"HAVE THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY NO KNOWLEDGE?"
By Roswell F. Cottrell
ANOTHER champion has taken the field. In the Crisis of Apr. 16, 1862, is an article headed, "Thoughts for the Thinking; or, The Law and the Gospel Contrasted, by Timothy Wheeler." From it we learn (if indeed we learn anything) that the law was given to sinners, in wrath, to make them worse; and that the gospel was given to saints, in love, to make them better. If this is so, the saints will not be likely to fall from grace; but what hope there is for the poor sinner, I cannot see. Hear him: "The law was given to the sinner; the gospel to the saint." "The law was given in wrath; but the gospel was given in love." "The law makes worse; the gospel makes better." Was David mistaken when he said, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul?" or does converting the soul make it worse? Again this writer says, "The law was given to one nation; the gospel to all nations." Connect this with the former proposition and we have, The law was given to the sinner.61The law was given to (but) one nation. Therefore that nation were (the only) sinners. The gospel was given to saints. The gospel was given to all nations. Therefore all nations are saints. That "one nation," then, that God selected to be "a peculiar treasure above all people," must have been the greatest sinners, if not the only ones. He gave them his law, which makes men worse. What hope then can be entertained of the conversion of the Jews? No wonder that they have been a stiff-necked, gainsaying, and rebellious people. If Mr. Wheeler is correct, the gospel could never convert or regenerate them, or any other sinners (if there were any); for he says, "The law is addressed to the unregenerate man; the gospel to the regenerate man." Now since the law cannot convert the "unregenerate," but only makes him worse; and the gospel is not addressed to him, but to the "regenerate," what hope is there of any man's being converted that needs conversion? Christ "came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." But Mr. Wheeler's gospel is addressed to the "regenerate man." Therefore Christ did not preach it. I can easily enough see that the law which "makes worse" is "bad news," as our friend affirms; but I fail to see how a gospel is "good news" which is addressed to no one that needs saving. Would it not be better to consider man—the sinner—a single entity, and address to him both the law and the gospel? Thus: "Repent and believe the gospel"—repent of your sins, which are your transgressions of the law, and believe the good news that you can be saved from them, and consequently from death; for "sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." The law of which our writer speaks is defined. He says, "The law is written externally on stone; the gospel internally on the heart or mind." The Lord, in promising the new covenant, through Jeremiah, says, "But this shall be the covenant: . . . I will put my LAW in their inward parts, and write it in their minds." From the scope and tenor of our friend's article it is evident that his main object was to make it appear that the law written on stone is abolished. Says he, "The law is taken away; the gospel remains. Amen." But instead of proving the law abolished, he proves the gospel abolished. His next sentence before the one last quoted reads:
"The law established is the gospel abolished."
Paul says, "We establish the law."
Therefore Paul abolished the gospel eighteen hundred years ago. In short, the article under review is a perfect tissue of contradiction of itself and of the word of God. It is difficult to tell which have gone farthest in "progression," Spiritualists or Antinomians. The law of God is fact truth, Ps. cxix, 142, 151, and both classes are trying to abolish it. Would that the perfect, true, and righteous law of God were written in the hearts of some who profess to have the gospel there! It would save them a world of trouble, and enable them to tell a strait story. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" Ps. liii, 4. "They have not known nor understood; for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand." "He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isa. xlv, 18, 20. It seems as though God withheld common sense from those who break his commandments. To notice every point of folly in said article would take more time and occupy more space than is demanded by such an inconsistent and confused jumble of contradictory propositions.