Transcribed from the [1865] William Hunt and Company edition,
BYTHE
REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.,
Incumbent of Trinity Church, Tunbridge Wells.
LONDON:
WILLIAM HUNT AND COMPANY,
23, HOLLES STREET, CAVENDISHSQUARE.
IPSWICH: WILLIAM HUNT.
The subject has, I presume, beenchosen for our discussion, in order to meet the aspersions ofthose who claim for their own system the merit of breadth,comprehensiveness, and large-heartedness, while they speak of ourGospel as the narrow-minded theology of a body of men whosecontracted intellects are so cramped and stunted that they areunable to take in the broad views of the nineteenthcentury. Such persons consider themselves broad, and usnarrow; and their teaching to be characterized by largeness, oursby narrowness; theirs by generosity, ours by bigotry; theirs bycomprehensive philanthropy, ours by an exclusive interest in asmall section of the human family.
p. 4Now thereis something very noble in broad, large, and comprehensive viewsof the dealings and character of God, and something, on the otherhand, exceedingly repulsive in any disposition to contractGod’s message, or to half close the door which God hasopened wide for the world. And, more than that, there issomething so grand in the magnificence of creation, that wecannot be surprised if our judgment naturally decides in favourof that which claims to be the broader view of the religiousgovernment of God. We fully acknowledge therefore theattractiveness and persuasiveness of breadth, and are fullyprepared to admit that the broad has much more to commend it thanthe narrow, and that the probability of truth lies on the side ofthe broadest, the widest, the freest message.
But, while freely admitting that the broadest statement of theGospel is most probably the truest, we have yet to decide thequestion, which statement is really the broadest, and on whichside is the narrowness to be found? and if this question befairly considered, it may possibly turn out that that which callsitself the broad is really the narrow, and that which some mencall narrow is possessed of a breadth, and length, and depth, andheight, that can only be measured by the infinity of God. It is well therefore to consider whether the Gospel, as revealedin Scripture, p.5is really broad or really narrow,—applying thetests of breadth and fulness to the message of salvation asproclaimed in the Gospel of the grace of God.
I. Its breadth.
Is there in all language, a wider, broader, fuller, and morecomprehensive statement, than is found in the words of ourblessed Redeemer,—“God so loved the world, that Hegave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Himshould not perish, but have everlasting life”? Itdescribes a Divine and eternal love, originating a salvationunmerited, unlooked for, and as far above all human thoughts asheaven is above the earth. It declares the object of it tobe the world, the whole world, and nothing short of the world;for it is just as unreasonable to maintain that the world in thisverse means the elect, as it woul