My friend, Mark Fitzpatrick, is pastor of Arann Reformed Baptist Fellowship in Dublin, Ireland. He recently read an excerpt from a sermon delivered by the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This excerpt was taken from Sermon No. 52, entitled “Free-will — A Slave” delivered Sabbath Morning, December 2, 1855, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. You can listen to it and read it below:

“You have heard a great many Arminian sermons, I dare say; but you never heard an Arminian prayer— for the saints in prayer appear as one in word, and deed and mind. An Arminian on his knees would pray desperately like a Calvinist. He cannot pray about free will: there is no room for it. Fancy him praying,

“Lord, I thank thee I am not like those poor presumptuous Calvinists. Lord, I was born with a glorious free-will; I was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that have, they might all have been saved. Lord, I know thou dost not make us willing if we are not willing ourselves. Thou givest grace to everybody; some do not improve it, but l do. There are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was; they had as much of the Holy Ghost given to them; they had as good a chance, and were as much blessed as l am. It was not thy grace that made us to differ; I know it did a great deal, still I turned the point; I made use of what was given me, and others did not— that is the difference between me and them.

“That is a prayer for the devil, for nobody else would offer such a prayer as that. Ah! when they are preaching and talking very slowly, there may be wrong doctrine; but when they come to pray, the true thing slips out; they cannot help it. If a man talks very slowly, he may speak in a fine manner; but when he comes to talk fast, the old brogue of his country, where he was born, slips out.”

You can download this portion from SermonAudio.