The
Golden Idol of Freewill
by Augustus Toplady (1740-1778)
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto
Thy Name, give glory for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake (Psalm
115:1).
Some expositors have supposed, that this Psalm
was penned by the prophet Daniel; on occasion of the miraculous
deliverance of Shadrac, Meshac, and Abednego, when they came out,
unhurt, from the burning fiery furnace, into which they had been
thrown by the command of king Nebuchadnezzar.
And, indeed, there are not wanting passages,
in the Psalm itself, which seem to countenance this conjecture.
As where we read, at the fourth verse (speaking of the idols of
the heathens, and, perhaps, with particular reference to that golden
image which Nebuchadnezzar commanded to be worshipped), their idols
are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands: they have mouths,
but they speak not; eyes have they but they see not.
I dare say, that, in such an auditory as this,
a number of Arminians are present. I fear, that all our public
assemblies have too many of them. Perhaps, however, even these people,
idolaters as they are, may be apt to blame, and, indeed, with justice,
the absurdity of those who worship idols of silver and gold, the
work of men’s hands. But let me ask: If it be so very absurd, to
worship the work of other men’s hands; what must it be, to worship
the works of our own hands? Perhaps, you may ask, “God forbid
that I should do so.” Nevertheless, let me tell you, that trust,
confidence, reliance, and dependence, for salvation, are all acts
and very solemn ones too, of divine worship: and upon whatsoever
you depend, whether in whole or in part, for your acceptance with
God, and for your justification in His sight, whatsoever, you rely
upon, and trust in, for the attainment of grace or glory; if it
be any thing short of God in Christ, you are an idolater to all
intents and purposes.
Very different is the idea which Scripture gives
us, of the ever-blessed God, from that of those false gods worshipped
by the heathens; and from that degrading representation of the true
God, which Arminianism would palm upon mankind. “Our God
[says this Psalm, verse the third] is in the heavens:
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” This is not the
Arminian idea of God: for our free-willers and our chance-mongers
tell us, that God does not do whatsoever He pleases; that there
are a great number of things, which God wishes to do, and tugs and
strives to do, and yet cannot bring to pass: they tell us, as one
ingeniously expresses it:
That all mankind He fain would save,
But longs for what He cannot have.
Industrious, thus, to
sound abroad,
A disappointed, changing God.
How does this comport with that majestic description,
“Our God is in the heavens”! He sits upon the throne,
weighing out, and dispensing, the fates of men; holding all events
in His own hand; and guiding every link of every chain of second
causes, from the beginning to the end of time. Our God is in heaven,
possessed of all power; and (which is the natural consequence of
that) He hath done whatsoever He pleased: or as the Apostle expresses
it, (the words are different, but the sense is the same) “He
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians
1:11).
Therefore it is, that we both labour, and suffer
reproach: even because we say (and the utmost we can say upon the
subject, amounts to no more than this: to wit, that) our God is
in heaven, and has done whatsoever pleased Him. And do according
to His own sovereign pleasure He will, to the end of the chapter;
though all the Arminians upon earth were to endeavor to defeat the
divine intention, and to clog the wheels of divine government. He,
that sits in heaven, laughs them to scorn: and brings His own purposes
to pass, sometimes, even through the means of those very incidents,
which evil men endeavor to throw in His way, with a mad view to
disappoint Him of His purposes. “All things,” saith
the Psalmist, “serve Thee” (Psalm 119:91). They
have, all, a direct tendency, either effectively or permissively,
to carry on His unalterable designs of providence and grace. Observe:
effectively, or permissively. For we never say, nor mean to say,
that God is the worker of evil: we only maintain, that for reasons
unknown to us, but well known to God, He is the efficacious permitter
(not the agent, but the permitter) of whatsoever comes to pass.
But when we talk of good, we then enlarge the term; and affirm,
with the Psalmist, that all the help that is done upon earth, God
does it Himself.
I remember a saying of the great Monsieur Du
Moulin, in his admirable book, entitled Anatome Arminianismi.
His observation is, that the wicked, no less than the elect,
accomplish the wise and holy and just decrees of God: but, says
he, with this difference; God’s own people, after they are converted,
endeavor to His will from a principle of love: whereas they who
are left to the perverseness of their own hearts (which is all the
reprobation we contend for), who care not for God, nor is God in
all their thoughts; these persons resemble men rowing in a boat,
who make toward the very place on which they turn their backs. They
turn their backs on the decree of God; and yet make to that very
point, without knowing it.
One great contest, between the religion of Arminius,
and the religion of Jesus Christ, is, who shall stand entitled to
the praise and glory of a sinner’s salvation? Conversion decides
this point at once; for I think, that, without any imputation of
uncharitableness, I may venture to say, that every truly awakened
person, at least when he is under the shine of God’s countenance
upon his soul, will fall down upon his knees, with this hymn of
praise ascending from his heart, “Not unto me, O Lord, not
unto me, but to Thy Name, give the glory: I am saved not for my
righteousness, but for Thy mercy and Thy truth’s sake..”
And this holds true even as to the blessings
of the life that now is. It is God that sets up one, and puts down
another (see Psalm 75:7). Victory, for instance, when contending
princes wage war, is all of God. “The race is not to the
swift, as swift; nor the battle to the strong” (Ecclesiastes
9:11), as such. It is the decree, the will, the power, the providence
of God, which effectually, though sometimes invisibly, order and
dispose of every event.
At the famous battle of Azincourt, in France,
where, if I mistake not, 80,000 French were totally defeated by
about 9,000 English, under the command of our immortal King Henry
V., after the great business of the day was over, and God had given
that renowned prince the victory, he ordered the foregoing Psalm
(that is, the 114th), and part of this Psalm from whence I have
read you the passage now under consideration, to be sung in the
field of battle: by way of acknowledging, that all success, and
all blessings, of what kind soever, come down from the Father of
lights. Some of our historians acquaint us, that, when the triumphant
English came to those words which I have taken for my text, the
whole victorious army fell down upon their knees, as one man, in
the field of conquest; and shouted, with one heart, and with one
voice, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name,
give the glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth’s sake.”
And thus it will be when God has accomplished
the number of His elect, and completely gathered in the fulness
of His redeemed kingdom. What, do you think, your song will be,
when you come to heaven? “Blessed be God, that He gave me free-will;
and blessed be my own dear self, that made a good use of it”?
O no, no. Such a song as that was never heard in heaven yet, nor
ever will, while God is God, and heaven is heaven. Look into the
Book of Revelation, and there you will find the employ of the blessed,
and the strains which they sing. They cast their crowns before the
throne, saying:
Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain,
and hast redeemed us to God, by Thy Blood, out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation (Revelation
9:10).
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