REASON, PROVIDENCE, AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD, TEACH US TO OBEY GOD.
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.