SOME men are guided by reason, others by providences, and others by spiritual influences, separate from, or without the word of God. In regard to all this, it is not necessary to make much war upon them, provided their reason, providences, or influences, lead them to obey the gospel, which we know was preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. But, it is a sad comment on their reason, providences, or spiritual influences, when it leads them to disobey the teachings of the Spirit of God in the Bible. Right reason, true providences, or real spiritual influences, could not lead any in our day to disregard what the Spirit of God taught in the establishment of Christianity. In one short sentence: “The Spirit of God would not lead men to disobey what he has clearly required in the Bible.” No reason, providences, or spiritual influences, therefore, can be of the Spirit of God to lead men to disobey what the Spirit of God taught in the Bible, or required at the beginning. The Spirit of God required precisely the same of all persons, who sought the way into the Kingdom of God, in the days of the Apostles, that he does of all who seek the way now. The Holy Spirit has not changed. It is, then, a most arrogant and unfounded pretence, for any man who now attempts to set forth the way for sinners to come to God, to claim that he is led by the Holy Spirit, while he evades and refuses to set forth the plain and unequivocal requirements of the Holy Spirit, as set forth in the New Testament, or attempts to improve upon them. Nothing can be taken from those requirements, or added to them, without incurring the curse of Heaven. The Spirit of God, if he did lead men independent of his word, could not lead them to incur this awful curse; he, therefore, manifestly, does not lead any man who will add any thing to, or take anything from, what he required when he spake through the apostles, of all whom he showed the way into the Kingdom of God. That which he required in one case, he required in all cases. If he required one man to believe, in order to become a disciple, he required all to believe. If he required one man to confess Christ, he required all to confess him. If he required one man to repent, he required all to repent. If he required one man to “be baptized in the name of Christ, for the remission of sins,” he required all to do the same. If he promised one man pardon and the importation of his Holy Spirit, upon his compliance with his requirements, he promised all who complied with the same, whether all the items mentioned in one case, are found in all, or not. No matter if faith is not mentioned in the case of the three thousand on Pentecost; it is not left out; they all believed; for, without faith, it is impossible to please God. They that come to God must believe. No matter if repentance is not mentioned in Saul’s conversion. Acts xxii. 16, he repented, for God requires all men, everywhere, to repent. The same is true of all the items.
We, therefore, are the only people now known, who proceed upon the infallibly certain method of collecting, and arranging in proper order, all the items required by the Holy Spirit in the conversion of sinners; we mean the inductive mode of reasoning. We have no preference for any particular part of Scripture; it is all precious to us. We have no particular class of Scriptures, as Calvinists, Universalists, Unitarians, etc., but we take the whole Scripture; not to prove our doctrine, but as the perfect and complete system of doctrine itself. When we wish to examine any point of doctrine, we proceed upon the inductive plan, and take all the Bible contains as the mind of God upon that point. When we would ascertain what the Holy Spirit of God requires of sinners, in their conversion and admission into the Kingdom of God, we proceed through all the conversions of the New Testament, collect all the items, and ascertain their order, and insist that the Holy Spirit requires the same now; nothing more, nothing less. Let us, then, take a brief look through the New Testament, at all the conversions, and ascertain precisely what is required and what is promised.
We open at the following words of the Philippian Jailor: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Here is a Pagan whose attention is for the first time called to the subject. What reply does the apostle make to him? The answer is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,”—Acts xvi. 30–31. Here is an important item in the form of requirement, and one, too, that can not be dispensed with, for the Holy Spirit says: “He that cometh to God must believe.” It is not only a requirement that he should, but a positive and unequivocal demand is that he must believe, and this indispensable demand of him that “cometh to God.” See Heb. xi. 6. But now for the order of this item. Is it a first, second, third, or fourth item? Is it the first item, for the apostle says, in the context, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” It is in vain, then, to try to do any thing else to please him, so long as a man does not believe. It is the first item, because the apostle required it first of a man who had complied with no other item, in such a way as to lead him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ the first thing he did. It is the first item, because “whatever is not of faith is sin.”—Rom. xiv. 23. It must, therefore, be the first item, because everything else proceeds from it and is done by it. The first item in the commission is Faith, and he that sets aside that item will be condemned, let him think and act as he may in regard to all other items. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be dammed,” says the Lord. The first requirement, then, is to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and without complying with this requirement, or taking this step no person can ever take another. There is no reaching the second step without taking the first. Unless the first step is taken, it will eternally stand between any man and the second. This indispensable step was required of, and taken by all who came to God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who spoke through the apostles to the people to lead them to God. Never did one, from the days of the apostles to the present time, get round, or by, this great requirement, and come to God. It is true, that when the Pentecostians and Saul inquired what they should do, they were not commanded to believe; but it was not that faith was dispensed with in their cases, or that the Lord had a different method of conversion for them, but for the good reason that they already believed, and their faith caused them to inquire what they should do.
Acts iii. 19, we find the following requirement laid down: “Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” This requirement was uttered to an assembly that had just witnessed one of the most manifest miracles of the apostles—one which the enemies mentioned shortly after, admitting that it was known to all who dwelt in Jerusalem and that they could not deny it, and at the close of a discourse which they had heard, and which had convinced them that the work was of God. The Holy Spirit, on this occasion, demanded of them to repent, reform, or amend their lives. This demand too, is as wide as the actual sinners among men. In the times of ignorance before the gospel, God did not hold men to a strict account for their sins, “but now he commands all men, everywhere, to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness,” Acts xvii. 30–31. Repentance, too, is indispensable. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Luke xiii. 3. What does the Lord mean by this word, “except”? John iii. 3, he says, “except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” Two verses after this, he says, “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.” Here we have the same word, “except,” again. What does he mean by it? At verse seven, he explains as follows: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” You must repent or perish, then, is the meaning of the words, “except ye repent, ye shall perish.” Repentance is then required of “all men, everywhere,” and is indispensable—must be.
But what evidence have you that repentance is the second item? It is the second item, because we have shown that faith is the first, which shows that repentance can not be the first; and because Peter—Acts ii. 3, and iii. 19,—addressing people who believed, but had not repented or done anything else, commanded them to repent. He makes it the second item. It is the second item, because a man can not repent till he believes in the Lord, before whom he must repent, and who convinces him of sin, for, “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” which shows that it must follow after faith; and because there is no other item in all the records of conversions required, that he can acceptably comply with, till he does repent. An impenitent person can not pray, confess, be baptized, or do anything acceptable to God. The person, therefore, who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can not get over repentance, or do any thing else acceptable to God till he repents. His faith will do no good so long as he continues in impenitence. For his impenitence, if he persists in it, he must perish. In the order of God, it is the second step, and unless taken, will eternally stand between him and the third step. No advance can ever be made till he repents. “Except ye repent, ye shall perish.” It is true, that Ananias did not command Saul to repent; but it was not because it was omitted in his case, for no man ever entered the Kingdom of God without repentance; but he was not commanded to repent, for the good reason he had repented before Ananias came to him. We are not to expect any historian, in giving records of conversions, and so many instances, to mention all the items in each case.