Gospel Preaching Must Be Doctrinal Preaching. A DISCOURSE. BY REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D., GOSPEL PREACHING MUST BE DOCTRINAL PREACHING. For though I preach the gospel I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.-1 Cor., ix. 16. There is nothing more common in every one's mouth, than the word GOSPEL; and yet, perhaps, there are few things, to which more different ideas are affixed, by those who affect to agree in the name. To-day we shall hear one account of the precious treasure contained in this EVERLASTING GOSPEL; to-morrow, we shall meet with just the contrary. Nay, almost every one here, seems to think, that he has liberty to mark out a new track for himself, and to hold that only for Gospel, which he has rendered most familiar to his own imagination. "For vain man would be wise, though man be born like the wild ass's colt;" (a) and in his pride and vanity of heart, he frequently will not take the truths of God as he finds them; nor be satified with the plain and simple discoveries of the Gospel, unless made the precise terms and order which his own reason and wisdom would previously dictate. However clearly, however plainly, the doctrine is revealed, if it suits not this standard it must be reduced to it; like the guests of the famous tyrant of old, whose limbs were racked and disjointed, if they fell short of, or else, cruelly mangled, if they exceeded the precise dimensions of the conditions he had prepared for them. This pride of human wisdom, very early discovered its unfavorable aspect, with regard to the simplicity of the Gospel. The great apostle, Paul, was surely aware of it, when he tells the Corinthians, in the beginning of this epistle, that he was "determined not to know anything among them, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" (b) when he warns the Colossians, "lest any man should beguile them with enticing words," or "spoil them through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;" (c) and when he exhorts Timothy, to "keep that which was committed to his trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called; and which some professing, had erred concerning the faith." (d) He knew that the world every where abounded, at that time, with Philosophers, eminent in every kind of human wisdom. But as, at the (a) Job xi. 12. 17-VOL. VI. (b) 1 Cor. ii. 2. |