[ CHAPTER 1 ] - ( CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18TH CENTURY ) - { PT. 11 }


 { PT.  11 } - THE REFORMERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CONSTANTLY TAUGHT THE UNIVERSAL NECESSITY OF HEART CONVERSION AND BEING MADE A NEW CREATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. - They proclaimed everywhere to the crowds they addressed, You must be born again! They never taught that people become children of God by baptism, or that they can by children of God while practicing the will of the devil. The regeneration that they preached was not a dormant, passive, lifeless thing. It was something that could be seen, recognized, and known by its effects.                                                                                THE REFORMERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ALSO CONSTANTLY TAUGHT THE INSEPARABLE CONNECTION BETWEEN TRUE FAITH AND PERSONAL HOLINESS. They never for a moment taught that church membership or religious profession was the slightest proof of anyone being a true Christian if he lived an ungodly life. A true Christian, they insisted, must always be known by his fruits, and these fruits must be clearly demonstrated and unmistakable in all areas of life. No fruits, no grace! was the unvarying tone of their preaching.                                                          FINALLY, THE REFORMERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CONSTANTLY TAUGHT, AS DOCTRINES BOTH EQUALLY TRUE, GOD'S ETERNAL HATRED AGAINST SIN AND GOD'S ETERNAL HATRED AGAINST SIN AND GOD'S LOVE TOWARD REPENTANT SINNERS. - They knew nothing of a love lower than hell or a heaven where both the holy and unholy are all to be allowed in. They used the utmost plainness terms, the certainty of God's judgment and of wrath to come on those who persist in unrepentance and unbelief, and yet they never ceased to magnify the riches of God's kindness and compassion and to plead with all sinners to repent and turn to God before it was too late. These were the main truths that the English evangelists of the eighteenth century were constantly preaching. These were the principal doctrines that they were always proclaiming, whether in town or in country, whether in church or in the open air, whether among rich or among poor. These were the doctrines by which they turned England upside down, made farmers and miners weep until their dirty faces were lined with tears, captured the attention of peers and philosophers, stormed the strongholds of Satan, plucked thousands like brands from the burning ( AMOS  4:11; ZECHARIAH  3:1--2 ), and changed the character of the age! Call them simple and elementary doctrines if you want. Say that you see nothing great, remarkable, new, or special about this lists of truths. However, the fact is undeniable that God blessed these truths to the reformation of England in the 1700s. What God has blessed is not good for man to despise.                                                                        _______________________________________________________                                     

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