the eternal sonship of the lord jesus christ - Paradise Primitive ...

mean as regards the vital, fundamental doctrines of our most holy faith. There may be differences ofopinion on minor points, as on church government, the administration of the ordinances of the NewTestament, the restoration of the Jews, the nature of the millennium; the interpretation of particularpassages of scripture; but on such fundamental points as the blessed Trinity, the Person of Christ, thepersonality and work of the Holy Ghost, no deviation can be allowed from the straight and narrowline of divine truth. Error on any one of these vital points is from Satan; and he never introduces littleerrors; all, all are full of deadly poison. There was no great quantity of arsenic in the Bradfordlozenges, not much strychnine in Palmer’s doses, but death and destruction were in both; or wherenot death, disease and suffering for life. Error in itself is deadly. In this sense, the tongue of error is"full of deadly poison" Jas 3:8, and of all erroneous men we may say, "With their tongues they haveused deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips" Ro 3:13. "Their wine," with which they intoxicatethemselves and others, "is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps" De 32:33. The patientmay vomit up the poison, but it is poison not the less. Do not, then, by reading erroneous books,hearing erroneous ministers, or associating with erroneous people, try the strength of your faith, orpresume upon the soundness of your constitution. When you have tested the error by the inspiredword of truth, and by the inward teaching of the blessed Spirit in your own heart, label it POISON! and"touch not, taste not, handle it not," any more than you would arsenic or prussic acid.We are grieved to see an old error now brought forward and, we fear, spreading, which, howeverspeciously covered up, is really nothing less than denying the Son of God. The error we mean is thedenial of the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Only-begotten of the Father before thefoundation of the world. If the Lord has done anything for us by His Spirit and grace, He has wroughtin our heart two things-a love to His truth and a love to His people. By both of these principles,therefore, we feel constrained to oppose this error to the utmost of our power, and to contend forwhat has been long commended to our conscience as the truth of God. This is no new question withus, no fresh doctrine which we have never before thought of or considered, but one the reality, powerand sweetness of which we have for many years known and felt, for our very hope of eternal lifehangs upon it. We do not expect, indeed, by any arguments to convince those who have deeply drunkinto the spirit of error. It is a rare thing for any such to vomit up the sweet morsel which they haveeaten in secret; and of most of them, we fear it may be said, as being entangled in the snares of themystical harlot, "For her house inclined unto death, and her feet unto the dead. None that go unto herreturn again, neither take they hold of the paths of life" Pr 2:18-19. We rather write for those whotremble at God’s Word, who have been made willing to receive the love of the truth that they may besaved thereby, and who dread above all things to be left to love and embrace a lie. And these oftenneed instructing, for many of the saints of God are weak in judgment, and are thus laid open to thesnares of Satan. They would not willingly, wilfully embrace error, but being simple, or not well rootedand established in the truth, they cannot discern false doctrine when speciously wrapped up in acloud of words and backed with arguments and an array of texts, the meaning of which is, for themost part, perverted and distorted. Some, too, are drawn aside by favourite ministers of moreknowledge and greater experience, as they think, than themselves; and others view the whole