The Self Exalting Prayer of an Arminian

Vintage Spurgeon! My brother-in-law brought this piece of a Spurgeon sermon to my attention and in these few words the prince of preachers demonstrates both the inconsistencies and logical conclusions of Arminian theology. (Sermon: "Free Will---A Slave" delivered Dec. 2, 1855 New Park Street Chapel, Southwark by C.H. Spurgeon.)

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 1 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 wilI 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. I ask you again, did you ever meet a Christian man
who said, “I came to Christ without the power of the Spirit?” If you ever did
meet such a man, you need have no hesitation in saying, “My dear sir, I quite
believe it—and I believe you went away again without the power of the Spirit,
and that you know nothing about the matter, and are in the gall of bitterness
and the bond of iniquity.” Do I hear one Christian man saying, “I sought Jesus
before he sought me; I went to the Spirit, and the Spirit did not come to me?”
No, beloved; We are obliged, each one of us, to put our hands to our hearts, and
say—

“Grace taught my soul to pray,And made my eyes
o’erflow;‘Twas grace that kept me to this day,And will not let me
go.”