# William Newell & Sovereignty



## passingpilgrim (Aug 5, 2010)

I was sort of surprised to find the following quote by William Newell regarding Salvation & Sovereignty:

_"God's mercy is the sovereign going forth of His heart to us sinful wretched creatures; His grace follows, in His pardoning our guilt; and His loving-kindness is His proceeding with us in abundant goodness thereafter.

"Man thinks he can 'will' and 'decide,' God-ward, and that after he has so 'decided' and 'willed,' he has the ability to 'run,' or, as he says, to 'hold out.' But these two things, deciding and holding out, are in this verse [Romans 9:16] utterly rejected as the source of salvation,--which is declared to be God that hath MERCY. Human responsibility is not at all denied here: man ought to will, and ought to run. But we are all nothing but sinners, and can do,--will do, neither: unless God comes forth to us in sovereign mercy.

"It is a humanly incurable delusion of the human heart that salvation is within the natural reach; and that at any time if a man will 'make up his mind like a man,' and 'hold out to the end,' God will certainly accept him. But this conception leaves out entirely the word 'mercy.' The very name of this plan is Vain Confidence. It has doomed and damned its millions. For, salvation being altogether of God, the soul who is hugging the delusion that it is 'of him that wills,' 'of him the runs,' is making God a liar and walking in blind pride."_

I thought he was mainly dispensational. I know there are a few Calvinistic dispensationalists like Tommy Nelson and John MacArthur, but was Newell?


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