denying idolatry or\nconscientious morality were sufficient, why was there any Gospel at all?\nand why were we not left to win our way to eternal life, by morality and\nheathenism in all their varied forms?  If the Gospel be regarded as a\nDivine remedy for the sinner, then surely it must be exclusive.  If this\nbe God\u2019s plan, then surely a plan from God was needful, and no human plan\nwas sufficient.  If it were a human plan, then I could perfectly\nunderstand that other human plans might be equally effectual,\u2014or, I\nshould rather say, equally fruitless; but if it be really God\u2019s plan,\nthen it must stand alone as the only way of restoration to life.\n\nThe only possible way of meeting this view of the subject is, by\nsupposing that the result of our Lord\u2019s propitiation is applied, without\ntheir knowledge, to those who do not believe in His Name.  Of course if\nthis were God\u2019s plan, we should have nothing to say, and our simple duty\nwould be to accept it with thanksgiving.  But on this point we must be\nwholly dependent on God\u2019s own statement of His own counsel.  When we are\nstudying God\u2019s purpose, our only hope of arriving at truth is by simple\ndependence on what God has revealed to us in His Word; and not the\nsmallest reliance can be placed on any conclusions which we may draw from\nwhat we think most probable in so benevolent a God.  Of course if men do\nnot believe in Scripture, as inspired by the Spirit, this evidence fails\nthem; but then they have nothing to assure them that there is any Gospel\nat all.  But if we admit it to be God\u2019s plan, then from God we must learn\nits character, and His Word alone must guide our decision.  Now it is\nneedless for me to multiply passages, as I might do to almost any extent,\nto show that in God\u2019s Word we are taught, that the blessings of our\nLord\u2019s work are not bestowed except through faith in His Name.  Whatever\nconclusions men may derive from their own ideas of Divine benevolence,\nthere cannot be a question that this is the testimony of Scripture.  If\nmen place greater reliance on their own opinion of what they think God\nought to have done, than on what God Himself declares He has done, we can\nonly say, as St. Paul did,\u2014\u201cNay! but, O man, who art thou that repliest\nagainst God?\u201d  In such a matter we are entirely limited by the Divine\nstatements, and man\u2019s opinion is utterly worthless; for the counsels of\nGod, in their very nature, lie quite beyond the limits of human enquiry.\nIf we do not believe in the words of our blessed Saviour, we have not the\nslightest evidence of any salvation at all; and if we do believe them, we\nmust believe them all, and must accept without hesitation His own most\nsolemn statement, the most exclusive sentence which I know in the whole\nrange of Christian theology,\u2014\u201cHe that believeth, and is baptized, shall\nbe saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.\u201d\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                    London: William Hunt and Company.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\n\n_The following will be published in this Series_, _uniform in size and\nprice_.\n\n\u201cThe Present Position and duties of the Evangelical Body in the Church of\nEngland.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. W. R. FREMANTLE, M.A.\n\n\u201cThe Atonement.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. J. RICHARDSON, M.A.\n\n\u201cThe Articles, Liturgy, and Subscription.\u201d\n\n  By P. F. O\u2019MALLEY, Esq., Q.C.\n\n\u201cThe Reality and Eternity of the Future Punishment of the Wicked.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. W. HARRISON, M.A.\n\n\u201cThe Best Mode of Presenting the Privileges of the Church of England to\nthe Working Classes.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. James BARDSLEY, M.A.\n\n\u201cThe Rights and Duties of the Lay Members of the Church of England.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. EMILIUS BAYLEY, B.D.\n\n\u201cThe Breadth, Freeness, and yet Exclusiveness of the Gospel.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.\n\nAnd it is hoped,\n\n\u201cThe Inspiration of Scripture.\u201d\n\n  By the Rev. E. GARBETT, M.A.","title":"The Breadth, Freeness, and Yet Exclusiveness of the Gospel","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":3419}