Sermons to the Natural Man

Sermons to the Natural Man

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Title: Sermons to the Natural Man
Author: William G.T. Shedd
Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13204]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SERMONS TO THE NATURAL MAN.
BY
WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, D. D.,
AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE,"
"HOMILETICS AND PASTORAL. THEOLOGY," "DISCOURSES
AND ESSAYS," "PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY," ETC.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO., 654 BROADWAY.
1871.
PREFACE.
It is with a solemn feeling of responsibility that I send forth this volume
of Sermons. The ordinary emotions of authorship have little place in

the experience, when one remembers that what he says will be either a
means of spiritual life, or an occasion of spiritual death.
I believe that the substance of these Discourses will prove to accord
with God's revealed truth, in the day that will try all truth. The title
indicates their general aim and tendency. The purpose is psychological.
I would, if possible, anatomize the natural heart. It is in vain to offer
the gospel unless the law has been applied with clearness and cogency.
At the present day, certainly, there is far less danger of erring in the
direction of religious severity, than in the direction of religious
indulgence. If I have not preached redemption in these sermons so fully
as I have analyzed sin, it is because it is my deliberate conviction that
just now the first and hardest work to be done by the preacher, for the
natural man, is to produce in him some sensibility upon the subject of
sin. Conscience needs to become consciousness. There is considerable
theoretical unbelief respecting the doctrines of the New Testament; but
this is not the principal difficulty. Theoretical skepticism is in a small
minority of Christendom, and always has been. The chief obstacle to
the spread of the Christian religion is the practical unbelief of
speculative believers. "Thou sayest,"--says John Bunyan,--"thou dost in
deed and in truth believe the Scriptures. I ask, therefore, Wast thou ever
killed stark dead by the law of works contained in the Scriptures?
Killed by the law or letter, and made to see thy sins against it, and left
in an helpless condition by the law? For, the proper work of the law is
to slay the soul, and to leave it dead in an helpless state. For, it doth
neither give the soul any comfort itself, when it comes, nor doth it
show the soul where comfort is to be had; and therefore it is called the
'ministration of condemnation,' the 'ministration of death.' For, though
men may have a notion of the blessed Word of God, yet before they be
converted, it may be truly said of them, Ye err, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God."
If it be thought that such preaching of the law can be dispensed with,
by employing solely what is called in some quarters the preaching of
the gospel, I do not agree with the opinion. The benefits of Christ's
redemption are pearls which must not be cast before swine. The gospel
is not for the stupid, or for the doubter,--still less for the scoffer.
Christ's atonement is to be offered to conscious guilt, and in order to
conscious guilt there must be the application of the decalogue. John

Baptist must prepare the way for the merciful Redeemer, by legal and
close preaching. And the merciful Redeemer Himself, in the opening of
His ministry, and before He spake much concerning remission of sins,
preached a sermon which in its searching and self-revelatory character
is a more alarming address to the corrupt natural heart, than was the
first edition of it delivered amidst the lightnings of Sinai. The Sermon
on the Mount is called the Sermon of the Beatitudes, and many have
the impression that it is a very lovely song to the sinful soul of man.
They forget that the blessing upon obedience implies a curse upon
disobedience, and that every mortal man has disobeyed the Sermon on
the Mount. "God save me,"--said a thoughtful person who knew what is
in the Sermon on the Mount, and what is in the human heart,--"God
save me from the Sermon on the Mount when I am judged in the last
day." When Christ preached this discourse, He preached the law,
principally. "Think not,"--He says,--"that I am