When
I was first led to advocate the true, proper and
eternal Sonship of our most blessed Lord in the pages of
the "Gospel Standard," and thus, as far as ability was
given me, to "contend earnestly for the faith once
delivered to the saints," I little anticipated two
consequences which have mainly sprung out of my attempt
to set forth truth and to beat down error: 1. The long,
angry, and widely-spread controversy to which it has
given rise; 2. That I should publish my papers on the
subject in their present form. On these two points,
therefore, I wish to offer a few words of explanation, as
my readers may be thus, perhaps, better prepared to enter
upon the perusal of the following pages.
1. As regards, then, the first point—the
controversy which has thence arisen in the
churches—let us take, as far as we can, an impartial
view of all the circumstances of the case, not a narrow,
one-sided glance of a part, but a full and fair
consideration of the whole. I know that there are some
who are so for peace at any price, that they would sooner
almost surrender truth itself than see the churches vexed
with strife. How far such are "valiant for the truth upon
earth" I must leave others of keener sight and sounder
judgment than I possess to determine; but, as far as
regards peace principles, and that they are to be
paramount to every other consideration, I read that the
Lord Himself has said, "Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth: I came not to send peace on the earth,
but a sword" (Matt. x. 34). And I am sure that if the
good soldiers of Jesus Christ wield aright that
indispensable part of the whole armour of God, "the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," it must needs
cut, and that sharply too, both error and those who hold
it; for "the word of God is quick and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart (Heb. iv. 12); and if it be all
this, it may well pierce even to the dividing asunder of
churches, and be a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of both members and ministers. Of what use is a sword
which will neither pierce nor cut? A blade that has
neither point nor edge may as well be kept in the
scabbard. If, then, we take but a partial, one-sided view
of the question, and letting the sword fall out of our
hands, rather weep over the miseries of war than fight
with holy zeal for the honour and glory of God, we may
grieve that this controversy has harassed churches,
divided ministers, and separated chief friends. I can
make full allowance for the feeling, for with all my
"acerbity of temper" and "bitter spirit," so freely and,
I must say, so unjustly imputed to me, I frankly confess
that when I saw the effects of the contention, and how it
was disturbing the peace of a church in London to which I
was much united, not to mention others, I did myself feel
a measure of this grief. But that feeling has passed
away, and I now rather rejoice that the controversy has
arisen, for I fully believe that great and lasting good
will come out of it. Before, then, we give way to what
may prove to be mere fleshly feeling, should we not first
ask ourselves as well as others, Has not a bold
declaration of truth always produced contention and
division? Has it not always caused confusion and strife?
And can it ever be otherwise ? Must truth never speak
because error takes offence? The lovers of peace at any
cost may say, "O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it
be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard,
rest, and be still" (Jer. xlvii. 6). But what must be the
answer? "How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given
it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore?
There hath He appointed it" (Jer. xlvii. 7). If the Lord,
then, has given the sword a charge against error, how can
it be quiet, or rest, and be still in the scabbard? Has
there not been a cause for this controversy? I believe
there has, and a strong one, too. This controversy has
made it evident to me, and doubtless to many others
besides myself, that a vast amount of error has been
secretly covered up in the churches professing the
doctrines of discriminating grace. "Baldness was come
upon Gaza" (Jer. xlvii. 5); "Gray hairs are here and
there upon Ephraim, yet he knoweth it not " (Hosea vii.
9); and this baldness, and these grey hairs, which before
had escaped notice, have now been brought to light. I had
been lone persuaded in my own mind from various
indications which had come before my eyes, that there was
much error in the churches professing the distinguishing
doctrines of grace concealed from view; but I honestly
confess, I was not prepared to find such an amount of it,
that so many were tainted by it, or that it had taken
such deep root in their minds. A storm is sometimes
needed to clear the troubled sky, a hot furnace to
separate the dross, and a sharp war to settle a lasting
peace; and thus even a warm controversy may sometimes be
beneficial to the church of God. In fact, the walls of
our spiritual Zion have only been built as were in
ancient days the walls of Jerusalem. "For the builders,
every one had his sword girded by his side, and so
builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me" (Neh.
iv. 18). Had all the Lord’s servants been " fearful
and afraid," like two-thirds of Gideon’s army
(Judges vii. 3), truth would have long ago been
surrendered, without even a show of battle, into the
hands of the Midianites. But whoever "being armed and
carrying bows turn back in the day of battle" (Ps.
lxxviii. 9), truth will suffer no defeat. Pure gold need
fear no flame; thorough honesty need fear no detection,
and heavenly truth need shrink from no examination. A
doctrine which has stood more than 1,800 years, and
withstood all the assaults of men and devils; a great and
glorious truth which God has written as with a ray of
light in the inspired Scriptures, and revealed by His
Spirit and grace to thousands of believing hearts, is not
likely to be overturned in these latter days by the
tongue or pen of a few Baptist ministers, whatever
natural ability they may possess, and however angrily
they may preach or write. Neither their arguments nor
their spirit will much move those who have received the
love of the truth, and to whom Jesus has revealed Himself
as God’s beloved Son, in whom He is ever well
pleased. One of their leading men may call it "a figment"
and "a piece of twaddle," and may pronounce it effete and
ready to vanish away"; but it will live when both he and
they are in their graves, and be new and thriving when
their very names are forgotten. What hosts of errors and
heresies have passed away! but truth lives and flourishes
in immortal youth. So will it be with this present
controversy. When we shall all have passed away from this
present scene; when the places where we have lived our
little span of life, where we have preached, and written,
and argued, and contended, shall know us no more, Jesus
will still be what He ever was, the Son of the Father in
truth and love, and will still have a people on earth who
will believe in, and love Him as the only-begotten Son of
God. But should a time ever come, which God in His
infinite mercy forbid, when the churches of truth in this
land shall abandon their faith in the eternal Sonship of
Jesus, it needs no prophet to foretell their doom.
Judgment will soon be at the door, for the salt will have
lost its savour, and will be cast out to be trodden under
foot of men, and the candlestick having ceased to shine
will be removed out of its place.
2. And now for a few words why I send forth this
little work. It is because I wish to leave on record my
living and dying testimony to the true and real Sonship
of Jesus, and that in a more convenient and permanent
form than could be the case were it confined to the pages
in which it first appeared. It is a truth which has for
many years been very precious to my soul, and one which I
trust I can say the Lord Himself on one occasion sealed
very powerfully on my heart. From the very first moment
that I received the love of the truth into my heart, and
cast anchor within the veil, I believed that Jesus was
the true and real Son of God; but rather more than
sixteen years ago God’s own testimony to His Sonship
was made a special blessing to me. It pleased the Lord in
November, 1844, to lay me for three weeks on a bed of
sickness. During the latter portion of this time I was
much favoured in my soul. My heart was made soft, and my
conscience tender. I read the Word with great sweetness,
had much of a spirit of prayer, and was enabled to
confess my sins with a measure of real penitence and
contrition of spirit. One morning, about 10 o'clock,
after reading, if I remember right, some of Dr.
Owen’s "Meditations on the Glory of Christ," which
had been much blessed to me during that illness, I had a
gracious manifestation of the Lord Jesus to my soul. I
saw nothing by the bodily eye, but it was as if I could
see the blessed Lord by the eye of faith just over the
foot of my bed; and I saw in the vision of faith three
things in Him which filled me with admiration and
adoration: 1, His eternal Godhead; 2, His pure and holy
Manhood; and 3, His glorious Person as God-Man. What I
felt at the sight I leave those to judge who have ever
had a view, by faith, of the Lord of life and glory, and
they will know best what holy desires and tender love
flowed forth, and how I begged of Him to come and take
full possession of my heart. It did not last very long,
but it left a blessed influence upon my soul; and if ever
I felt that sweet spirituality of mind which is life and
peace, it was as the fruit of that view by faith of the
glorious Person of Christ, and as the effect of that
manifestation. And now came that which makes me so firm a
believer in the true and real Sonship of Jesus; for
either on the same morning, or on the next—for I
cannot now distinctly recollect which it was, but it was
when my soul was under the same heavenly influence—I
was reading the account of the transfiguration of Jesus
(Matt. xvii.), and when I came to the words, "This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him,"
they were sealed with such power on my heart, and I had
such a view of His being the true and real Son of God as
I shall never forget. The last clause, "Hear ye Him," was
especially sealed upon my soul, and faith and obedience
sprang up in sweet response to the command. I did indeed
want to "hear Him " as the Son of God, and that as such
He might ever speak to my soul. Need anyone, therefore,
who knows and loves the truth, and who has felt the power
of God’s Word upon his heart, wonder why I hold so
firmly the true and real Sonship of the blessed Lord? and
if God indeed bade me on that memorable morning "hear
Him," what better authority can I want than God’s
own testimony, "This is My beloved Son"? For, "If we
receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater: for this is the witness of God, which He hath
testified of His Son." "He that thus believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself " (1 John v. 9, 10).
But if he has not this inward witness, and for the want
of it listens to carnal reason, need we wonder if he make
God a liar? Truly did the blessed Lord say in the days of
His, flesh, "All things are delivered unto Me of My
Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father;
neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son., and He
to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Matt. xi. 27). It
has long been a settled point in my soul, "That a man can
receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven"
(John iii. 27), and therefore, if the Son of God has
never been revealed with power to their heart, how can
they receive Him as such? Happy are they who can say by a
sweet revelation of Him to their soul, "And we know that
the Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we
are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God, and eternal life" (1 John v. 20).
May I ever hear Him and Him only, and may He speak not
only to me, but through me, to the hearts
of His dear family; and as He has enabled me thus far to
defend His dearest title and worthiest Name, may He now
smile upon the attempt to give it a more enduring form;
and to Him with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
Israel’s Triune God, shall be all the glory.
J. C. PHILPOT.
Stamford, Dec. 21st, 1860.