We will also see how the "Strict Baptists" did not go into error in denying the bible doctrine of the certain perseverance of all the elect as did the Hardshells in the latter half of the 19th century.
Three men from among the Gospel Standard Baptists were J.C. Philpot, William Huntington, and John Warburton, and these three men have had a large readership among the Hardshells, even to this day. Therefore, these citations should prove interesting to them. Many Hardshells love Spurgeon and Gill and this in spite of the fact that they were not in league with them on means and on perseverance.
J. C. Philpot (1802 – 1869)
In "The Authority and Power of the Word upon the Heart" J. C. Philpot wrote (emphasis mine - see here):
"God’s witness by his works, then, being insufficient, and failing, so to speak, through the depravity of man’s heart, he has revealed himself by and in his word—in those precious Scriptures which we hold in our hands, and the power of which some of us have felt in our hearts. It is, then, of this power of the written word that we have now to speak. But when we speak of the power of the word of God we do not mean thereby to convey the idea that it possesses any power of its own ("word alone" view - SG), any actual, original, innate force, which acts of itself on the heart and conscience. The word of God is but the instrument of a higher and distinct power, even the power of that Holy and eternal Spirit, the revealer and testifier of Jesus, by whose express and immediate inspiration it was written."
Continued Philpot:
"The power of an instrument is the power of him who uses it. This is true literally. The strength of the sword is in the hand of him who wields it. A child may take up a warrior’s sword, but can he use it as a warrior? If, then, the word of God is “quick (or living, as the word means) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” it is because he wields it of whom it..."
This is a truth not understood nor accepted by our Hardshell brothers of today.
Continued Philpot:
"Thus we ascribe no power to the word itself, but to the power of him who speaks it. The Apostle therefore says of his speech and preaching that it was “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power;” (1 Cor. 2:4;) and of his gospel, that is, the gospel which he knew, felt, and preached, that it came unto the Thessalonians “not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.” (1 Thess. 1:5.)"
God gives the increase to the word spoken by his servants! His power goes forth with the word preached and makes it effectual.
Continued Philpot:
"But now let us consider the exercise and display of this power in its first movements upon the heart. Man being dead in sin, needs an almighty power to make him alive unto God; for what communion can there be between a dead soul and a living God? This, then, is the first display of the power of the word of God in the hands of the eternal Spirit. “You has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 2:1.) And how? By the word. “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (Jas. 1:18.) So testifies Peter—”Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” (1 Pet. 1:23.) What James calls “begetting” Peter terms “being born again;” and this corresponds with what the Lord himself declared to Nicodemus—”Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3.) Almost similar is the language of John himself as taken, doubtless, from his divine Master—”Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man—but of God.” (John 1:13.) So in his first epistle—”Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and every one that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him.” (1 John 5:1.)"
When Philpot wrote these words in the mid 19th century, many "Primitive Baptists" still agreed with what Philpot here wrote. But, after the Civil War, things began to change and the PBs forsook the former beliefs of their founders and began to deny means and perseverance, and to deny the predestination of all things.
Continued Philpot:
"We need not therefore enter into the controversy about the difference between begetting and being born again, as if the new birth exactly corresponded with the old, and as if the analogy could be precisely carried out between natural and spiritual generation. Figures (and this is a figure) must not be pressed home to all their logical consequences, or made to fit and correspond in all their parts and particulars. It is sufficient for us to know that the mighty change whereby a sinner passes from death unto life, (1 John 3:14,) is “delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son,” (Col. 1:13,) is by the power of the word of God upon his soul."
The belief that the spiritual "birth" of which the scriptures speak is precisely like physical birth, where there is a process and stages, beginning with "conception" (or 'implanting' of the 'seed'), followed by growth and development in the "womb of darkness," and finally to the "birth" proper, often called the time of "delivery" or "deliverance," is an old view among the Baptists.
It seems that Samuel Richardson, a signatory of the first London Confession (1644) and leader of the first Particular Baptist churches, held to this view. John Gill, though not accepting this view (as most Baptists did not), refers to it in his commentary on Isaiah. This view, as I have shown from extensive citations from the first leaders of the "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists, was the common view. This view however lost many of its adherents as the 19th century neared its end. The later A.W. Pink also held to this view.
This view makes "regeneration" to correspond to that experience that brings conviction of sin, to the time when sinners are "awakened," and makes that period of conviction to correspond to that experience in the womb, and finally makes the emergence from the womb to correspond to "conversion," or sometimes to "second regeneration" or "complete regeneration."
Philpot is clear in the use of means in being born again. It occurs "by the power of the word of God upon his soul." This is what is taught in both the 1644 and the 1689 London Confessions.
"Light Precedes Life"
Wrote Philpot:
"Nor shall we, as we wish to avoid controversial topics, enter at any length into the question whether light or life first enters into the heart—”The entrance of your words gives light.” (Psalm 119:130.) There it would seem that light came first. And so the passage—”To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light.” (Acts 26:18.) So Saul at Damascus’ gate saw and was struck down by the light before the quickening words came—”Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4.) In grace, if not in nature, it would seem evident that we see before we feel; and thus the disciples “beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father,” before they received the Son of God into their hearts and believed on his name. It will be seen from these hints that without entering into the controversy, or pronouncing any dogmatical opinion, our own view inclines to the point held by Mr. Huntington, that light precedes life. And yet, when we look back on our own experience, how difficult it is to determine whether we saw light before we felt life, or whether the same ray which brought light into the mind did not bring at the same moment life into the heart. At any rate we saw what we felt, and we felt what we saw. “In your light do we see light.” To see this light is to be “enlightened with the light of the living.” (Job 33:30.) And this our blessed Lord calls “the light of life.” “Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12.)"
Today's Hardshells do not believe that "regeneration" or the new birth involves these things!
Wrote Philpot:
"So we will not put asunder what God has joined together—light and life. We know, however, the effect better than the cause; and need we wonder that we can neither understand nor explain the mystery of regeneration? Does not the Lord himself say—”The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes and where it goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8.) It is our mercy if we have seen light in God’s light and felt the Spirit’s quickening breath, if we cannot understand whence it came or where it goes, except to believe that it came from God and leads to God—it began in grace and will end in glory."
Amen to that! This is a theme that we have emphasized here on this web site many times.
Wrote Philpot:
"If, then, this knowledge is communicated by the Holy Spirit to the heart through the written word, two things follow, and we believe that the experience of every child of God will bear testimony to what we now advance concerning them—
1. That the word of God comes into the heart and conscience in and by regeneration, with a new and hitherto unfelt power. How carelessly, how ignorantly, how formally, if we read it at all, did we read the word of God in the days of our unregeneracy. What little heed we paid to the word preached, if we heard it at all. What thorough darkness and death wrapped us up, so that nothing of a spiritual, eternal nature touched, moved, or stirred us either with hope or fear. But at a certain, never-to-be-forgotten time, a power, we could not tell how or why, was put into the word and it fell upon our hearts, as a sound from heaven—as the very voice of God to our conscience. The word of God laid hold of us as the word of God; it was no longer the word of man, a dry, uninteresting, almost if not wholly hated book; but it got, we could not explain how, so into the very inside of us—armed with authority and power as a message from God."
This is the view of the Strict Baptists, and the first Hardshells were in total agreement with Philpot and the Strict Baptists on these things. But, they have departed from the faith and have today become a cult.
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