It is no novelty, then, that I
am-preaching; no new doctrine. I
love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, which are called by
nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed
truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make a
pilgrimage into the past, and as I go, I see father after
father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing
up to shake hands with me. Were I a Pelagian, or a believer in
the doctrine of free-will, I should have to walk for centuries
all alone. Here and there a heretic of no very honorable
character might rise up and call me brother. But taking these
things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the
ancients peopled with my brethren - I behold multitudes who
confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that
this is the religion of God’s own church.
- C. H. Spurgeon, from sermon entitled,
Election
