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<P align=center><FONT size=7><FONT color=#0000ff><B><A 
name=N_o_></A>MISUNDERSTOOD TEXTS</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=7> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=7><FONT color=#0000ff><B>OF 
SCRIPTURE</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=7> </FONT><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3><B>EXPOUNDED AND EXPLAINED</B> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B>THE DOCTRINE OF THE HIGHER 
LIFE THEREBY VERIFIED</B> </FONT><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3><B>by</B> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#0000ff><B>REV. ASA 
MAHAN, D.D.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3>Printed by Old Paths Tract Society </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3>RR2, Box 43 </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3>Shoals, Indiana 47581 </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3>[Scanned 12/99 and edited 06/00 for the computer 
exactly to the original</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3>by Rick Friedrich through</FONT> <FONT 
size=3>Alethea In Heart </FONT>©<FONT size=3> 2000] </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=7><FONT 
color=#0000ff>CONTENTS</FONT></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>______</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_P_">PREFACE</A></FONT></FONT> 

<P align=center><FONT size=3><FONT color=#ff0000><B>PART 
I.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_1_">Exposition of 
Romans vii. 5--25</A> ---------------------------------------9</B></FONT></FONT> 

<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_2_">The Doctrine of 
Holiness as held by the Primitive Church</A> -----49</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_3_">Explanation of 
Galatians v. 16--28</A> 
-----------------------------------64</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_4_">Philippians iii. 
12--17</A> -------------------------------72</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_5_">James iii. 1, 
2</A> -----------------------------------------82</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_6_">l John i.8</A> 
-----------------------------------------------87</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_7_">Another 
Exposition of the same Passage</A> 
----------------------------95</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_8_">Explanation of 
John xiii. 1--17</A> 
-----------------------------------------101</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_9_">Matthew vi. 
12</A> ----------------------------------------115</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_10_">Psalm cxix. 
913</A> ---------------------------------------128</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_11_">Ecelesiastes 
vii. 20</A> -----------------------------------130</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_12_">Proverbs xx. 
9</A> ----------------------------------------134</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_13_">1 Kings viii. 
46</A> ---------------------------------------135</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_14_">Job ix. 
20</A>-----------------------------------------------136</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_15_">2 Peter iii. 
18</A> -----------------------------------------138</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_16_">Hebrews xii. 
6--10</A>------------------------------------141</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT 
color=#800000><B>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#800000><FONT size=3><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_17_">Romans viii. 22, 
23</A> ----------------------------------144</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3><FONT color=#ff0000><B>PART 
II.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_18_">The Two 
Foundations</A> 
----------------------------------------------------147</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3><FONT color=#ff0000><B>PART 
III.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B><A 
href="file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/1/CD/Mahan/MisTexts.htm#N_19_">Tested by their 
Fruits, and Intrinsic Tendencies</A></B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT color=#800000><B>(Isaiah xliii. 
21)-------------------------------------------------------------156</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3><FONT 
color=#800000><B>Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------181</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=7><FONT color=#0000ff><A 
name=N_P_></A>PREFACE</FONT></FONT><FONT size=7>.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>______</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>WHENEVER the privileges and immunities of 
believers in Jesus are set forth in accordance with those teachings represented 
by such terms as the Higher Life, the Rest of Faith, Perfect Love, and Full 
Consecration, a certain specific number of passages of Scripture are, by the 
opposers of those views, cited in disproof of the same. These passages are set 
forth with no argument to show what their meaning must be, but with the 
assumption that their meaning is too plain to be misapprehended, and as for ever 
settling the question at issue. About forty years since, I put into the hands of 
my Biblical Instructor, the celebrated Moses Stuart, of Andover, Massachusetts, 
U.S., a work containing a carefully-written exposition of all those passages. I 
did so with the statement that I had expounded these and other passages in the 
light of the principles of Biblical interpretation which he had taught me, and 
with the earnest request that, if I had erred in the application of those 
principles, he would show me wherein I had done so. When I next met the aged and 
venerable Professor, he addressed me in these words: "I have read your book as 
you requested. I have done so with much interest and profit. I find the argument 
throughout sound and scriptural." The most careful subsequent observations of 
quite forty years' continuance have fully confirmed the writer in the absolute 
assurance of the correctness of those expositions, together with the assurance, 
equally absolute, that not one of these passages, when correctly interpreted, 
has the remotest bearing in opposition to the Higher Life teachings, while most 
of them confirm such teachings. Those expositions, in a flew, enlarged, and 
matured form, are set forth in the following pages. The design of the author in 
publishing this little work is, not only to take a great stumbling block out of 
the way of enquirers after a knowledge of their</FONT> <FONT size=4>revealed 
privileges, as believers in Jesus, but to furnish a greatly needed Manual to 
which an appeal may be confidently had, when any of these passages are cited in 
disproof of the teachings under consideration.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><I>London, Nov. </I>22, 1876.</FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=6><FONT 
color=#0000ff><B>MISUNDERSTOOD</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=6> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=6><FONT color=#0000ff><B>AND</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=6> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=6><FONT color=#0000ff><B>MISAPPLIED 
TEXTS.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=6> </FONT>
<P align=center>
<P align=center><FONT size=7><FONT color=#ff0000><B>PART I.</FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=7> </B></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=5><FONT color=#0000ff><B><A name=N_1_></A>EXPOSITION 
OF ROMANS VII. 5---25.</B> </FONT></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT>
<P align=center>
<P><FONT size=4>IN the judgment of all who are acquainted with the facts of the 
case, the main issue, or at least one of the chief issues, between those who 
advocate, and those who deny, the doctrine of what is called The Higher Life, 
does and must turn upon the exposition which should be given of the single 
passage above referred to.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>Mistake 
corrected.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>At the outset of our enquiries into the real meaning of this 
passage, we deem it expedient to correct the following statement made some time 
since by Canon Ryle upon this subject. We do this because the impression very 
extensively prevails in the Churches, that this statement represents the real 
facts of the case. His statement is this: "Arminians, Socinians, and Pelagians, 
have always maintained that it does not describe the experience of an 
established believer. Nevertheless, the greatest divines in every age since the 
Reformation have steadily and continuously maintained, that it is a literal, 
perfect, accurate photograph of the experience of every true saint of God." Now 
it must be borne in mind, that, as a matter of undisputed historic verity, up to 
the time of the later years of Augustine, in the latter part of the fourth 
century, the entire Primitive Church, Augustine himself included---that is, from 
the Apostles on through the entire martyr age--- understood and expounded this 
passage as we do; that is, as in fact and form, describing a legal, in 
opposition to the faith, experience described in the eighth chapter. It must 
also be borne in mind, that since the time when Augustine adopted and introduced 
this totally new, and before unheard-of, exposition, the vast majority of the 
most learned commentators throughout Christendom have rejected the new 
exposition, and adopted and defended that of the Primitive Church. We have no 
fear that these statements will be contradicted. If they are, proof is at hand. 
If the reader will "inquire for the old paths and walk in the same," he will 
reject this new, and accept the primitive, exposition of this passage. This he 
will also do in conformity with the united view of the vast majority of the most 
learned and Christian expositors of all ages. It is a fact worthy of special 
consideration, that the main basis of the doctrine opposed to that of the Higher 
Life, is an exposition of a single passage, an exposition started in the latter 
part of the fourth century, and which has ever run counter to the ocean current 
of Biblical exposition which has come down directly from the Apostle to the 
present time. The validity of the above statements will be fully verified in a 
subsequent part of our exposition of this passage. Nor is the validity of these 
statements questioned by any individuals who are well informed in regard to the 
facts of the case.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The Primitive and 
Post-primitive Expositions of this</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> 
</B>
<P align=center><B><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><I>passage.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>I shall assume as an admitted fact---a fact, also, to be 
hereafter fully verified---that from the Apostles down to the later years of the 
life of Augustine, in the later part of the fourth century, the Fathers of the 
entire Primitive Church---Augustine himself included---defrnitely and 
specifically expounded this passage as we do; and that since this period the 
majority of the learned Christian expositors have accepted and defended the 
exposition of that Church. As preparatory to a full consideration of the issue 
before us, let us for a moment contemplate the circumstances under which the 
Epistle to the Romans was written. In the Scriptures of Truth, Christ is 
revealed "as made of God" to all believers; and that exclusively, "wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," and all in common and with equal 
exclusiveness " through faith in the grace of God through Christ." The one 
proposition, "The just shall live by faith," presents the sum and substance, and 
all the distinguishing peculiarities, of this Gospel. Everywhere this doctrine 
was openly confronted by dogmas of the most subversive character---those of 
Judaism on the one hand---and heathen formalism and false philosophy on the 
other. With the Jew the law was exclusively, "wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption," and the just are to live, not by faith, but by 
"deeds of law." The central object and aim of the apostle, in. his Epistle to 
the Romans, was an absolute verifkation and vindication of the doctrines of 
salvation, in its entireness, by faith, in opposition to all the false dogmas to 
which it then stood opposed, particularly those of Judaism. In accomplishing his 
object, he, in the first six chapters, fully elucidates and verifies the 
doctrine of<I> justification </I>by faith, as the only ground of acceptance with 
God. All having "sinned, and come short of the glory of God," the entire 
race---Jews and Gentiles in common---are for ever and hopelessly cut off from 
the possibility of being justified "by deeds of law." Having answered all 
conceivable objections to the doctrine which he maintained--- having shown that 
it is the privilege and duty of the believer to be "dead indeed unto sin and 
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord," and that no one can continue in 
sin without excluding himself from Divine grace, and insuring to himself "the 
wages of sin which is death,"---the apostle then, in Chapters vii. and viii., 
sets forth specifically, in fact and form, the relations and moral tendencies of 
the doctrine of sanctification by deeds of law, on the one hand, and of 
sanctification by faith, on the other. In the commencement of Chapter vii. he 
lays down the proposition that the believer has become "dead to the law," that 
"he might be married to another, Christ," and this as a means to this end, that 
"he might bring forth fruit unto God." The reason and necessity of this death to 
the law and union with Christ by faith are twofold; that in the former 
relation---from no fault in the law, but wholly on account of the power of "the 
flesh," or of the sinful propensities ---obedience to the law and will of 
God---that is, moral virtue in all its real forms---is utterly impossible to 
man; and that in the second relation, union to Christ by faith, such obedience, 
with all forms of moral virtue, is not only possible, but becomes actual in the 
experience of all in whom the Spirit of God, in its fulness, dwells. The 
exclusive object of the apostle in Romans Vii. 5---25<I>, </I>is to elucidate 
and verify the first of the above propositions; to render it a divinely revealed 
and demonstrated truth, that moral virtue, or obedience to the law of 
righteousness, through any mental determinations and efforts put forth under the 
influence of motives drawn from the law, will be utterly fruitless and abortive. 
His equally exclusive object in the eighth chapter, on the other hand, is to 
elucidate and verify the second of the above propositions; to render it a 
divinely revealed and demonstrated truth, that, united to Christ by faith, with 
"the spirit of grace strengthening us with might in the inner man," the 
"righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in us," that "we shall not be in 
(under the power of the) flesh, but in (under the control of) the Spirit," and 
that "we shall then have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life," 
"and" that in all things we shall be, "not" carnal arid sold under sin, "but" 
more than "conquerors through Him that hath loved us."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Such were these two passages, as understood and specifically 
interpreted by the entire Primitive Church from the apostle down to the later 
years of Augustine. As thus interpreted, both passages occupy places of 
fundamental importance in the epistle, and harmonise fully with the known plan 
and purpose of the same. As thus interpreted, Rom. Vii. 5---25 stands as "the 
1~aming sword of the cherubim turning in every direction," not to "keep the way 
of The Tree of Life," or of the Holy of Holies of faith, love, and full 
obedience to the law and will of God, but to guard the believer in Jesus against 
all approach and advance in the direction of legal righteousness, and all forms 
of its carnal servitudes, hopeless captivities under the law of sin and death, 
and worse than abortive efforts after obedience to the law of righteousness. 
This interpretation of these two chapters undeniably moved, as God's pillar of 
fire in the forefront of the Church, from the apostle down through the martyr 
age, and was the grand secret of her patient endurances, deeds of righteousness, 
triumphs and victories, and has been the light of believers in all ages; 
believers who have, in the fullest and highest forms, attained to "the glorious 
liberty of the sons of God."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>According to the post-primitive exposition, the apostle, after 
requiring believers to reckon themselves "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto 
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord," after assuring them that "because they are 
not under law but under grace," "sin shall not have dominion over them," and 
that they "have become dead to the law by the body of Christ" and "married to 
another," Jesus Christ, "that they might bring forth fruit unto God," turns 
round verses 14---25, and affirms that under grace, just as under the law, 
individuals, notwithstanding their faith in Christ, and the power of the Spirit 
working in them, remain "carnal, sold under sin," "approve and delight in the 
law of God after the inner man," but never find grace or power to "perform that 
which is good," and notwithstanding their faith and purposes of obedience, are 
always brought and held "in captivity to the law of sin in their members." This 
undeniably is "a literal, accurate, correct photograph" of this post-primitive 
exposition.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>According to the primitive exposition of Chapters vii. and 
viii., the apostle pursues the identical method of argument in demonstrating the 
validity of the doctrine of sanctification by faith, that he had (Chapters 
i.---vi.) in verifying that of justification by faith. In the latter case, he 
first demonstrates the absolute impossibility of any member of the human family, 
Jew or Gentile, being "justified by deeds of law," and then verifies and 
elucidates the great doctrine of justification by faith. So in Chapters vii. and 
viii. the apostle first (Chap. Vii. 5---25) demonstrates the absolute 
impossibility to man of attaining to real holiness or obedience to the law and 
will of God, through legal efforts under law, and then (Chap. viii.) lays open 
the highway of holiness through faith. This primitive exposition undeniably 
imparts a glorious unity to this whole epistle, and harmonises Rornans Vii. 
5---25 with all the other revelations of the Word of God. What place this 
post-primitive exposition can have in this epistle, or in the Scriptures, or 
what its influence can be in Christian experience, but to "make void" both the 
law and the Gospel, we may safely challenge " the greatest divines in every age 
since the Reformation to show." Let us now turn our attention directly to the 
question, Which of these two expositions, the primitive or post-primitive, is 
the true one? All agree that Paul speaks of himself in both these chapters, not 
as an individual, but as a representative man. According to the former 
exposition, he speaks of himself as representing the legalist under the law in 
Chap. vii. 5---25, and as a believer in Jesus in the following chapter. 
According to the latter exposition, he speaks of himself as representing 
believers after Chap. vii. 14.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>Very needful 
Explanation.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>By some expositors of Scripture, it is supposed that the 
apostle, in the passage before us, describes the experience of an <I>unconverted 
</I>person, in distinction from that of the converted man, as portrayed in the 
next chapter of this epistle. This is not our view at all. If this were the true 
view, the passage under consideration would be of no use whatever to the 
believer in any circumstances, or in any state, into which he might, at any 
time, fall. The manifest object of the apostle is, to guard not merely 
unconverted persons, but believers especially, against a fatal error to which 
all, who "seek righteousness" in any form are exposed. Two methods, not only of 
justification, but of sanctification also, are distinctly set before us in this 
epistle---that by faith---and that "as it were by deeds of law." To the latter, 
the apostle thus refers (Rom. ix. 30---32): "What shall we say then? That the 
Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to 
righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which 
followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of 
righteousness. Wherefore? Because <I>they sought it </I>not by faith, but as it 
were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone." Before 
all the world the Jews stood forth as the advocates of the Legal, and the 
Apostles and their associates as the advocates of the Faith, method of 
Righteousness in all its forms. Each class held forth their own as the only, and 
exclusively, valid method. The Churches everywhere swarmed with Judaizing 
teachers who, under the guise of "apostles of Christ," sought to draw off 
believers from the Faith, to the Legal, method of righteousness. Under the 
influence of such "false apostles," some "made shipwreck of the <I>faith," 
</I>others, "who had begun in the spirit," afterwards "sought to be made perfect 
in the flesh," and all were in danger of being "corrupted from the simplicity 
that is in Christ." The object of the apostle, as we understand him, is to guard 
all, both Jews and Gentiles, converted or unconverted---to guard all who "follow 
after righteousness," against "seeking it, not by faith, but as it were by deeds 
of law." This he aims at by demonstrating the fact that <I>all </I>without 
exception, who thus seek, will fail of their object. In our day, there are 
Moralists who repudiate the method of Faith in all its forms, and seek to be 
"made perfect in the flesh." There are Formalists who, in reality, know nothing 
of "the righteousness which is of faith." There are sincere believers, also, who 
seek justification by faith, and sanctification "as it were by deeds of law." 
All such, in common, read their experience in this Seventh of Romans. 
"Wherefore? Because they seek it not by faith, but as it were by the works of 
the law." The object of the apostle, as we understand him, is to subvert utterly 
this Legal method in whatever form men, in accordance with that method, may seek 
sanctification, or "follow after the law of righteousness." With these 
explanations, let us turn to a direct consideration of the issue before us: the 
inquiry, Which of these two contradictory expositions, the Primitive or 
Post-primitive, is the true one?</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The absolute Unanimity of 
the Primitive Church in respect to this Primitive 
Exposition.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>We have said that, up to the later years of the life of 
Augustine, the entire Primitive Church--- Augustine included---attached one 
fixed and exclusive meaning to this passage, namely, that the apostle here, in 
fact and form, describes a Legal, in opposition to a Faith, Experience described 
in the subsequent chapter, and in other parts of this epistle. Two questions 
here arise, viz., Is this statement true? and, What is its real bearing upon the 
issue before us? We will consider these two questions in the order 
presented.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>This Unity verified as a 
fact.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>If we should recur to the testimony of learned men who have most 
carefully studied the facts of the case, we should find an entire unanimity of 
judgment among them in respect to the perfect validity of the above statements. 
"It will be admitted," says Prof. Stuart, in his world-renowned commentary on 
this epistle, "by those who are conversant with the dispute about the meaning of 
the passage before us, and are well read in the history of Christian doctrine, 
that Augustine was the first who suggested the idea that it must be applied to 
Christian experience." No individual has studied the history of Christian 
doctrine more profoundly, if as profoundly, as Neander. In all his most careful 
researches he found no trace whatever of this Post-primitive exposition prior to 
the period designated by Prof. Stuart. Everywhere, on the other hand, that great 
historian (Neander) found, in most distinct development, the presence of this 
Primitive exposition. Speaking of the passage under consideration, Prof. Tholock 
says, "The more ancient teachers of the Church had unanimously explained it of 
the man who has not yet become a Christian, nor is upheld in the struggle by the 
Spirit of Christ." So Origen, Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Theodoret. At an 
earlier period Augustine also followed this view. "Augustine," says Meyer, in 
his most learned comrnentary," in his earlier days acknowledged in harmony with 
the Greek fathers since Irenaeus that the language here is that of the 
unregenerate man." The statement of such authors as the above remains 
uncontradicted; nor has any individual been able to find in any of the writings 
of the Primitive Church prior to the period designated, a sentence, word, or 
syllable in contradiction to "that we have designated as the Primitive 
exposition of this passage.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Let us now turn to these primitive writers themselves. The 
following is Augustine's primal exposition as given in his Homilies on this 
epistle. 'Intelligiter," he says, "hunc ille homo describi, qui nondum sub 
gratia." That is, "It is understood, that that man is here described who was 
never under grace." We must bear in mind that Augustine gives the above, not 
merely as his own view of the passage, but as the accepted exposition of the 
Church. "It is understood," that is, it is my own and the accepted exposition of 
the Church. It is a remarkable fact that Jerome, who afterwards accepted the new 
view of Augustine, had, in his earlier writings, also affirmed the validity of 
the primitive exposition, so universal was that exposition in the primitive 
Church.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>We must bear in mind that it was in a heated controversy with 
Pelagius, that Augustine conceived and avowed this new and before unheard-of 
exposition. The latter rightly affirmed, and the former erroneously denied, the 
total depravity of the natural man. In his argument, Pelagius referred to the 
passage under consideration, saying that this was a palpable case, in which, by 
the universal assent of the Church, the state and character of the unregenerate 
man is described. He then asked, if approving the right, and hating the wrong, 
and "delighting in the law of God," did not imply that there was something good 
even in such a man? Augustine could not deny the fact, the case being so 
palpable, of the universal agreement of the Church in the deduction that it was 
the unregenerate man referred to in the passage; nor did he perceive how, 
admitting the correctness of the universally received exposition, he could meet 
the argument of his opponent. Under such perplexity Augustine denied the 
validity of his own and the universal, and adopted the few and before unheardof, 
exposition, a most needless resort, and a most calamitous one for the spiritual 
good of the Church. The fact that the sinner continues "carnal, sold under sin,' 
'notwithstanding his conscience approves the right, reprobates the wrong, and 
even "delights in the law of God," presents the strongest possible proof of the 
intensity and totality of the natural sinfulness of man. We are fully and 
undeniably justified, therefore, in claiming for what we have designated as the 
"Primitive" exposition of the passage, the universal assent of the Church prior 
to the later years of Augustine.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>As we have not now space to cite passages from all the various 
primitive expositions, one or two must suffice. Speaking of the words, "I am 
carnal" (verse 14), Theodoret says, "He calls that man carnal who has not yet 
obtained spiritual aid." Another of these Fathers thus explains the words: "I 
find then a law that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." " I find," 
<I>i.e., </I>I have considered and comprehended the force and nature of the law. 
I have discovered for certain it has no power to help me. How does this appear? 
"Because when I wish to do good, it helps nothing, but evil is equally present, 
making my will unexecuted." In precisely similar language do Chrysostorn, 
Theophylact, Ambrose (a Syriac interpreter), and others, explain these words. 
With similar unanimity do all the primitive Fathers explain the whole passage 
under consideration, and explain it as referring not to the Christian under 
grace, but to individuals under law, and acted upon by legal motives 
only.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The validity of the 
Primitive Exposition absolutely</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> 
</B>
<P align=center><B><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><I>verified by the facts 
before us.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>Let us now turn our thoughts to a consideration of the bearing 
of the facts before us. We refer now especially to the strictly unanimous assent 
of the Primitive Church to what we have properly designated as the Primitive 
Exposition of this passage. The great central fact before us we hold to be 
demonstrably inexplicable, but upon one exclusive hypothesis, namely, the 
validity of this Primitive exposition. The Epistle to the Romans was written and 
sent to Rome several years prior to Paul's going there. Such, also, was the 
nature of its contents as to render it the subject of the deepest interest and 
enquiry on the part of all believers and their Jewish opponents in the city. 
During his residence there, his real views throughout the epistle, and 
especially in the portion of it under consideration, must have been so fully 
explained that they could not have been misunderstood. Then, through the 
messengers which constantly visited him from all the Churches, and went from him 
to said Churches, this passage could not but have been universally and very 
definitely understood. If it had been his object in this passage to "photograph 
the experience of every true saint of God," the fact could not but have been 
well known in all the Churches. 1f on the other hand, it had been his object to 
photograph a Legal, in opposition to a Faith, Experience, this fact could not 
but have been equally well and universally understood. The strictly universal 
assent of the Primitive Church during more than the first three centuries of the 
Christian Era, to this Primitive Exposition as the true apostolic one, admits of 
but one explanation---namely, that this exposition was originally received 
directly from the apostle himself, and has come down to us in its genuine 
apostolic form.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>The circumstances also in which this epistle was written, 
together with the fundamental bearing of all its discussions upon the great 
issues then before all the Churches, render it certain, we add, that this one 
epistle must have been more generally known and read among them than any other 
written by Paul or other of the Apostles, and render it certain too, that his 
meaning in so essential a passage as this could not have been at all, and above 
all universally, misunderstood. No, Reader, the Churches, and primitive 
teachers, who thus received this epistle directly from its inspired author, did 
not misunderstand, and could not have misunderstood, him, and this Primitive 
Exposition must be valid. If in addition to all this, more modern authority is 
asked for, we have it in superabundance.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The Primitive Exposition 
confirmed by the highest subsequent authority.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>The entire Greek, and a large portion of the Latin Church, as 
shown by the writers to whom we have referred, rejected the Post-primitive of 
Augustine, and vindicated that of the Primitive exposition. Since the 
Reformation, while a majority of the English and American commentators, and a 
few on the continent of Europe, have accepted the post-primitive exposition, the 
primitive one has been accepted by a majority of Biblical scholars, and by 
nearly all of any note at the present time on the continent. "Most of the 
English Episcopal Churches also for many years," says Professor Stuart, "and not 
a few of the Scotch, Dutch, and English Presbyterian and Congregational divines, 
have adopted the same interpretation." Aside from the all conclusive authority 
derived from the undivided testimony of the Church for more than three centuries 
after the epistle was written, the vastly predominating weight of Biblical 
Criticism---the Evangelical especially--- has ever been in favour of the 
Primitive Exposition. Among the multitudinous modern interpreters of this class, 
we specify the following :---Erasmus, Raphael, Episcopius, Beausobre, Senifont, 
Limborch, Turretin, Le Clerc, Heuman, Bucer, Schoflier, Franke, G. Arnold, 
Bengel, Reinhardt, Storr, Flatt, Knapp, Neander, Thbluck, Olshausen, Meyer, 
Mant, D'Oyly, Hammond, Whitby, Doddridge, Godwin, Jer. Taylor, Clarke, Stuart, 
Conebeare and Howson. What a visibly slender and sandy foundation does the 
post-primitive exposition rest upon, opposed as it is by the united testimony of 
the entire Primitive Church for the first three or four centuries, and as we 
have said by the ocean current of Biblical Exposition of all ages since the 
passage was written! The case will be found still worse for this exposition when 
we shall, as we now propose to do, come to a direct consideration of the passage 
itself.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>Forms of Thought and 
Expression not found in this passage verify the Primitive, and falsify the 
Postprimitive, Exposition.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>In reading the New Testament from beginning to end, we cannot 
find, outside that under consideration, a single passage in which Christian 
experience is spoken of, in which faith, God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, is not 
specifically referred to. In this passage, we have, we are told, "a literal, 
accurate, correct photograph of the experience of every true saint of God." Yet, 
in the entire passage no reference whatever is made to faith, to God, to Christ, 
or the Holy Spirit. The only agencies hinted at are the conscience (law of the 
mind), the flesh (law in the members), and the human will, or the man himself. 
Nor do we find in this photograph any one of the revealed results of faith, or 
of "the fruits of the Spirit," or any one of the revealed elements of Christian 
experience. We have, on the other hand, the revealed opposites of all these, 
opposites represented by such terms as "carnal, sold under sin," victories of 
the flesh, and "the law of sin," broken. resolutions, bondage, and "groaning 
wretchedness." If it was, in fact and form, the object of the apostle to 
photograph a Legal in opposition to a Faith, Experience, all is as it should be. 
In such an experience we have just what we find here---a conflict between the 
conscience ("law of the mind) " and the flesh; the evil propensities (or "law in 
the members "), and the will (the creature himself) in servitude to the latter, 
"a doing what we would not," and a "not doing what we would"; "a following after 
the law of righteousness, but not attaining to the law of righteousness"; the 
"willing being present, but how to perform that which is good not being found"; 
"a law that when we would do good, evil is present"; "the law in the members 
warring against the law of the mind, and bringing the soul into captivity to the 
law of sin which is the rnembers," the soul being bound under that law as "'the 
body of this death," and its bondage and wretchedness being rendered complete; 
and all because there is in the soul, no "faith to be healed," no "God working 
within to will and to do," no indwelling Christ " saving to the uttermost," and 
no "Holy Ghost enduing with power from on high." What must we think of an 
exposition of the Word of God, an exposition which presents Inspiration itself 
as photographing Christian experience in its universal and best form, and yet 
leaving out of the presentation faith, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, without 
whose presence real Christian experience in any form is impossible!</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>Their distinct and 
opposite moral and spiritual</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P align=center><B><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><I>Tendencies.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>The obvious and undeniable moral and spiritual tendency of this 
primitive, and we may truly say apostolic, exposition of these two chapters', at 
once commends it to our regard as the only true one. What believers at that time 
needed above all things, was an absolute assurance of the utter hopelessness of 
all purposes, efforts, and confidences in respect to the attainment of obedience 
to the law of righteousness, but in one fixed direction, faith in Christ and the 
power of the Spirit on the one hand, and on the other, an assurance equally 
absolute that through Christ and the power of the Spirit, "all grace may abound 
towards us, so that we, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto 
every good work." These two fundamental assurances in their highest possible 
forms, this primitive exposition does, in fact and form, present to every 
believer. Reading, in its light, Rom. vii. 5---25<I>, </I>he perceives at once 
the utter futility of all legal and formalistic methods of righteousness, and 
the utter hopelessness of all self-originated purposes of obedience. Thus he 
finds himself, as he needs to be, absolutely "shut up to the faith." As in the 
light of the same exposition he contemplates the divine revelations of the 
following chapter, the highway of holiness opens with perfect distinctness and 
absolute assurance of hope upon his vision. The believer at once sees, that 
through faith in Christ, and under the available power of the Spirit, he may "be 
made free from the law of sin and death," may have "the righteousness of the law 
fulfilled in himself," may be "free from all condemnation," and in every 
"conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil," may "be more than conqueror 
through Him that bath loved us." In short, this exposition presents every 
conceivable motive to a holy life of which we can form a conception, and that 
with no opposite tendency whatever.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>On the other hand, when this post-apostolic and post-primitive 
exposition of Romans vii. 5---25 lifts its form before the mind, and that as a 
divinely-revealed "photograph of the experience of every believer," a deep 
eclipse passes at once over the revealed privileges and promises of grace, and 
all hope dies out of the believer's heart and mind of being anything more or 
better in this life than can be found in the state represented by such words as 
"carnal, sold under sin" ; "captivity under the law of sin and death"; "doing 
what we would not, and not doing what we would"; "willing, but not finding how 
to perform that which is good," and suffering an inglorious defeat in every 
purpose of obedience, and in every effort to "perform that which is good." We 
must bear in mind that nothing whatever, in, the direction of victory---that 
nothing but defeats and captivity under sin---is even hinted in this passage; 
and these represent the best estate of possible attainment, if this supposition 
does present God's revealed "photograph of the experience of every believer." We 
may safely challenge the world to show that we have in any respects 
misrepresented the case. Should you reply that we do find outside this passage 
better things than are here revealed, you then admit that we have not in it by 
any means "a literal, accurate, and correct photograph of the experience of 
every believer." But this is not all. In this exposition we find, not only an 
almost necessary cause of backsliding, but an unanswerable excuse for all such 
sins. No individual can so far recede from obedience to the will of God, that he 
will not consciously find in his experience every element of the state 
represented in this passage, and will not confront you with the fact when you 
attempt to admonish him. This exposition, we boldly say, cannot accord with "the 
mind of the Spirit," for the undeniable reason that it is the visible pillow 
under the armhold of every member of the Church who is living in sin and 
"settled upon his lees."</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The Language enemployed 
by the apostle in Rom. vii. </I>5---25, <I>absolutely verifies the Primitive, 
and falsifies the Post-primitive Exposition.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>Let us now consider the language employed by the apostle in this 
passage, and see if we cannot determine in its light which of these expositions 
is, and must be, the correct one. That in Verses 5---13 inclusive the apostle 
refers exclusively to the sinner under law, and acted upon by legal 
considerations, all admit. From Verse 14 and onward he, it is affirmed, speaks 
of himself, not in his former state as a legalist, but in his then state as a 
Christian. The main reason assigned for this conclusion is that he here employs 
the present instead of the past tense. Every one well read in the Greek language 
must be aware that nothing is more common in this and other languages than a 
change from the past to the present tense when the subject of discussion is the 
same. In this case, however, such a change was demanded by the circumstances. In 
affirming the law to be spiritual, he was necessitated to say, "The law is," not 
was, nor will be, "spiritual." In speaking of himself, in the contrast as 
carnal, whether he referred to his past, or then existing state, he was required 
by the known laws of this language, to use the same tense as before. The change 
from the past to the present tense, therefore, is, in itself, no indication 
whatever that the apostle refers to his then, or to his past moral state.</FONT> 

<P><FONT size=4>The language employed, however, leaves no ground of doubt 
whatever in regard to his meaning. We refer to such terms as "carnal, sold under 
sin."; "captivity to the law of sin"; "a law that when we would do good evil is 
present"; "the good that I would I do not, but the evil that I would not that I 
do," and "to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I 
find not." Such language is fully and obviously in place, if the object of the 
apostle is to represent a legal, in opposition to a Christian experience, and is 
absolutely out of place, and can be justified by no usage, scriptural or 
classic, if his object is to portray the latter instead of the former form of 
experience. All that such language implies is strictly true of the moral state, 
and experience of the legalist and the man of the world, and is everywhere and 
exclusively employed in the Scriptures to represent such state and experience, 
and that as distinguished from the moral and spiritual state and experience of 
the believer in Jesus. "Doing righteousness," and "sinning not," are the 
revealed characteristics and peculiarities of the Christian life and experience; 
not doing the right, but doing the wrong, and never finding "how to perform that 
which is good," are the equally revealed characteristics and peculiarities of 
the state portrayed in the passage before us. We are not in the flesh, but in 
the spirit," is absolutely affirmed of every believer in Jesus. "Carnal," that 
is, "not in the spirit," but "in the flesh," is absolutely and unqualifiedly 
affirmed of all who are in the state portrayed in this passage. "Ye shall be 
free" ; "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," and 
"more than conquerors," are the revealed characteristics of the true Christian. 
" Sold," in abject servitude, "under sin"; "captivity to the law of sin," and 
hopeless defeat in every conflict with "the law in the members," are set forth 
as the immutable characteristics of the state here portrayed. Such language as 
peculiarises this passage is adapted to one exclusive end---to portray a legal 
and worldly, in opposition to a Christian, life arid experience, and it is a 
perversion of all Scriptural and classic usage to employ such language to 
represent the former in distinction from the latter. The words, for example, "I 
am carnal, sold under sin," do, with perfect correctness, represent the legal 
and worldly state and experience. To apply such language to the Christian, is to 
affirm that he, in common with the legalist and worldly man, is totally 
depraved, and thus to confound all distinction between the latter and the 
former.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>But this is not all. The substance of the language which the 
apostle here employs, and the exact form of not a few of his expressions, are 
real copies of the language employed by heathen authors to represent the 
condition of men as sinners. The phrase, for example, "The good that I would I 
do not, but the evil that I would not that I do," is a literal and almost 
verbatim citation from Epictetus in regard to man as a sinner. "He who sins," 
says this author, "what he would he does not, but what he would not that he 
does." "What I hate," says the apostle, "that I do." "Many," says Epictetus 
again, "being indignant at their lusts, and desirous not to excite them, are, 
nevertheless, urged by their habits to indulgences peculiar to them." "To will 
is present with me," says the apostle; "but how to perform that which is good, I 
find not." "Not one of those things which you advised me have I forgotten," says 
Euripides; "but nature overpowers me when I have made my resolve." Again, he 
says, "I am aware these are crimes I am about to perpetrate, but lust is 
stronger than my purposes." Lactantius represents the heathen as saying, " I 
will indeed not to sin, but am overcome; I am possessed of a fragile (or sinful) 
nature, so I am borne onward I know not whither, and sin, not because I wish to 
do it, but because I am carried captive by my lusts." "I know the good," says 
Seneca, "and approve it, but do the wrong." All that Paul says about approving 
the right and hating the wrong, and "delighting in the law of God after the 
inner man," but yet being impelled by the flesh, not to do the right, but to do 
the wrong, and being, notwithstanding such approval and delight, "brought into 
captivity to the law of sin," are but copies of what is elsewhere affirmed of 
the Jew in his legal bondage, and of what well-known heathen authors affirm of 
men as sinners. All such language is wisely selected and in place, on the 
supposition that the object of the apostle is to describe a legal and worldly, 
instead of a Christian experience. In other words, all is in place if the 
primitive exposition of this passage is the true one. But what must we think of 
this post-primitive exposition, that which imputes to the apostle this 
absurdity---going to well-known heathen authors and borrowing their 
representations of man's state and experience as a sinner to represent 
Christian, in opposition to the legal and worldly, life and experience?</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>Fundamental Facts wholly 
inexplicable, but upon the Primitive Exposition.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>Permit us, in this connection, to call special attention to 
three fundamental facts, some of which have been already presented at full 
length, but which we present together here, that their bearing may be distinctly 
seen. These facts, which are utterly incompatible with any but the primitive 
exposition, are the following :---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>I. In this whole passage, with the exception of verse 25, in 
which the way of deliverance from the wretched state previously portrayed is 
indicated, there is no reference whatever to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, or to 
faith or its effects. In "a literal, perfect, accurate, correct photograph" of a 
legal experience, of course no such reference should be had, because none of 
them have place in such experience, and the fact before us clearly evinces the 
verity of the primitive exposition. A photograph of Christian experience, 
however, a photograph in which neither Christ, the Holy Spirit, nor faith nor 
its effects, its peace and victories especially, are designated or alluded to, 
would be like an affirmed Life of Christ, in which His name should never appear, 
nor His character, nor any acts of His life, should be so much as alluded 
to.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>2. The leading terms employed in this passage are the identical 
ones employed mother parts of the New Testament, to designate a legal and 
worldly, and never to represent Christian, experience. We refer to such terms as 
these---"carnal, sold under sin"; "a law that when we would do good evil is 
present" ; "captivity under the law of sin, which is in<I> </I>the members"; 
"how to perform that which is good I find not"; and "doing what we would not, 
and not doing what we would," etc. Such terms are never employed in the 
Scriptures to represent the Christian, but always to designate the legal and 
worldly, life, character, and experience. Such terms are perfectly adapted to 
photograph the forms of the legal and worldly life, character, and experience, 
and their unqualified use in the passage before us absolutely evinces the 
correctness of the primitive exposition of the passage. The apostle, on the 
other hand, might as properly employ the term, "blackness of darkness," to 
photograph the light of heaven, as to employ such language as the above to 
photograph the life, character, and experience of believers in Jesus, believers 
who "walk by faith."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>3. The third fact to which we refer is this : Much of the 
language found in this passage, and especially the <I>thoughts, </I>are exact 
copies, sometimes <I>verbatim, </I>as we have seen, of the photographs given 
forth by heathen authors, well known to Paul's readers at Rome, of the sinful 
life, character, and experience. Such expressions and forms of thought we refer 
to as are represented by such terms as the following :---"What I do I allow 
not"; "what I hate that I do"; "what I would that do I not, but what I would not 
that I do"; "the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, 
that I do"; "I find a law that when I would do good evil is present with me" ; 
"to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not"; 
and "I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in 
my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
(rendering me a war-prisoner, a slave, the exact meaning of the original) to the 
law of sin which is in my members." There is not a single thought in any of the 
above forms of expression, a thought which is not copied from photographs 
scattered through the writings of heathen authors, writings with which Paul's 
readers at Rome were familiar--- photographs of the state, life, and experience 
of men as sinners, while some of the apostle's words are, as we have shown, 
literal citations from such authors. These statements we have verified in former 
paragraphs, and have before us any additional number of verifications that may 
be desired. If the object of the apostle was, what the primitive exposition 
affirms it to have been, to photograph man's state in sin, his helpless 
servitude to evil principles, propensities, and habits, and the utter 
hopelessness of all self-originated purposes and endeavours to escape "the 
bondage of corruption," then all the above citations, words, and phrases were 
most wisely selected, Jews and Gentiles being thus silenced and confounded by 
their own admissions of the utter hopelessness of their condition in sin, and of 
the utter fruitlessness of all their legal, formal, and self-originated purposes 
and efforts for self-amendment. On the other hand, we may safely challenge all 
"the greatest divines in every age Since the Reformation," and all the world 
beside to adduce a greater or more palpable absurdity than is involved in the 
monstrous idea, that inspiration, through the Apostle Paul, has borrowed from 
heathen authors their most impressive photographs of the condition, hopeless 
servitude under sin, and wretched experience of men as sinners, in order to 
present to the Church and the world "a literal, perfect, accurate, correct 
photograph of the experience of every true saint of God."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Let us now, for a moment, carefully weigh the three fundamental 
facts under consideration. If it was the real aim of the apostle in this 
passage, to give a literal, perfect, accurate, correct photograph, of the legal, 
formal, and worldly life, character, and experience, then, undeniably, all that 
we find in the passage is in place, and the picture is "perfect and complete, 
wanting nothing." There should be, in the portraiture, no Christ, no Spirit of 
grace, and no faith or its victories; but in the stead of these, what we here 
find---moral and spiritual servitude, purposes of obedience and amendment, 
purposes barren of everything but defeat, and the triumph of "the law of sin," 
and hopeless groanings under the weight of "the body of this death." All forms 
of expression by which this state is photographed should also, what is 
absolutely true here, be taken from the language of Scripture, and of heathen 
authors, in which the experience of the legal and worldly life are portrayed. 
None will question the validity of these statements. What must we think, on the 
other hand, of a so-called "literal, perfect, accurate, correct photograph of 
the experience of every true saint of God"? a photograph in which the grace of 
Christ, the power of the Spirit, and faith and its victories have no place, a 
photograph all the essential features of which are exclusively portrayed by 
forms of thought and expression by which inspired writers and classic authors 
represent the carnal servitude, fruitless purposes, and fatal defeats of the 
legal, fleshly, worldly, and sinful life and experience? It has been said that 
no absurdity can be named which has not been the fundamental tenet with some 
leading sect in philosophy. We affirm, without fear of contradiction, that there 
cannot be conceived a wider departure from the real meaning of a text of 
Scripture, or from "the mind of the Spirit," who inspired the text, than is 
involved in this post-primitive exposition of Rom. vii. 5---25, the exposition 
which affirms that this passage presents "a literal, perfect, accurate, correct 
photograph of the experience of every true saint of God." In the name of every 
such saint who has ever really and truly known "the victory which overcometh the 
world, even our faith," we protest against such a subversive exposition.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>There are no Forms of 
Expression found in this passage incompatible at all with the Primitive 
Exposition.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>It is claimed on the part of the advocates of the post-primitive 
exposition, that there are in this chapter forms of expression which are never 
employed but in reference to believers. Hence, the inference that Paul must here 
describe Christian, instead of a legal or worldly, experience. None but 
Christians, it is said, for example, do "delight in the law of God after the 
inner man"; and here we have the strongest case that can be adduced in favour of 
this post-primitive exposition. We must bear in mind that the apostle does not 
affirm such delight in the absolute sense in which the righteous is affirmed to 
exercise such delight; but in a specific and restricted sense, and in reference 
to a certain department of our nature, the department represented by the words 
<I>"inner man." </I>These words obviously represent that department of our 
nature which approves the right and reprobates the wrong, and impels even 
worldly minds to do the one and avoid the other---in other words, our moral and 
spiritual nature to which the apostle refers in the words, "their consciences 
also bearing witness, their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing 
one another," "the natural conscience "to which, in every man, the truth, when 
manifested, "commends itself." Ancient classic authors were accustomed to speak 
of the natural conscience as a soul within the soul. Plato refers to it in the 
very words of Paul, "the inward man." Philo speaks of it as "the man in the man, 
the better in the worse." Marcus Antonius speaks of it as "a guide and leader, 
which God has given to each of us," and Aristotle as "a Divine ruler in us," 
while Seneca speaks of it as "a Holy Spirit in us," and Epictetus as "God in 
us." Paul's readers at Rome could not but have understood him as referring, by 
the words under consideration, to the rational or moral nature, or the natural 
conscience, there and then generally referred to as "the inner man." To put any 
other construction upon these words is to forget that this epistle was written 
to Greeks and Romans who universally understood said words in this one sense. 
Understanding the apostle according to his obvious meaning, all evidence 
disappears at once, that the words, "I delight in the law of God after the 
inward man," refer only to the Christian. Every man has a moral and spiritual, 
as well as an aesthetic, nature. To the former department of our nature, the 
conscience, moral law, duty, and moral virtue, are objects of emotive 
approbation and delight, and vice, and crime, and sin, of emotive hate and 
reprobation, just as to the aesthetic department, things beautiful, grand, and 
sublime are objects of emotive admiration and delight, and their opposites of 
natural disgust. Nor is there any more moral or Christian virtue in the former 
class of feelings than in the latter. Real moral and Christian virtue, as 
everywhere represented in the Scriptures and in classic writings, does not 
consist in merely approving and delighting "in the law of God," but in actual 
<I>"obedience </I>to the law of righteousness," not in mere willing, or 
resolving to obey the law and will of God, but in "finding how to <I>perform," 
</I>and actually <I>performing, </I>that which is "good." Jews who" heard, but 
would not obey the Word of God," are represented (Isa. lviii. 2) as "delighting 
to know God's ways," and as "delighting to approach unto God," while the prophet 
who disclosed to the same unbelieving, disobedient, and reprobate Jews "the law 
of God" is affirmed (Ez. iii. 33) to have been unto them "as a very lovely song 
of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument," and as 
being called upon and urged by these same men, to "make known to them the 
ordinances of righteousness," such was their "delight in the law of God after 
the inward man." In such passages as the following the wickedest of men are 
represented as thus "delighting in the law of God and in His truth" (Mark vi. 
20, John v. 35<I>, </I>Matt. xiii. 20, &amp;c.). Almost nothing is more common 
with classic writers than references to the approbation and delight with which 
the wickedest of men often contemplate the law of duty and moral virtue, which 
they refused to obey and practice, and of their sentiments of internal 
disapproval, hatred, and reprobation of the vices and sins which they did 
perpetrate. Greeks and Romans, to whom the epistle was sent, were absolutely 
certain not to understand the apostle as referring, in the words under 
consideration, or in any expressions found in this passage, to believers in 
Jesus. Nor do we know of an error more unscriptural or dangerous to the immortal 
interests of men than that which assures individuals that they are Christians 
simply because they experience sentiments of internal approval and "delight in 
the law of God." Not he that merely experiences inward delight in truth and 
duty, but "He," says our Saviour, "that bath my commandments, and keepeth them, 
he it is that loveth me." "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He 
is righteous."</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The Primitive Exposition 
harmonizes with, and the Post-primitive contradicts all the other teaching of 
Scripture upon the same subject.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> 
</B>
<P><FONT size=4>Our last argument is this: The primitive exposition must be 
true, and the post-primitive false, or the revelations of God on this vital 
subject are palpably self-contradictory. Take in illustration, the declarations 
found in this and the next chapter, declarations lying in immediate proximity to 
one another. "I find then a law (a fixed and immutable order of sequence) that 
when (whenever) I would (aim or purpose) to do good, evil is present with me. 
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in 
my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin which is in my members." Now read the opposite statement in the 
next chapter: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus bath made me free 
from the law of sin and death." Again, "I am carnal, sold under sin": "Ye are 
not in the flesh (carnal), but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 
dwell in you"; and "I keep my body (the flesh) under, and bring it into 
subjection." Unless we can, at the same time, be "under the law of sin," and 
held in captivity there, and be "free from that law," unless we can, at the same 
time, be "carnal, sold under sin," and "keep our body under," and not be in the 
flesh (carnal), but in the Spirit, this post-primitive exposition must be false. 
The same holds true in respect to the photograph presented in this passage, and 
all the portraitures of Christian life and experience presented everywhere in 
the Scriptures. Victory is the fixed result of the action of "the law of the 
Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus," as everywhere presented therein. Inglorious 
defeat is the equally fixed law of the conflict portrayed in this passage. The 
Christian, as portrayed by the pen of inspiration, is "the Lord's freeman." The 
individual here photographed is a bond-slave, a groaning captive chained to a 
"body of death." It is impossible, we repeat, that this post-primitive 
exposition can be true, unless the same thing can, at the same moment, be true 
and not true of the same individual. "He that believeth in me, as the Scripture 
bath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." This is Christ's 
photograph of the real Christian life and experience under this dispensation. Is 
this the portraiture drawn in the passage before us? Does Rom. vii. 5---25, 
present a real representation of "the riches, of the glory of this mystery among 
the Gentiles, which is Christ in us the hope of glory"? You wrong your own soul, 
Reader, and do violence to all the teachings of the Spirit upon this subject, 
when you make your abode in this passage, and say to yourself; I have here a 
revealed photograph of "the life which, by the faith of the Son of God, I am to 
live in the flesh."</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>Rom. vii. 25 
Explained.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>The apostle concludes Rom. vii., with these words, in which he 
states, in brief; the results of his previous discussion: "So then, with the 
mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Prof. 
Stuart thus expounds these words: "While my mind, that is, my reason and 
conscience, takes part with the law of God and approves its sanctions, my carnal 
part obtains the predominance, and brings me into a state of condemnation and 
ruin." To the same effect is the explanation of Tholuck, Meyer, and others. The 
original word here rendered <I>mind </I>was, at that time, as shown by Prof. 
Robinson in his Greek Lexicon of the N. T., frequently employed to represent the 
moral nature, or conscience, as distinguished from the sinful propensities 
represented by the term flesh, and so he, in common with the authors to whom we 
have referred, explains the word in the passage before us. Such an understanding 
of the word must be accepted from the fact that it is here employed by the 
apostle as synonymous in meaning with the words rendered "the inward man," which 
must, as we have shown, be understood as representing the conscience, or moral 
nature. The original words, rendered, "I myself," demand special attention. 
According to Tholuck, Meyer, and many others, and that for the best reasons, the 
words, "I, myself;" mean "the man, in his own personality <I>alone and confined 
to itself." "I in my own person </I>without any higher saving intervention." 
Such, as Tholuck states, is the meaning of such forms of expression in. the 
Greek, Latin, and German. Thus, in the proverb, where a sovereign says, "I 
myself reign as king, and make my own clothes," the meaning is, "I myself do 
this, no one helping me." So Paul, in the words "I myself;" means I, left and 
confined to myself; without any higher aid. What is man's condition, with no 
resources out of himself? He has a moral nature, a conscience, which prompts him 
to choose and do the right. Following such promptings, he "obeys the law of 
God." He has, at the same time, a carnal nature, which is far stronger than the 
moral, and by the overwhelming force of "the law in his members warring against 
the law of his mind," that is, his conscience, he is "brought into captivity to 
the law of sin which is in the members." Thus left to himself; without any 
higher intervention, he is hopelessly lost and ruined. Such is "the conclusion 
of the whole matter."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>This whole subject was most impressively presented by a leading 
German scholar and theologian, in a conference on holiness, held in Basle, since 
that at Brighton, a conference of a whole week's continuance, and attended by 
more than 5,000 eager listeners. Our informant was Prof. Paul Vernier, who was 
present during all the meetings. During the progress of the conference the 
venerable scholar and theologian referred to, rose and said :---Brethren, the 
whole secret is plain to me now. Compare the last verse of Rom. vii. with the 
first of the following chapter. The original words rendered, "I, myself," mean, 
according to fixed Greek usage, I, in myself, by myself, without any aid from 
any power out of and above myself. What is the condition of the creature thus 
left to himself, and depending upon no grace out of himself? He has a moral 
nature, a conscience which prompts him to "obey the law of God," and following 
such promptings, he does obey. He has, at the same time, a sinful nature 
represented by the term flesh. The promptings of "his fleshy nature, being the 
strongest, wars against the promptings of the moral nature, and overcomes, so 
that man does "serve the law of sin." To get free from this servitude and 
captivity all human resolutions and efforts are vain, in himself as "I, myself;" 
man is without hope. Where is the remedy? Read it in the first verse of the next 
chapter. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are," not in 
the self, acted upon only by legal motives and aided by no grace from without 
the self; but <I>"in </I>Christ Jesus." In this new and gracious relation we no 
more "walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit," arid "the law of the Spirit 
of life in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death," while "the 
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us." The great secret after which we 
are inquiring, then, is to get out of the self, the "I, myself," and "into 
Christ Jesus." Dead to the self; dead to all self efforts and endeavours, "dead 
to the law" as a motive power for holiness, no longer standing and acting as the 
"I, myself," but "married to Christ," that is, "in Him," and "united to him by 
faith," we shall, indeed, "bring forth fruit unto God," "have our fruit unto 
holiness and the end everlasting life," "walk, not after the flesh, but after 
the Spirit," and "in all things, be more than conquerors through Him that hath 
loved us."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Such are the real reasonings and deductions of the great apostle 
of the Gentiles in the two chapters under consideration, and so, for centuries 
after this epistle was written, was he understood by all the Churches which he 
planted, and by all believers who read his writings. For centuries past, 
"blindness in part has happened" to the Church, through an "eclipse of faith," 
occasioned by this post-primitive exposition. The time is not distant, however, 
when the Church universal will read in these two chapters what God designed all 
should read---the absolute hopelessness of man for moral virtue when standing, 
unaided by Divine grace, as the "I, myself;" and acted upon only by legal 
motives on the one hand, and on the other his perfect completeness, and 
"all-sufficiency for all things," when "in Christ Jesus," and under the power of 
" the Spirit of grace," and when "the life which he lives in the flesh, he lives 
by the faith of the Son of God."</FONT> 
<P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#0000ff><B><A name=N_2_></A>THE 
DOCTRINE OF HOLINESS AS HELD BY THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.</FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#0000ff></FONT> </B>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The Apostolic 
Age.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P align=center>
<P><FONT size=4>WE believe that we have fully verified the fact, that, according 
to the undivided testimony of the primitive Church up to the time of the 
Pelagian controversy (A.D. 400---430), the apostle, in Rom. vii. 5---25, 
describes the state and experience, not of a Christian, but, in the language of 
Augustine, "of a man who has never been under grace." We will now proceed to 
prove, what may be a matter of great interest to our readers, that during the 
period above designated, the doctrine of holiness, as now held and taught by the 
advocates of Higher Life, is the specific doctrine generally, if not 
universally, held by that Church. The term perfection, more perfectly than any 
we know of, represents the primitive doctrine on this subject. We shall trace 
the doctrine as we find it among the apostolic and primitive Fathers during the 
four centuries under consideration. Clement, Barnabas, Ignatius, Hermas, and 
Polycarp, were companions of the Apostles, and next to those of the latter, the 
writings of the former had place in the regard of the early Churches. From the 
Epistle of Clement to the Church of Corinth we make the following citations 
:---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"And being full of good designs, ye did with great readiness of 
mind, and with a religious confidence, stretch forth your hands to God Almighty: 
beseeching Him to be merciful unto you, if in anything ye had unwillingly sinned 
against Him."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>In the judgment of Clement individuals, in that Church, did 
"live with a pure conscience," that is, with conscious conformity to all the 
known will of God. Again, "Ye were sincere and without offence towards each 
other." But Moses said, "Not so, Lord, forgive now this people their sin, or if 
Thou wilt not, blot me out of the book of the living." O admirable charity! O 
insuperable perfection !</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>From the Epistle of Barnabas we cite the following passages 
:---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"I gave diligence to write in few words, that, together with 
your faith, your knowledge might be perfect."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Again :---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"But how does He dwell in us? The word of His faith, the calling 
of His promise, the wisdom of His righteous judgments, the commands of His 
doctrines. He Himself prophesies within us, He Himself dwelleth in us, and 
openeth to us who were in bondage of death the gate of our temple---that is<I>, 
</I>the mouth of wisdom---having given repentance unto us: and by this means has 
brought us to be an incorruptible temple."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>In his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus, Ignatius uses the 
following language :--- </FONT>
<P><FONT size=4>"Being followers of God, and stirring up yourselves by the blood 
of Christ, ye have <I>perfectly </I>accomplished the work that was connatural 
unto you."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Again :--- "They that are of the flesh cannot do the works of 
the Spirit, neither they that are of the Spirit the works of the flesh. As he 
that has faith cannot be an infidel, nor he that is an infidel have faith. But 
even those things that ye do according to the flesh are spiritual, forasmuch as 
ye do all things in Jesus Christ.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"Ye are, therefore, with all your companions in the same 
journey, full of God; His spiritual temples, full of Christ, full of holiness; 
adorned in all things with the commands of Christ. In whom also I rejoice that I 
have been thought worthy by this present epistle to converse, and joy together 
with you; that with respect to the other life, ye love nothing but God 
only.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"That so no herb of the devil may be found in you; but ye may 
remain in all holiness and sobriety both of body and spirit in Christ 
Jesus."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Again :---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"Of all which nothing is hid from you, if ye have perfect faith 
and charity in Christ Jesus, which are the begnning and end of life."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"No man, professing a true faith, sinneth: neither does he who 
has charity hate any."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>In his epistle to another Church, he says :---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"For inasmuch as ye are perfect yourselves, ye ought to think 
those things that are perfect. For when you are are desirous to do well, God is 
ready to enable you thereunto."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>In his epistle to the Church at Philippi, Polycarp thus writes 
:---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"Into which (the Epistle of Paul), if you look, you will be able 
to edify yourselves in the faith that has been delivered unto you, which is the 
mother of us all, being followed with hope, and led on by a general love both 
towards God and towards Christ, and towards our neighbour. For if any man has 
these things, he has fulfilled the law of righteousness, for he that has charity 
is far from all sin."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>The work entitled "The Shepherd of Hermas" is one of the very 
earliest and most highly-esteemed in the primitive Church of all the writings 
that appeared after the Apostles left the world. It was quoted as of the very 
highest authority, after the Scriptures, by such individuals as Irenaeus, 
Athanasius, Origen, Eusebius, and Hierom. The work is in the form of a dialogue 
between a shepherd and angel visitant and instructor, the angel of the Covenant. 
The following lengthy extract from this work will well repay an attentive 
perusal, not only on account of the light which it throws upon our present 
inquiries, but also upon the way of holiness by faith as taught in the Apostolic 
Church :--- </FONT>
<P><FONT size=4>"And when he had fulfilled these twelve commands, he said unto 
me, 'Thou hast now these commands, walk in them, and exhort those that hear them 
that they repent, and that they keep their repentance pure all the remaining 
days of their life. And fulfil diligently this ministry which I commit to thee, 
and thou shalt receive great advantage by it; and shalt find favour with all 
such as shall believe thy words. For I am with thee, and will force them to 
believe.' And I said unto him, 'Sir, these commands are great and excellent, and 
able to cheer the heart of that man that shall be able to keep them. But, sir, I 
cannot tell whether they can be observed by any man.' He answered, 'Thou shalt 
easily keep these commands, and they shall not be hard; howbeit, <I>if thou 
shalt suffer it once to enter into thy heart that they cannot be kept by any 
one, thou shalt not fulfil them. </I>But now, I say unto thee, if thou shalt not 
observe these commands, but shall neglect them, thou shalt not be saved, nor thy 
children, nor thy house.'</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"These things he spake very angrily unto me, inasmuch that he 
greatly affrighted me. For he changed his countenance so that a man could not 
bear his anger. And when he saw me altogether troubled and confounded, he began 
to speak more moderately and cheerfully, saying, 'Oh, foolish, and without 
understanding, unconstant, not knowing the majesty of God, how great and 
wonderful He is who created the world for man, and bath made every creature 
subject to him, and given him all power that he should be able to fulfil all 
these commands. He is able,' said he, 'to fulfil all these commands, who has the 
Lord in his heart; but they who have the Lord only in their mouths, and their 
heart is hardened, and they are far from the Lord, to such persons these 
commands are hard and dimcult. Put, therefore, ye that are empty and light in 
the faith, the Lord God in your hearts; and ye shall perceive how that nothing 
is more easy than these commands, nor more pleasant, nor more gentle and holy. 
And turn yourselves to the Lord your God, and forsake the devil and his 
pleasures, because they are evil, and bitter, and impure. And fear not the 
devil, because he has no power over you. For I am with you, the messenger of 
repentance, who have the dominion over him. The devil doth indeed affright men, 
but his terror is vain. Wherefore fear him not, and he will flee from you.' And 
I said unto him---' Sir, hear me speak a few words unto you.' He answered---' 
Say on.' 'A man indeed desires to keep the Commandments of God; and there is no 
one but what prays unto God, that he may be able to keep His Commandments. But 
the devil is hard, and by power rules over the servants of God.' And he said, 
'He cannot rule over the servants of God who trust in Him with all their hearts. 
The devil may strive, but he cannot overcome them. For if ye resist him, he will 
flee away with confusion from you. But they that are not full in the faith fear 
the devil as if he had some great power. For the devil tries the servants of 
God; and if he finds them empty he destroys them. For as a man, when he fills up 
vessels with good wine, and among them puts a few vessels half full, and comes 
to try and taste of the vessels, doth not try those that are full, because he 
knows that they are good; but tastes those that are half full, lest they should 
grow sour, for vessels half full soon grow sour, and lose the taste of wine; so 
the devil comes to the servants of God to try them. They that are full of faith 
resist him stoutly, and he departs from them, because he finds no place where to 
enter into them; then he goes to those that are not full of faith, and because 
he has place of entrance he goes into them, and does what he will with them, and 
they become his servants. But I, the messenger of repentance, say unto you, Fear 
not the devil. For I am sent unto you that I may be with you, as many as shall 
repent with your whole heart, and that I may confirm you in the faith. Believe, 
therefore, ye who by reason of your transgressions have forgot God, and your own 
salvation; and, adding to your sins, have made your life very heavy, that if ye 
shall turn to the Lord with your whole hearts, and shall serve Him according to 
His will, He will heal you of your former sins, and ye shall have dominion over 
all the works of the devil. Be not then afraid in the least of his threatenings, 
for they are without force, as the nerves of a dead man. But hearken unto me, 
and fear the Lord Almighty, who is able to save and destroy you; and keep His 
commands, that ye may live unto God.' And I said unto him, 'Sir, I am now 
confirmed in all the commands of the Lord whilst that you are with me; and I 
know that you will break all the power of the devil, and we also shall overcome 
him if we shall be able, through the help of the Lord, to keep these commands 
which you have delivered.' 'Thou shalt keep them,' said he, 'if thou shalt 
purify thy heart towards the Lord. And all they also shall keep them who shall 
cleanse their hearts from the vain desires of the present world, and shall live 
unto God."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>In none of the writings of any of these apostolic Fathers do we 
find it hinted that believers are expected to sin, and do sin, "daily in 
thought, word, and deed." On the other hand, the entertaining of such a thought 
is repudiated and reprobated, as one of the most dangerous errors that can have 
place in the mind. The same method of sanctification, namely, "sanctification by 
faith," is most clearly and specifically set forth in their writings. Everywhere 
in these writings we meet with the great truth, that "we are complete in Him," 
and "can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth us." The teachings in 
the Oxford and Brighton Conferences, and in all Conferences on Scriptural 
Holiness, are but repetitions of the fundamental teachings of these apostolic 
Fathers.</FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The Post-apostolic 
Age.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </B>
<P><FONT size=4>In giving the views of the primitive Church in the 
post-apostolic age, in respect to the doctrine of sanctification by faith, we 
will first refer to the sentiments which obtained at the time of the controversy 
between Augustine and Pelagius. We must bear in mind that very little difference 
of opinion obtained between these individuals on this subject. This is fully 
evident from Augustine's own statements. "We should not," he says,---and we 
commend his admonition to the consideration of those who oppose the same 
doctrine now,---" We should not with inconsiderate heat oppose those who 
maintain that man may be without sin in this life. For if we deny the 
possibility we detract from the free will of man who voluntarily desires this, 
or from the power or mercy of God, which effects it by His aid." "If I also 
allow," he says again, "that some have been, or are, without sin, still I 
maintain that in no other way are they, or have they been able to be so, but by 
being justified by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who was 
crucified." In respect to the mother of Jesus, "he always held it improper and 
contrary to the reverence due to Jesus to speak of the sin of Mary." "We know 
not," he says, "but grace was given her wholly to vanquish sin, who was worthy 
to conceive and bear Him who knew no sin." "I know," he says, speaking upon the 
same subject, "this is the opinion of some, whose opinion I dare not censure, 
though I cannot defend it." in another place he refers to the celebrated 
teacher, Ambrose, as holding this doctrine.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>In the year 415 a council was held at Diospolis (Lydda), a 
council constituted of fourteen bishops from in and around Palestine, a council 
called to determine the orthodoxy of Pelagius. This council was called by three 
opposers of this individual, viz. Heron, Lazarus, and Crosius, who called it 
with the hope of securing the condemnation of the accused. From the records of 
the council we make the following citations :---</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"Charge VII<I>., </I>Pelagius has said a man may be without sin 
if he will.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"Pelagius: I have indeed said that a man may be without sin, and 
keep God's commands if he will. For this ability God has given him. But I have 
never said that any one can be found, from infancy to old age, who has never 
sinned; but being converted from sin he can, by his own labour and God's grace, 
be without sin; still he is not by this immutable for the future.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>"Synod: As Pelagius has now correctly answered that man, by 
God's aid and grace, may be without sin, let him also answer to other 
points."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>We must bear in mind that this was one of the most influential 
councils called in that age. Soon after this convocation, "Bishop John, of 
Jerusalem, reproached Crosius for teaching that man cannot be without sin even 
by God's aid and grace." In neither of the four councils subsequently held to 
try the orthodoxy of Pelagius and his disciple Coelestius, were either of them 
censured at all for holding this doctrine, while, in two of the most influential 
of them, their orthodoxy on these and kindred doctrines were specifically 
affirmed. These facts evince the prevailing sentiment of the Church in favour of 
the doctrine at that time.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Of all the Fathers after the apostolic age, and prior to the 
year 400, none were held in more universal esteem, and had a more widely 
extended influence, than Chrysostom and Athanasius. On this subject their 
judgments are most explicitly pronounced, and as far as history reveals facts, 
their views were uncontradicted. Athanasius expresses the absolute conviction 
that there had been "many in the Church who were free from all sin." He wrote 
the life of St. Anthony as an example of one who had been thus saved, and had 
unqualifiedly lived a Christian life, which was "with out spot and blameless." 
Chrysostom, speaking of that memoir, says, that "it holds forth all that the 
commands of Christ demand." In his commentary on Gal. ii. 20, Chrysostom says, 
"By saying 'Christ liveth in me,' he means <I>nothing </I>is done by me, which 
Christ disapproves." We cite more at length his comment on I Cor. iv. 16, 
"Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me," and also (xi. I), "Be ye 
followers of me, even as I am of Christ." Astonishing! How great is our 
teacher's boldness of speech! How highly finished the image when he can exhort 
others hereunto, not that in self-exaltation he doth so, but implying that 
virtue is an easy thing. As if he had said, Tell me not "I am not able to 
imitate thee," for the difference between me and you is not so great as between 
Christ and me, and yet I have imitated Him.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>On the other hand, writing to the Ephesians, he interposes no 
mention of himself, but leads them all to the one point. "Be ye followers of 
God," are his words; but in this place, since his discourse was addressed to 
weak persons, he puts himself in the way. And besides, too, he signifies that it 
is possible even thus to follow Christ, " for he who copies the <I>perfect 
impression </I>of the seal, copies the original model."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>To no candid mind can the meaning of the above extracts be a 
matter of doubt. Chrysostom undeniably believed that Paul, as living in Christ, 
and Christ living in him, "did nothing which Christ disapproves," and meant in 
the above passage to affirm the fact. Chrysostom meant also to affirm that all 
believers may be saved from all sin, because that the weakest could fully copy 
or follow Paul, who was in his life and character "<I>a</I> <I>perfect 
impression" </I>of the life and character of Christ.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Athanasius not only maintained that there were "many in the 
Church who were saved from all sin," but that there were others who had---a 
great error---attained to "angelic perfection." To understand the meaning of 
such words, we would state that one or two centuries after the Apostles the 
Christian virtues were divided into two classes---those absolutely required of 
all as duties, the non-performance of which was sin; and others not thus 
required, but most highly commended. The former class of principles were called 
"precepts," the latter "counsels." Those who, by grace, performed all 
<I>required </I>duties were free from all sin. Those who found grace thus to 
obey, and from love to Christ and His cause denied themselves of things lawful 
and right, such as marriage, not only were saved from all sin, but attained to 
angelic perfection, a form of perfection, in the language of Athanasius, "above 
law." Speaking of this latter class of believers, Athanasius says: "The Son of 
God made man for us, and having abolished death, and having liberated our race 
from the servitude of corruption, bath, besides other gifts, granted to us to 
have on earth an image of the sanctity of angels." "Nowhere, truly," he adds, 
"except among us as Christians, is this holy and heavenly profession fully borne 
out and perfected." To this fact he then appeals, as proof of the divinity of 
Christianity. Language precisely similar to the above, and almost the same words 
are employed by such writers as Chrysostom and Tertullian, to express the same 
doctrine. "Should any one among men," says Chrysostom, for example, "become as 
virtuous as an angel, that man is in a far higher degree superior to thee (the 
man of the world) than an angel is." "Because the angel has his home far above 
thee in distance, and dwelleth in heaven; whereas this man is living and 
conversing with thee, and giving an impulse to thy emulation." "And there is 
such a<I> </I>thing as an angel, too, even among men." We here find the 
welling-out of a great error, that which finally transformed itself into the 
Popish Dogma of Supererogation. We find, at the same time, undeniable proof of 
the general, if not universal, prevalence of the great doctrine, that "by God's 
aid and grace," believers may he "saved from all sin."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>We adduce now the testimony of but one other of the primitive 
writers, Justin Martyr, who, in his early youth ---was personally acquainted 
with Polycarp and other of the apostolic Fathers. In his apology to the Emperor 
Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 162, he declares that he could "point out many men, as 
well as women, who, having followed the Christian institute from their earliest 
years, had remained to an advanced age, sixty or seventy years, <I>incorrupt." 
</I>Justin Martyr is here speaking of that form of power which peculiarises the 
Gospel, and distinguishes it from all other religions and forms of belief, the 
power of moral and spiritual renovation, the power to save from all sin.</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=4>Beginning, then, with the apostolic, and advancing down through 
the entire martyr age, we find this doctrine of Sanctification by Faith 
omnipresent in the Churches, and omnipresent in this one form---that "man by 
God's aid and grace, can be without sin." Not until after the year 400 does 
there appear to have been any controversy in the Churches upon the subject. This 
doctrine, like the primitive exposition of Rom. vii., was everywhere the 
accepted doctrine, and was proclaimed as the crowning glory of "the glorious 
Gospel of the blessed God." Among the apostolic Fathers and their immediate 
successors, while we find this doctrine omnipresent, we find no trace whatever 
of that great error which afterwards arose, the error, not that "by God's aid 
and grace we can be saved from all sin," but that some have attained to a form 
of "perfection above law." This doctrine of Sanctification by Faith, of 
Salvation from all sin in this life, through Christ in us, the hope of glory, 
and the power of the eternal Spirit, has, as a stream of light, passed down from 
the Apostles through the ages, has been embraced and proclaimed by the holiest 
men and women the Church has ever known, and in our day has lifted its Divine 
form before the Churches throughout Christendom as "the rising of the Sun of 
righteousness with healing in His wings." It devolves upon those to whom God has 
committed the responsibility of leading the Church, as, "she walks in the 
light," while they teach nothing which "limits the Holy One," to guard carefully 
against any errors which "corrupt the Word of God."</FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=5><FONT color=#ff0000><B><A 
name=N_3_></A>EXPLANATION OF GAL. V. 16-23.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT size=5> 
</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye 
shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the 
other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the 
Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which 
are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell 
you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they that do such things 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, long-suffuring, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: 
against such there is no law."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THE main use that, by a large portion of the 
Church, is made of this passage, one of the most important, when rightly 
understood, in the whole New Testament, is to sustain, by an application of 
Verse 17, a certain doctrine, the doctrine of the continued conscious sinfulness 
of all believers in this life. The conflict between the flesh and Spirit is of 
such a nature we are here taught, it is affirmed, that the believer cannot do 
the things that he would, that is, render the obedience which he purposes to 
render, or avoid "fulfilling the lust of the flesh," as he desires and attempts 
to do. This exposition imputes to the apostle, and to the Spirit of Inspiration 
in him, the most palpable contradiction and absurdity conceivable. His avowed 
object in this verse is, to verify, and the right exposition of it will verify, 
the proposition laid down in Verse 16, namely, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall 
not fulfil the lust of the flesh." "For," that is, this proposition is, and must 
be true, because of the nature of the antagonism between the flesh and the 
Spirit. What is the logic of the apostle according to the construction under 
consideration of Verse 17? It is this: The proposition, "Walk in the Spirit, and 
ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh," must be true, because there is such 
a conflict going on within you between the flesh and Spirit as to render it 
impossible for you to "walk in the Spirit," on the one hand, or to avoid 
"fulfilling the lusts of the flesh," should you desire and determine to do it, 
on the other. A construction which imputes to the Spirit of God such logic as 
that cannot accord with "the mind of the Spirit." The error and absurdity of 
this exposition will become still more manifest as we proceed. As preparatory to 
a correct exposition of these two verses, with those that follow, let us first 
of all identify--</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><I>The 
Parties at Issue in the Conflict here described.</I></B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The exposition above referred to assumes 
that the parties designated in this passage, as in conflict against each other, 
are the flesh on the one hand, and our own spirits on the other. This, as the 
whole context evinces, and Meyer most abundantly proves, is a great mistake. We 
are never required in the Scriptures to walk in our own spirits, but to "abide 
in Christ," to "walk in the light "(of God), and to "walk in the Spirit" (of 
God), to "walk after the Spirit." Throughout this epistle the flesh and the 
Spirit are set over against each other, and the term "the Spirit" invariably 
represents, as all commentators agree, the Spirit of God. The parties here 
represented, then, as in conflict, are, without a question, the flesh, or our 
sinful propensities, on the one hand, and the Spirit of God on the other. The 
case here presented is very different from that presented in Romans vii. 5-25, 
particularly in Verse 23--"But I see another law in my members, warring against 
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in 
my members." In this case the conflict is between "the flesh," the sinful 
propensities, and the conscience, "the law of the mind," the former impelling to 
sin, and the latter to obedience, while "the flesh" is always victorious. In 
other words, in this case the warfare is between two opposite principles of our 
own nature--our sinful propensities, and the conscience, with the former, as we 
said, always in the ascendant. The case presented in the passage under 
consideration (Gal. V. 17), on the one hand, is a conflict between the flesh, or 
sinful propensities, and the Spirit of God, and the believer may obey the 
latter. The error of the construction of Verse 17, the construction which we 
have already refuted, now becomes more palpable than it was before. This 
construction represents "the flesh" as in conflict, not with the spirit of man, 
but with the Spirit of God, and as so omnipotent, even against the latter, as to 
render it impossible for the Eternal Spirit Himself to enable the believer, when 
he desires and endeavours in the strength of God to do it, to avoid "fulfilling 
the lust of the flesh." Keeping distinctly in mind the great truth, that the 
parties revealed, in this passage, as in conflict the one against the other, are 
"the flesh" on the one hand, and "the Spirit of God" on the other, we now 
proceed to an exposition of the passage itself.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><I>Verse</I> 16.</FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>To "walk in the Spirit" is the same thing as 
(Verse 18) to be "led by the Spirit." "As ye have therefore received Christ 
Jesus the Lord," says the apostle, "so walk ye in Him." When we received Christ, 
we accepted of Him, as our "prophet, priest, and king," committing all your 
powers and interest to His guidance, control, and keeping. We walk in Christ 
when we do not "cast away our confidence," but continue to trust Him as we did 
at the beginning. The Spirit is given to us to us to "abide with us for ever," 
to "lead us into all truth," to "reveal the Son of God in us," to sanctify us 
"in soul, body, and spirit," to "keep us from falling," to endue us with "power 
for every good word and work," to show us "the glory of the Lord," so that "we 
shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory," and to perfect and 
perpetuate "our fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." We 
"walk in the Spirit" when we constantly yield ourselves up to His guidance. The 
revealed result of our doing this is, that we "shall not fulfil the lust of the 
flesh."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><I>Verse</I> 17.</FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The original word "<I>gar</I>," here 
rendered "<I>for</I>," has, according to the united testimony of all standard 
authorities, this fixed meaning--to wit, it implies that what follows contains 
the reason for what has been previously said or implied. In the verse before us, 
then, we have the inspired <I>reason why</I> those who "walk in the Spirit shall 
not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The reason is, that what the Spirit desires 
and impels us to do the flesh opposes; and what the flesh impels us to do the 
Spirit opposes, and the desires and efforts of each are opposed, repugnant, and 
contradictory to those of the other. The control of one must, consequently, 
exclude that of the other. As "they that are in the flesh (under its control) 
cannot please God," so they that "walk in" or are "led by" "the Spirit," cannot 
do what is contrary to the Spirit, that is, "fulfil the lust of the flesh" The 
meaning of the words, "so that ye cannot do the things that ye would," is 
obviously this: when under the control of the flesh ye cannot do what you would 
desire and will do if under the control of the Spirit; and, when under the 
control of the Spirit, ye cannot do what you would desire and will to do if 
under the control of the flesh. It follows, therefore, that if ye will walk in 
the Spirit, ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Thus explained, the whole 
argument of the apostle has perfect, logical consecutiveness, as well as great 
moral and spiritual significancy.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><I>Verse</I> I8.</FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In this verse the apostle opens to us the 
blessed freedom in which. we are, when "led by the Spirit," or "walking in the 
Spirit"--both forms of expression, as we have seen, meaning the same thing. We 
"are not under the law," that is, as Meyer very truly expresses the meaning of 
these words, we are then kept from doing anything on account of which "the law 
has power to censure, to condemn, or to punish us." "Against such" as bring 
forth "the fruit of the Spirit," the apostle affirms (Verse 23) "there is no 
law," no law by which "the fruit" they bring forth can be condemned. The same 
great truth is expressed by the apostle (Rom. Viii. 1-4), " There is, therefore, 
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk, not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit." The specific reason assigned, all our past sins, 
as previously shown, being forgiven, is, that in our few relation to Christ, and 
new life and walk in the Spirit, we are kept from doing what would bring us into 
condemnation. In Christ and under the power of the Spirit, we are "made free 
from the law of sin and death," "sin in the flesh is condemned," that is, doomed 
to death, while "the righteousness of the law," the moral rectitude, which the 
law demands, "is fulfilled in us." "In Christ," and "walking, not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit," that is, "walking in the Spirit," we are "kept," 
while this union continues, "by the power of God through faith," from doing what 
God, or his law, condemns. In other words still, when "in Christ," and "led by 
the Spirit," we "serve God unto all pleasing."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Creatures are under the law in different 
senses: for example, as a rule of moral action, in which sense all moral agents 
ever must be subject to, or under, the law--as a dispensation of law in 
distinction from a dispensation of grace, in which sense no believer is under 
the law--and as subject to the penalty of the law on account of sin, that is 
"under the curse of the law," a sense in which all. believers are not under the 
law, but are redeemed from the curse by the atonement of Christ. They are not at 
all under the law in this last sense whose sins are forgiven, and who are kept 
from doing that which brings them again under the penalty of the law. This is 
the revealed state of all who "are in Christ Jesus," and "walk after the 
Spirit." Their past sins are all forgiven, and they are kept from doing that 
which subjects them again to the curse of the law--that is, they that are led by 
the Spirit are not under the law, are kept from doing what subjects them to the 
penalty of the law.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><I>Verses</I> 19-23.</FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In these verses the apostle sets before us, 
in vivid and most impressive contrast, "the works of the flesh" on the one hand, 
and "the fruit of the Spirit" on the other--many of which works we shall do in 
fact and all in spirit "if we walk after the flesh," and "fruit" which we shall 
"bring forth unto God" if we "walk in" and are "led by the Spirit." "Living 
after the flesh we shall die." "Abiding in Christ," and "walking not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit," we shall "have our fruit unto holiness and the end 
everlasting life"--"fruit" against those who bear which "there is no law." Such, 
unquestionably, is the real meaning of the whole passage under consideration, a 
passage every word of which, when rightly understood, is "like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver," but which, when misunderstood and misapplied (as it too 
long has been) "throws disastrous twilight over the face of the Sun of 
righteousness." We find ourselves in the unveiled presence of this dread 
alternative--to "resist the Holy Ghost," "live after the flesh," and die, or 
"through the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body," and live. While we must 
serve one or the other of them, "no man can serve these two 
masters."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><A 
name=N_4_></A>EXPLANATION OF PHIL. III. 12-17.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Not as though I had already attained, 
either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that 
for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren I count not myself to 
have apprehended: but <I>this </I>one thing I <I>do</I>, forgetting those things 
which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us 
therefore, as many as be perfect, he thus minded: and if in any thing ye be 
otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we 
have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. 
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us 
for an ensample."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>WHEN individuals read the Bible with a 
certain doctrine before their minds, they are inclined to assume, as teaching 
their dogma, every passage in which a word appears which, in any of its many 
meanings, does, in some single one of them, represent that doctrine. If as far 
as <I>words</I> are concerned, the same thing is, in the same passage, affirmed 
and denied of the same individual, that form of expression is seized upon which 
seems to favour the favourite doctrine, and is ever after employed as absolute 
proof of the same, and that to the utter disregard of the opposite declaration 
which stands out distinctly before us in the same passage. Those who thus read 
the Word of God read it with a veil before their minds, a veil which often hides 
from their view all that is vital in what they read.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In illustration of these statements, let us 
consider the use that is very extensively made of a single expression found in 
the passage before us, namely, "Not as though I had already attained, either 
were already perfect." An individual opens the Bible with this doctrine in his 
mind and heart, that of the continued conscious sinfulness of all believers in 
this life. As soon as he meets with the words above cited he stops right there, 
and from the mere words before him, and with no consideration of the 
circumstances and context, draws the wide, sweeping inference that Paul did not, 
as he elsewhere positively affirmed himself to have done, "serve God with a pure 
conscience," "a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward man," but 
with continued conscious violations of the word and will of God. Nor does the 
individual stop here. From the mere words, "not as though I were already 
perfect," the still further sweeping inference is drawn, that we are here 
divinely taught, and required to believe, that no believer in Jesus ever did, or 
ever will, from the beginning to the end of time, attain in this life to full 
salvation from conscious sin. Can we conceive of a more blind and presumptious 
use of the words of Scripture?"</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>If the mere words, "not as though I were 
already perfect," of themselves, prove that Paul was living in conscious sin, we 
have, in the New Testament, absolute proof that Christ "did know sin," and was 
conscious of the fact. "I do cures," says our Saviour, "to-day and to-morrow, 
and the third day (after my death) I shall be perfected," perfect, the same 
identical word in the original as Paul, in the passage under consideration, 
applies to himself. In the above declaration of our Saviour we have absolute 
proof that, in the sense in which the word "perfected" is there used, Christ did 
not become perfect until after His death and resurrection. In Heb. ii. 10, and 
v. 9, we are positively taught that Christ "was made perfect" after His 
sufferings, and in consequence of the same. Certainly Biblical scholars and all 
intelligent readers of the Bible ought not thus carelessly to interpret the 
Sacred Word. Besides, in the passage under consideration, the word 
<I>perfect</I> is unquestionably applied to Paul in the <I>positive</I> and 
<I>negative</I> sense: "Not as though I were already perfect"---"Let us, 
therefore, as many as be perfect be thus minded." It is demonstrably evident, 
that in the judgment of Paul, and that of his readers, the term perfect has at 
least two meanings, and that, according to one meaning, he regarded himself as 
not being, and according to the other as being, perfect. Before any doctrine is 
deduced from either of the above declarations, should we not carefully inquire 
for, and determine the two senses of the word perfect, as here employed, and 
then see in which of them Paul affirms himself not to be, and in which to be, 
perfect? To such an inquiry we will now address ourselves, and that as a means 
of a clear exposition of the whole passage before us. We would here, for the 
sake of being distinctly understood, state that we do not regard ourselves as 
authorised at all from the mere fact that an individual is affirmed to have been 
"perfect," to infer that he lived without ever sin fling. The <I>degree</I> of 
the moral purity implied must be determined, not by the mere force of the word, 
but by the context and other attendant circumstances and qualifying 
terms.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><I>What is 
it that Paul refers to in the words, "Not as though I had already attained, 
either were already perfect?"</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>It is to us a matter of surprise that any 
intelligent reader of the Bible should misunderstand the apostle in this 
passage. He represents himself as "following after," and "reaching forth" for 
something which he had not then "attained," or "apprehended," a something the 
attainment of which was necessary to his being "perfect" in the sense in which 
the term is there employed. What this something was is specifically slated in 
Verses 11 and 14, namely, not present perfection in holiness but "the 
<I>resurrection</I> of the dead," "the <I>prize</I> of the high calling of God 
in Christ Jesus." The prize towards which the runner on the racecourse "reached 
forth" for and "pressed towards," was not present perfection as a runner, but 
"the prize," the crown, the status of honour and glory which awaited the victor 
at the end of the course. The term rendered resurrection, is, in the form here 
employed, found but in this single instance, in the New Testament, and in this 
place unquestionably represents the higher resurrection, that of the 
<I>just</I>. No person has occasion to do anything to have a part in the general 
resurrection, as all must arise, the "just and the unjust." But to attain to a 
part in the higher resurrection---the resurrection of the just---depends upon 
conditions, to be fulfilled in this life. To fulfil these conditions, and thus 
secure this infinite and eternal good, was, as Paul himself affirms, what be was 
"following after," and "pressing towards." In reference to this great end of 
existence, as far as his personal aims were concerned, it was necessary that he 
should say to his readers, that he "had not already attained, either were 
already perfect." The condition of receiving the prize, as he well knew, and he 
supremely desired his readers to know, was, that we "finish our course," "hold 
the beginning of our confidence steadfast even to the end," that we "bold fast 
until Christ shall come," and " overcome, and keep His works unto the end." He 
was well aware, also, that believers, after they have advanced to certain 
distances in the Christian course, would be strongly tempted to assume that 
their eternity was secure, and thus to remit their diligence. How adapted to 
prevent such an error was his affirmation that he did not "count even himself to 
have apprehended," but was "following after," "pressing toward the prize," which 
could be secured but by "finishing the course" upon which he had 
entered.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><I>How his 
Grecian readers must have understood the apostle.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We must bear in mind that Paul was writing 
to Greeks, who, as he was well aware, employed the term <I>perfect</I> in two 
distinct, and separate senses in reference to those who contended for the prize 
in the racecourse---senses which they never confounded the one with the other. 
In the first sense the term represented the status of those who were victors in 
the race, had received the crown, and, as a consequence, were raised to a 
position among the most honoured of the nation. Ever after, such individuals 
were called the teleioi, the perfect, or perfected ones, and the term in all 
such cases had one fixed and exclusive meaning, to wit, perfection in honour or 
glory. Now, had Paul, in the words, "either were already perfect," employed the 
word perfect in the sense not of future perfection in glory, but of moral 
perfection, he would have utterly misled every one of the readers to whom his 
epistle was addressed, and we violate every principle of correct interpretation, 
when we understand the term in the latter, instead of in the former, 
sense.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In still another and equally definite sense, 
the Greeks were accustomed to apply the term "perfect" to the class under 
consideration; namely, riot in respect to their <I>status</I> as victors, but 
with reference to their character and conduct as <I>runners</I>. Two 
individuals, for example, appeared at the starting-place to contend for the 
prize. The eye of every Greek present would be instantly fixed upon the rivals 
to form a judgment of their character as runners. One comes forward with an 
appearance and manner indicative of the perfection of his previous training. 
Every weight and encumbrance are laid aside, and every article of dress is 
adjusted with fixed and exclusive reference to one end, the race in prospect. As 
he stands before "the cloud of witnesses" with whom he is encircled, he seems to 
be utterly unconscious of their presence. His face and eyes are turned in one 
fixed direction---the course and goal in prospect---while a position and 
attitude are assumed most favourable for the start. See that man the Greeks 
would exclaim; there is a perfect runner. The other individual appears with his 
dress and manner adjusted to attract attention and admiration. As he stands in 
the presence of the throng, his eye is fixed, not upon the course and goal in 
prospect, but is constantly turned to the scene around him. Contemptible fellow! 
the Greeks would exclaim. He will fail, of course. After the word start is 
given, the first individual is off in an instant, and, from the beginning to the 
end of the course, his eye and his thought are in one fixed direction, not upon 
what is behind, but upon the course in prospect, while every possible energy is 
pressed into requisition until the goal is reached, and the runner perfected. 
"The perfect runner, the perfect runner!" the multitude would exclaim, as they 
witnessed the conduct and manner of the man on the course. The other individual, 
when the command is given to start, is not quite ready, and loses precious 
moments here. On the way his attention is drawn, first in one direction, and 
then in another; occasionally he looks behind him to determine how much of the 
course he had passed over. "Fool! fool!" the Greeks would exclaim, "He ought to 
fail." The individual who had gained the prize in the manner explained, would 
ever after be called perfect in two distinct and separate respects---as a victor 
perfected in glory--- and as a runner for the prize. In these two distinct and 
separate senses all his Greek readers must have understood Paul in the words, 
"Not as though I were already perfect," and "Let us as many as be perfect be 
thus minded." Had he employed the first as representing his then moral and 
spiritual state, and not with reference to "the prize of the high calling," that 
is, perfection in glory which awaited him at the end of his course, he would, we 
repeat, have totally misled every one of his Greek readers, and involved himself 
in the most palpable contradiction. As rightly explained, the whole passage has 
perfect self-consistency, and the most impressive and important moral bearing. 
It clearly sets before us the personal aim which should command our supreme 
regard, the resurrection of the just, "the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus," and the spirit and manner in which the end aimed at should be 
pursued---that is, with the same singleness of purpose and object with which the 
perfect runner attained victory and perfection in glory in the ancient 
races.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><I>Paul's 
character, as a believer in Jesus, as revealed in this passage, and in the 
context.</I></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>As we have said, the term perfect does not, 
of itself; when employed in a moral sense, determine the exact state of the 
individual to whom said term is applied. In the chapter from which the passage 
under consideration is taken, we have a complete and specific and inspired 
statement of the apostle's character and life as a Christian, as they were 
revealed in his own consciousness. In the preceding part of the chapter he gives 
in a simple, didactive form, in the absence of figures of speech, a statement of 
his conscious Christian character and life. His high standing in Jews' religion, 
with all else, were "loss," of no account to him. Nor had any worldly objects 
the remotest power over him to draw him back towards the worldly life. Let us 
carefully read the whole passage: "Yea doubtless, and I count all things 
<I>but</I> loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for 
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them <I>but</I> dung, 
that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, 
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the 
righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of 
his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable 
unto his death: if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 
dead." We may safely challenge the world to designate a single defect in the 
character here portrayed, or a single element necessary to its completeness, 
that is wanted in the inspired portraiture. What has been supposed by many to be 
a confessed defect of character and experience, is a necessary element of their 
completeness and perfection. He who is seeking a supreme good, the attainment of 
which is conditioned upon his "fighting (out to the end) the good fight," 
<I>finishing</I> his course and keeping the faith," and is running a race for a 
prize not rendered secure until the goal is reached, must, at no prior moment, 
"count himself to have attained," or "to have apprehended." The immutable 
condition of the completeness of his character in such a race is, that the 
subject "forgets those things which are behind, reaches forth towards those 
things which are before, and presses toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus." The Christian character and conduct of Paul 
would have been essentially defective but for the presence of these very 
elements. Their presence, on the other hand, renders the portraiture "perfect 
and complete, wanting nothing." If we compare Paul's description of himself 
under the impressive figure of a runner for the prize of life eternal, we shall 
find that he absolutely affirms of himself every characteristic, and that in its 
strongest form, the characteristic which constituted the very highest Grecian 
ideal of a perfect runner. Nothing, undeniably, is wanting to the full 
completeness of the portraiture here drawn. It is in view of such a presentation 
that Paul adds, "Let us, as many as be perfect, be thus minded"; and, "Be ye 
followers of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." If 
any one imputes conscious sin to Paul, that is imputed to him of which he 
absolutely reveals and affirms himself not to have been conscious. Brethren, the 
revealed portraiture is before you. Will you not read it over again, and then 
heed the command, "Be ye followers of me," and "Be ye followers of me, even as I 
also am of Christ"</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=5><FONT color=#ff0000><B><A 
name=N_5_></A>JAMES XXX. 1, 2.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"My brethren, be not many masters, knowing 
that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend 
all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to 
bridle the whole body."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THE first clause in the second verse, "For 
in many things we offend all," is affirmed, by some, to be an independent 
clause, and to teach the great fact, that all men, believers included, do offend 
in many respects. If this is the right exposition of this clause, then it cannot 
be true that the grace or blood of Christ ever does or ever will, in this life, 
"Cleanse any believer from all unrighteousness." A careful examination of the 
clause will absolutely evince, that it is not an independent but conditional 
one, and that it sets before us but a single class of individuals as great 
offenders, and consequently subject to "the greater condemnation," viz., those 
who become "masters."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Before attempting a direct exposition of 
this whole passage, we will explain several words and phrases found in it. The 
original term here rendered "masters," often means not merely teachers, but 
slanderers, or critics of the manners and morals of others. The Greeks and 
Romans, as Calvin remarks, "were accustomed to call persons of the class last 
designated, masters, because they set themselves up as masters in morals," thus 
through "an unbridled tongue, setting on fire the course of nature," such a 
tongue "being itself set on fire of hell." This is evidently the sense in which 
the term under consideration is used in the passage before us. The Apostle, as 
Calvin also truly observes, employs the term "many masters," because many were 
tempted and inclined to "rush into this business." The meaning of the clause 
under consideration may be thus expressed: Do inot, a multitude of you, my 
brethren---that is, any of you---become masters, and thus by the use of the 
unbridled tongue "bite and devour one another." The meaning of this prohibition 
is identical with that of our Saviour in the words, "Judge not, that ye be not 
judged."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The original word rendered "condemnation" is 
the same as is rendered "damnation "(Matt. xxiii. 14), the words rendered 
greater in these passages having the same identical meaning. The words "Ye shall 
receive the greater damnation," and "Ye shall receive the greater condemnation" 
have undeniably the same meaning. In both cases alike most aggravated sins are 
referred to as the reason for the "damnation" on the one hand, and the 
"condemnation" on the other. The meaning of the entire verse is obviously this: 
My brethren, do not a multitude of you---that is, any of you--- become masters, 
critics, "judging," and "biting, and devouring one another." This we should 
avoid, because we know---Christ having told us so---that, if we become such, we 
shall receive "the greater condemnation," "receiving judgment without mercy, 
because we show no mercy," being ourselves judged, because we have thus judged 
others. The apostle, as all agree, is not to be understood as affirming in the 
absolute and universal sense that we all, saints and sinners included, "shall 
receive the greater condemnation." The declaration is obviously a conditional 
one, and affirms that we shall receive this condemnation, provided we become 
masters.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The term "many things" in Verse 2 is but one 
word, <I>polla</I>, in the original. This word is often employed adverbially, 
and is rendered <I>much</I>, <I>greatly,</I> <I>earnestly</I>, as "I wept 
<I>much</I>," "He besought Him much," and "He <I>straitly</I> (earnestly) 
charged charged them." In all such passages the word rendered "many things" is 
employed. The meaning of the phrase "in many things we offend all " is, as all 
will admit, this : we all offend much, or are aggravated ïfÃenIIers. The 
original word <I>gar</I>, here rendered "for," has one fixed meaning in the 
original Greek, and always implies that the clause with which it is connected 
contains the reason of what has before been affirmed or implied. The words "in 
many things we offend all," or are all of us aggravated offenders, present the 
reason why, in case we become "masters," we shall receive "the greater 
condemnation." The real and undeniable meaning of Verse I, and the first clause 
of Verse 2, may be thus expressed :---My brethren, do not a multitude---that is, 
any of you---become masters, we knowing that in that case we shall receive the 
greater condemnation," for or because we all are then great 
offenders.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In the two verses under consideration we 
have two classes of characters set in vivid and impressive contrast over against 
each other---the individuals possessed of the unbridled tongue, on the one hand, 
and those who bridle the tongue and do not "offend in word," on the other. The 
former are all aggravated offenders and will "receive the greater condemnation." 
The latter are "perfect men, and able also to bridle the whole body." No 
exposition can be more obviously valid than this.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>No exposition, on the other hand, can be 
more palpably erroneous, and opposed to all laws of sound Biblical criticism, 
than is that which makes the clause, "for in many things we offend all," an 
independent one, and consequently inclusive of the writer himself and all other 
believers. We have the same identical reasons for assuming that the preceding 
clause is thus independent and universal in its meaning, and hence to conclude 
that all believers, the apostle included, will be condemned with the wicked, as 
we have to infer from that under consideration, that all believers are, and to 
the end of time will be, great offenders. The term "for," etc., connects 
indissolubly those two clauses and renders each in the same sense, conditional, 
that the other is. If the latter clause is to be understood as affirming that 
all believers are great offenders, the former, by all the laws of 
interpretation, must be understood as affirming, with the same absoluteness, 
that all will "receive the greater condemnation." The term, "for," we repeat, 
indissolubly connects these two clauses, and renders the latter explicative of 
the former. If one is accepted as an independent clause, the other must be. If, 
on the other hand, both are accepted, as they should be, as in the same sense, 
and for the same reason, conditional, then the meaning of the whole passage 
becomes plain, and of the most 1m-portant import.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The reason why those who read the Bible but 
in the English translation fall into the mistake of regarding the words, "in 
many things we offend all," as an independent clause, and consequently, as 
designating all believers to the end of time, is that the clause, by being 
placed in the second verse, is separated seemingly from its proper connections. 
Those who read the original, however, evince the greatest carelessness when they 
fall into such a palpable error.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><A 
name=N_6_></A>I JOHN I. 8.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"If we say we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us."</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THERE are very few passages in the whole 
circle of the Word of God, that demand a more careful study than the one before 
us. We have, undeniably, in this passage, a revealed test of Christian 
character. Every individual, who, in the sense in which the words, "we have no 
sin," are here employed, does say, "I have no sin," is not, and cannot be, a 
Christian.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>To affirm of an individijal, that he is 
self-deceived, and that the truth is not in him, is in the strongest language 
known in the Bible, to affirm his unregeneracy. That the apostle intends to 
specify here a self-deceived, unregenerate person is evident also from the 
manner in which he employs similar language in the fourth verse of the next 
chapter: "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a 
liar, and the truth is not in Him." To be " a liar," to " deceive ourselves," 
which is the worst form of lying, and not to have "the truth in us," must 
designate impenitency, or no language of Scripture can do it. Let us keep in 
mind, then, that it is not a believer who may have misapprehended his real 
spiritual state, "not knowing what manner of spirit he is of," but a person void 
of the truth, and who has added self-deception to a want of integrity, that is 
here spoken of.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We would remark further, that it is of 
known, or conscious, sin of which the apostle here speaks. When the apostle 
Paul, for example, says (Gal. vi. 3), 'dlf a man think himself to be something, 
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself," the obvious meaning is, that the 
individual practises deception upon himself---that is, in blind and wilful 
disregard of conscious facts, he assumes that he is not what, in his interior 
conciousness, he really knows hiniself to be, or that he is what he, in fact, is 
conscious of not being. In a similar manner does the apostle John, in the 
passage before us, a~rm, that "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," 
that is, we deny the fact of sin, while we are really conscious of its presence. 
The class of individuals, therefore, to whom the apostle refers in this passage, 
are, without a question, such as are not and cannot be Christians at all, and 
who, in addition to this, are self-deceived hypocrites, individuals who "say we 
have no sin," when they are, in fact, conscious that they are sinners. We judge, 
that no candid reader will question the validity of our exposition thus far. The 
question which here arises, and which requires a careful and prayerful answer, 
is this: What class of self-deceived unregenerates does the apostle refer to in. 
this passage ?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>As preparatory to a true answer to this 
question, let us carefully consider the verse which next follows the one before 
us, " If we confess our sins, He ~s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." There are, undeniably, two distinct 
and separate blessings promised to our faith, when we confess sins of which we 
are conscious, namely, "the forgiveness of our sins "---and entire purification 
from the power of sin, or "cleansing from all unrighteousness." To the same 
effect, we read (Verse 7), "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, 
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
cleanseth us from all sin." To say, "we have no sin," in the sense of the words, 
as here employed, is to affirm that we have no sin to be cleansed from, to be 
forgiven, and no unrighteousness from which to be purified. We must bear in mind 
that those who say this are, as inspiration positively affirms, self-deceived 
unregenerates, and not believers who have erred in judgment in regard to "what 
manner of spirit they are of." What then is the real meaning of the apostle in 
the passage before us?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>His meaning, we reply, can by no possibility 
be this, what the passage is extensively supposed to mean, namely---If any one 
should say, "I serve God with a pure conscience"; "I exercise myself to have 
always a conscience void of offence, both toward God and toward man"; "I know 
nothing by (against) myself" or "my heart (conscience) does not condemn me," 
that such individual has "deceived himself, and the truth is not in him." This 
exposition would compel us to rank as among the self-deceived unregenerates, 
Paul and hosts of the holiest men and women of all ages. Language is without 
meaning, if Paul did not claim for himself "a pure conscience," "a conscience 
void of offence"; "a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience," or separated from 
the consciousness of present sin. The exposition before us convicts the apostle 
John also, of the most palpable contradiction and absurdity. Take two or three 
examples---" Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." Whosoever " abideth in Him," 
and says, "I have no sin," that is, am not conscious of present sin---in other 
words still, am not conscious of actually sinning at the present time---" 
deceiveth himself; and the truth is not in him." "If our heart condemn us, God 
is greater than our heart and knoweth all things," that is, much more does He 
condemn us in such a case. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we 
confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep 
his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." "If we 
say that we have no sin," that is, are not conscious of present sin--- in other 
words, if we say that "our heart condemns us not "---" we deceive ourselves, and 
the truth is not in us." Once more, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from unrighteousness still." If 
we say, after we have confessed our sins that He has "cleansed us from all our 
unrighteousness," "we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." What must 
we think of an exposition of a passage of the Word of God---an exposition which 
necessarily and undeniably imputes such contradictions to the Holy Spirit 
through His inspired apostle? We must bear in mind that it is to verify the 
doctrine of the present cï~Iscßïõs sin of all believers, that the passage under 
consideration is adduced, as the use made of Rom. vii, and other kindred 
passages evinces. Permit us in all sincerity to ask those who press this passage 
into the service of that doctrine, whether they are ready to accept and adopt, 
and that openly and avowedly, the deduction to which that exposition undeniably 
leads, namely, that all those who profess to "serve God with a pure conscience"; 
"a conscience void of offence," and affirm that "their heart does not condemn 
them," have deceived themselves and the truth is not in them, that is, are 
self-deceived unregenerates? Must there not be a fundamental error in an 
exposilion which leads inevitably to such a conclusion as that?</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Let us now see if we cannot find a class of 
persons who did, at that very time, arnrm openly, "We have no sin," the class, 
consequently, to whom the apostle must have referred. The Jew, at that time, 
every where openly confronted the offer of pardon and eternal life through "the 
blood" (or atonement) "of Christ," with tbe denial that he (the Jew) was a 
sinner, and needed such salvation. When told that" the blood of Jesus Christ His 
Son cleanseth us from all sin," his (the Jew's) reply was, "I have no sin" to be 
cleansed from, and do not need the pardoning grace offered through Christ. While 
the Jew rnaIIe this denial, he was, in reality, as inwardly conscious of the 
fact of personal sinfulness, as any other individual. Yet, he boldly made the 
deI~II, and thereby, prevented multitudes from embracing the truth, and seduced 
weak believers from the faith. To refute and rebuke this fatal error, an error 
which Paul refutes in the first three chapters of Romans, is the object of the 
apostle John (i John i. 7---Iï) : "If we say," he says, "that we have no sin," 
Verse 8, or repeating the same thought in another form, Verse Iï: "If we say 
that we have not sinned," "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," on 
the one hand, and "make God a liar," on the other. In saying, "I have no sin," 
or which means the same thing, in. saying, "I have not sinned," the Jew stood 
revealed as the identical character to whom the apostle must have referred. In 
saying, "I have no sin," or "I have not sinned," the Jew belied the absolute 
testimony of his own interior consciousness, on the one hand, and thus betrayed 
a total want of real integrity, on the other---that is, he had "deceived 
himself; and the truth was not in him." Íï man can exist without the 
consciousness of the fact that he has sinned. Íï man consequently can say, "I 
have no sin," or "I have not sinned," without revealing by the utterance itself; 
the fact that he has "deceived himself, and the truth is not in him," in other 
words, that he is self-deceived and unregenerate.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The use of the present tense, "If we say we 
have no sin," evinces, it is said, that the apostle is speaking of present, and 
not of past, sin. Here we have the only show of evidence that can be adduced 
from this passage in favour of continued conscious sin in all believers. In 
reply, we remark:</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. Well-known Greek usage required, in this 
case, the use of this tense, although past sin was referred to. In reference to 
forgiveness, cleansing, &amp;c., this one tense is exclusively employed. In 
representing, in such connections, the denial of the fact of sin, the same 
tense, whether present or past sin is referred to, should be emñIïíed.~ 2. It is 
perfectly common</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>* We have in Jobn xx. 29 a very striking 
example of what is called the Greek law of assimilation in the use of tenses. 
"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed ; 
blessed are they 'vho have not *'een, and yet have believed." The real meaning 
evidently is: "Blessed shall they be who shall not see Me, and yet shall 
bïIi~íe." Why is the past tense used to express this truth? Because that tense 
had been used in speaking of tI~e faith of Thomas. So in the case under 
consideration. The present tense is used in all previous statements. That tense 
should be used in this case, though past sin is referred to. So in Romans vii. 
14, after the apostle had said, "The law is spiritual," he was required by the 
law of the language in which he was speaking, to say "I am carnal," though he 
ref erred to his past legal state and experience. Nothing can be more 
unauthorised than a determination of time by mere tense.]</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>in the New Testament, in speaking of past 
sins and past events, to employ the present tense. When Paul says, for example, 
"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I ÁÌ chief," he 
referred, as no one doubts, to the sins ---vhich he had perpetrated prior to his 
conversion. When he said again, "I HAVE whereof I may glory," he referred to 
acts performed many years then gone by. When Christ said, "Let him that is 
without sin among you first cast a stone at her," He obviously meant, Let him do 
this who is conscious of never having sinned. Nothing can be more obvious than 
is the fact that mere tense determines nothing whatever in regard to the 
question, whether present or past sin is referred to. 3. But, above all, the 
words, "I bave no sin," and "I have not sinned," were the identßca~ forms of 
expression which the Jew, and all who embraced his error, were accustomed to 
employ in denying their need of the grace of God through Christ. When pressed to 
confess his sins and seek pardon and cleansing through the blood of Christ, the 
impious reply was in these very words, "I have not sinned," or "I have no sin," 
and do not need the pardon and cleansing to which you ôefer. The apostle would 
not have represented the case of the Jew as it was, had he employed any other 
forms of expression, in representing the denial under consideration. No shadow 
of reason exists, therefore, for pressing the passage under consideration into 
the service of the doctrine of the continued conscious sin of all believers; nor 
can any revealed truth be more evident than is the conclusion that the apostle 
had no thought or intent to verify that doctrine when he penned the passage 
under consideration.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#ff0000><B><A 
name=N_7_></A>ANOTHER EXPOSITION OF THE SAME</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#ff0000><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT 
color=#ff0000><B>PASSAGE.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000><FONT 
size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Áô the time when the above Exposition had 
been prepared for the 'Banner of Holiness.' the following very able and 
conclusive one from an anonymous writer was handed us, and the latter instead of 
the tormer was published. In reading both these expositions together, the reader 
will not fail to attain to a right understanding of this very important 
passage.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us."---.-l John i. 8.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>To whom do these words primarily apply? 
Under what circumstances were they written? What was their design?</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>These words are commonly detached from their 
connection and applied to all Christians without regard to the circumstances 
which called them forth. The assertion "we have no sin" (here rebuked) is 
assumed to be identical in. its nature with the expression by devoted Christians 
of the belief that God can and does in this life sanctify them wholly, and 
ñres~ríe them blameless by His faithfulness to his Word.</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The real meaning and application of this 
eighth verse of the first chapter of the 1st Epistle of John must be found by 
close attention to its connection and to the general scope of the epistle. The 
apostle, throughout this epistle, defends the truth against the false teachers 
of his day, whom he designates anti-Christs, false prophets, seducers. He writes 
(Chap. ii. 4, ~), "He that saith I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments is 
a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily 
is the love of God perfected." Again (ninth and tenth verses), "He that saith he 
is in the light and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." "He that 
loveth his brother abideth in the light." Twenty-second verse--- '~ Who is a 
liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" "He is anti-Christ that 
denieth the Father and the Son."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>That the Apostle, in all the warnings and 
declarations against false doctrine and evil practice in this epistle, had in 
view false teachers, we find by his own words---" Even now are there many 
Antichrists." "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce 
you." "Little children, let no man deceive you." The apostle proceeds, Chapter 
iv. 2, 3, "Every spirit that confesseth tbat Jesus Christ is come iii the flesh 
is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the 
flesh is not of God." Chapter v. io, "He that believeth not God bath made him a 
liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son."</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Thus it is evident, that one great object in 
this epistle is to warn believers against fatal error; partic'ilarty as to the 
rejection. of Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ, the Saviour from sin, and to 
guard them from the sad consequences of such error.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Now there is no real ground to suppose that 
the warnings against error and its result found iii the first chapter of this 
epistle, differ in their nature and design from those that follow throughout the 
epistle. The rebukes in this chapter, Verses 6, 8, io, are given in almost the 
same words as the rebI~kes in the succeeding chapters. Observe, first chapter 
sixth verse, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, 
we lie and do not the truth." Eighth verse," If we say that we have no sin, we 
deceive ourselves and the ti uth is not in us." Tenth verse, " If we say that we 
have not sin ned, we make ¹Im a Iiá,, and Ills word is not in us."</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>These three verses point out evils then 
existing, and cannot be separated from each other; they are directed against the 
same persons, perverters of the truth. No Christian could so walk in darkness as 
to lie and do not the truth; no Christian could say we have not sinned; no 
Christian could say in the sense intended by the apostle, we have no sin. The 
use of the personal pronoun we, for the purpose of warning, is not unusual. It 
is so used, Romans ---ri. i, "What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, 
that grace may abound? God forbid." It is used in like manner by the apostle 
John.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>It is observable in this epistle, that when 
the apostle warns believers against the insidious evil of false professions of 
holiness and fellowship with God, as in Chapter i., he uses the term "we;" but 
when he speaks of open sin and denial of Christ, he uses the more general terms 
he and whosoever. "Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. 
Little children, let no man deceive you" (Chapter iii. 6, 7). Doubtless among 
the many anti-Christs of his time, there were those who added evil practice to 
false doctrine.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The seventh and ninth verses of this first 
chapter are counter statements against error. The false profession of fellowship 
with God in the sixth verse, is contrasted with the true experience of the 
seventh verse. "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son clean seth us 
from all sin." The self-sumcient denial of sin in the eigth and tenth verses is 
contrasted with the penitent confession or sin in the ninth verse: "H we confess 
our sin , He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness." We find similar counter statements against error and sin, 
throughout this epistle.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We see, then, that all the warnings iii this 
epistle (the first chapter included), have the same application and design.; 
they point to seducers, and are designed to counteract their teachings and evil 
example. Warning, therefore, is given in. the eighth verse of chapter one, not 
against the claim of personal salvation from sin by believirs; but against the 
fatal error of affirming after the example of seducers, "we have no sin." 
Rejecting, as did these false teachers, Jesus as the Christ, no marvel that they 
should say, We have no sin---we need no Saviour.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Let us now carefu~ly consider the statements 
of this epistle concerning sa1 ation by Christ. No words can be more express and 
full as to holiness of heart and life, than those in this epistle, "Walking even 
as he walked, "purifying Himself even as He is pure," "abiding in Him," "sinning 
not," "righteous even as He is righteous."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>With the strongest denunciations of error 
and sin are combined in this epistle, as is usual in the Scriptures, the most 
gracious expressions of mercy, privilege, and love, to the penitent and 
believing.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Thus, by the correct application of the 
eighth verse of the first chapter of this epistle, we are prepared for its 
teachings throughout; but its misapplication sets this verse in direct 
opposition to the highest truths of the Gospel as set forth in this epistle, and 
in other parts of God's Word.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>So powerfully has this been felt, that it 
has been. falsely inferred that the strong expressions of this epistle 
concerning holiness and friendship with God, belong, not to the Christian's life 
on earth, but point solely to an ideal state or character unattainable here. 
These strong expressions, it is said, result simply from the vision of this 
beautiful but ideal Christian character in the apostle's mind. We dare not so 
handle the word of God! Restore this eighth verse to its true purpose, and a due 
connection and consistency is preserved in every part of the 
epistle.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>To detach the eighth verse from its most 
necessary connection, and to use it in its isolation for a totally opposite 
purpose to that for which it was designed, is most misleading and injurious. It 
---vas IIesignecI to rebuke the fatal error of rejecting the record of God 
concerning sin, and the need ot salvation. It has been used to reprove devoted, 
bumble Christians, for their belief in the power of Christ not only to cleanse, 
but to keep them c1ea~.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Our familiar sins lose their true aspect by 
repetition; but they are evil and bitter still; neíertheIes~ they have an 
apparent justificatioii by the words, so. often misapplied, "If've say we have 
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The term ideal, applied to the high standard 
of holiness given in God's Word, places practically the standard of present 
holiness in the I~ðc~s of n~an. If God's standard is an ideal standard, then 
every Christian, earnest or otherwise, must judge for himself, how much sin and 
failure may possibly b~ r'~cóncißabIe witk the Christian's hope and Christian 
character.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><A name=N_8_></A>JOHN XIII. 
1-17.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"No'v before the feast of the passover, when 
Jesus knew that his hour ---vas come that He should depart out of this world 
unto the Father, having loved His own which were k th~ world, Ho loved them 
õ~Itï the end.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"And supper being ended, the devil having 
now put into tlo lieai·t of Judas iscariot, Simon's so; to betray Him; "Jesus 
knowing that the Father Lad given all things into His hands, and that He was 
come from God, and went to God; 'Çó riseth from supper, and laid aside His 
garments; and took a towel end girded Himself.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Alter that He poureth water into a basin, 
and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to 'vipe them with the towel 
'vk.orewith He was girded.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>'~ T1ien cometh Ho to Simon Peter ; and 
Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Je~õs am'wered and said unto him, What I do 
thou knowost not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"ÑI~ter saith unto Him, Tboa shalt never 
wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with 
Me.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>'Ç Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my 
fect only, but also my hands and my head.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>'·.Jesus saith unto Him, He that is washed 
needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean 0 y whit; and ye are clean, but 
not all.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"For He knew who should betray Him; 
therefore åaßII He, Ye are not all clean.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"So after He had washed their feet, and had 
taken His ~armeõts, and was set down agaie, He said unto them, Know ye what I 
have done to you?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Õá call Me Master and Lord: aLd ye say 
well; for so Iam.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"If I then, your Lord and Master, have 
wished your feet, ye also ought to waib one another's feet.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"For I have given you an example, that ye 
should do as I have done to you.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant 
is not greater than his lord; neither He that is sent greater than He 
that</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>sent Him.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye 
do them."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>«THB same night in which He was betrayed," 
Jesus engaged in two transactions of ever memï-~ rable interest, the ceremony 
above described, and the instituting of the "Lord's Supper." Each is of infinite 
importance in itself, and each, in its intent, is entirely distinct and separate 
from the other. The object of the latter was, and is, to render ïmni~ present in 
thought our relations to Christ. "This is My body which is given for you." "This 
cup is the New Testament in My blood which is shed for you." The equally 
specific object of the former, on the other hand, is to elucidate and impress 
the duty of believers one toward another. "If I then, your Master and Lord, have 
washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you 
an example that ye shouid do as I have done unto you. If ye know these things, 
happy are ye if ye do them." It is of great importance that, in reading this 
chapter, we should keep fully in view the distinct and separate meaning and 
intent of these two services, one of which is to be perpetually observed in the 
Church, while the other stands out as a finished service, a service the revealed 
spirit and meaning of which are to be received and copied by all believers in 
their relations, duties, and services, one toward another.</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>As preparatory to a full understanding and 
appreciation of these two services, we would remark that two truths the truths 
under consideration, stand out with the greatest conceivable prominence in all 
the teachings of our Saviour---the relations and responsibilities of believers 
to Himself; and their relative duties one toward another. "I am the way, and the 
truth, and the life"; "Abide in Me, and I in you"; "Without Me ye can do 
nothing"; "If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye 
will, and it shall be done unto you"; and "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they 
may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Equally 
abundant and explicit were His instructions and admonitions in regard to the 
relations and duties of believers one toward another; "Whosoever shall be great 
among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever will be the chiefest, shill be 
servant of all"; "For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many"; 'Inasmõch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto 
Me"; "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold 
water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise 
lose his reward"; "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye 
have love one towards another;" and "I have been among you as one that 
serveth."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>This last class of duties the disciples were 
slow to learn. They entered the service of Christ with the distinct apprehension 
that their faith in Him was to be implicit, and their subjection to His will 
absolute. They expected from Him, however, the establishment of a worldly 
kingdom, in which there would be "thrones, and dominions, and principalities, 
and powers," and in which some would be greater than others, and the occupancy 
of the cbiefest places became to these disciples objects of jealous desire. Up 
to the evening prior to the crucifixion, "there was a strife among them which of 
them should be accounted the greatest." This spirit essentially unfitted them 
for the kingdom and service to which they were called---a kingdom in which 
ambition, pride, and covetousness of place and position, were to be unknown, in 
which serz'ice constitutes greatness, and he that makes himself the least of all 
and the servant of all is the greatest of all. Á fundamental aim of our Saviour 
in all His teachings was to eradicate utterly the former, that old spirit, and 
inspire and perfect the latter, the new aÙd Divine spirit, in the hearts and 
lives of all believers, His immediate disciples especially.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In regard to the character of these two 
services, we would observe that they difler in fori;z from any ordinances known 
under the Old Dispensation. You will search in vain throughout the ancient 
ritual for any ordinance corresponding in form to the Lord's Supper. The same is 
true of the washing of the feet. "Diverse 'vashings," as emblematical of 
external and internal purification are prescribed, but the washing of the feet 
constitutes none of them. The precept requiring the priest, before going into 
the holy place to bear the vessels of the Lord, to wash his hands and feet---the 
only instance we can find in which washing the feet is mentioned---presents no 
exception to these statenients. Such a precept no more implies moral defilement 
than does the command, "Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where 
thou standest is holy ground." The services being new both in intent and form, 
their design can be learned but from the words of our Saviour Himself. Of the 
Supper, we need not speak, its intent being well known. That of washing the feet 
is thus explained by our Saviour :---" So after He had washed their feet, and 
had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what 
I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If 
I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one 
another's feet. For I have given you an example, that he should do as I have 
done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his 
lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these 
things, happy are ye if ye do them." This affecting service, like that of the 
Supper, had a single purpose and object, its design being to elucidate and 
render plain to all minds the form and direction which mutual love should take 
among His disciples. Christ was in the world on a mission of love, a love which 
rendered Him a servant of servants to the least as well as the greatest of all 
His disciples. Every interest of theirs was as tenderly dear to Him "as the 
apple of His eye,'~ and any service by which any real want of any disciple could 
be met was sacred in His regard. The object of our Saviour is to induce in all 
believers a mutual love the same in kind as actuated His entire life. "This is 
my commandment, that ye love one another, As I have loved you." The object of 
the service under consideration, as our Saviour has explained it, was to set 
this commandment in distinct visibility before our minds.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>And how adapted was this service to this 
great end. The washing of the feet was then a universal necessity. When done by 
others, it was a service assigned to the lowest order of servants known at that 
time. A readiness for such a service, a readiness inspired by love, implied a 
full readiness for any kind of service by which any existing necessity might be 
met. It implied the supreme control in the heart of the same spirit which 
rendered our Saviour a universal "ministering spirit" to human necessity, 
inducing him to "bear our griefs and carry our sorrows." To reveal the spirit 
which dwelt in Him, and actuated His life, and to induce the same form of love, 
and readiness for service in all His disciples, one towards another, He assumed 
on that ever memorable occasion, the lowest of all forms of necessary service, 
the washing of His disciples' feet, adding the melting words, "I have given you 
an example" (an exemplification of the spirit of mutual love and service which 
must actuate your lives), "that ye should do as I have done unto 
you."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Verse Iï Rx$ained.</FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We are now prepared clearly to understand 
the meaning of our Saviour in the following words in Verse Iï: "He that is 
washed needeth not (hath no necessity) save to wash his feet, but is clean every 
whit." Before coming to the place, "the bodies of the diciples had been washed 
with pure water." On the way, however, of necessity, there feet had become 
covered with dust. As far as 'vashing was concerned, there was present in the 
company but one necessity, the washing of their feet. Ôï reveal the Spirit of 
which each one must be possessed relatively to all the others, wherever and 
whenever any real necessity should appear, Christ took the place of the lowest 
servant to meet the one common want of all present. When, in the performance of 
that service, He came to Peter, the latter, under the in1~õence of the spirit of 
p]ace,</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>position, arid station, objected, and 
finally refused to receive such a service at the hand of his Master and Lord. 
When informed, however, that he must acquiesce, or "have no part in Christ," 
then, under the inihience of the Ritualistic idea, that there was some special 
emcacy in the service itself, Peter exclaimed---" Lord, not my feet only, but 
also my hands and my head." The reñIÕ of our Saviour was intended to make known 
the real meaning arid intent of the service, and that meaning and intent may be 
thus expressed: Should I do as you say, Peter, that is, "wash your hands, and 
your head," I should do for you a useless omce, and thus deprive the present 
service of all its meaning. My object is not to impress you with the duty of 
doing to one another what is not needful, but of doing, with an ever-ready mind, 
what is needful. As far as your hands and heads, and bodies are concerned, you 
were washed befóre you came heiie. Your feet excepted, "you have no need of 
washing, but are clean every whit." As far as these are concerned, however, you 
have need. To meet this one necessity I do the part of a servant, and I do so, 
not to meet a present necessity merely, but tó give you an example that "ye 
should do as Ihave done to you." You are not called upon to do, one to another, 
"'hat is not needed but to be ever ready, and prompt, and hearty, t~ bring to 
one another help whenever and wherever it may be needed. This undeniably is the 
true meaning and intent of our Saviour in the words õnd~r 
cïnsiIIerItiïð.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Meaning of Verse 8.</FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>When Peter objected to the humiliation of 
his Master and Lord in doing for the former the menial service under 
consideration, the Saviour replied, that although His disciple might not then 
understand the meaning of what was being done, he ---vould fully comprehend it 
in time to conic. On Ñeter~ s refusal to accept the washing at the hands of 
Christ, saying peremptorily, "Thou shalt never wash my feet," the Saviour 
replied in these words:</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in 
me." The immediate object of our Saviour in these words is obvious, to wit, to 
induce Peter to reverse his avowed determination that Christ should not wash his 
feet, and to induce in the disciple a cordial assent that the Master should do 
to him as He had done to the others. Two constructions have been put upon our 
Saviour's words. According to the first, the term "wash " is supposed to be used 
symbolically of moral and spiritual purification. The meaning of our Saviour 
would then be, 'dlf I'vash thee not," that is, do not cleanse or purify your 
soul from sin, " thou hast no part in me." While this construction implies a 
most essential truth, the truth implied contains no reason whatever for the 
change of purpose which our Saviour designed to produce. The fact of dependence 
upon Christ for moral and spiritual purification presents in itself no reason 
why Christ should perform for His disciples the servile office of feet~ washing, 
or why they should consent that He should do it. Besides, as already shown, 
feet-washing was not emblematical of real moral arid spiritual purification, and 
presented no occasion for an allusion to that subject.</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>To understand our Saviour aright, we must 
bear in mind that we have here the second open rebuke which Christ had received 
from that disciple. On, account of the first, the Saviour "rebuked Peter saying, 
Get thee behind Me, Satan." On this occasion, notwithstanding our Saviour's 
assurance that He was acting in perfect wisdom in what He was doing, and that 
although the reason for His conduct was not then known, it would be understood 
afterwards, an assurance which ought to have induced the most ready and cordial 
acquiescence on the part of every disciple, Peter, assuming the attitude of 
stern rebuke and refusal, said, "Thou shalt never wash my feet." Here was 
evinced a state of mind, a pride of position and place, and of self-assurance, 
utterly incompatible with real discipleship with Christ, a state which must be 
put away, or the disciple and his Master niust part company. Of this fact the 
Saviour informs Peter in the words under consideration. The real meaning of 
these words may be thus expressed: "If I wash thee not," that is, if you 
continue to place your wisdom above mine arid your will against mine, by 
refusing to accept this service from me, "thou hast no part," and it will be 
impossible for thee to have anypart "in me." In other words, the spirit in me 
which prompts me to render this service, and the spirit in you which prompts you 
to refuse to accept this service at my hands, are incompatible one with the 
other. On the other hand the spirit in you which prompts this refusal must not 
only be wholly put away, but you must come into such full and cordial spmpathy 
with the spirit in me which prompts this service, as to induce in you a free 
consent that I shall wash your feet, or you cannot be my disciple. The rebuke 
and admonition were eI~ectßíe. All pride of place and position, and of 
self-will, and self-assurance, died out in the heart of Peter, and he cried out. 
"Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>'&amp;ßßsañj5rehensiïn of Verse 
Iï.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>To the reflecting mind it is a sad thought 
that the leading impression which very many believers receive from the most 
instructive and sanctifying portions of the sacred Word is little else but the 
single apprehension that, in all the circumstances and relations of life, they 
will sin. They are required to "hate even the garnients spotted with the flesh"; 
yet, in the study of the Scriptures, they are ever eagle-eyed to find, in all 
leading passages, something to fasten upon their minds the conviction that go 
where and do what they will, they will in some form "deflle their garments "---a 
conviction which of itself, if nothing else would, renders it absolutely certain 
that they will do "this evil thing and bitter," which "God hates." The scene 
presented in the passage before us, for</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>example, embodies and exemplifies in the 
clearest and most explicit manner conceivable the spirit and principle of all 
Christ's teachings in regard to the relations and duties of believers one 
towards another. Yet the glory, beauty, and moral significancy of the whole 
transaction are thrown into a deep eclipse by an inference drawn from the single 
expression---" He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean 
every whit." Here we learn this great lesson, exclaim not a few readers of the 
sacred Word, that we can never in this life be free from sin. However far the 
cleansing process may have gone, some part---the feet at least---'vill need to 
be cleansed. And this is all that many believers see in the whole transaction. 
We never heard the passage referred to by this class of individuals but to 
sustain this one doctrine. Permit us to say here that no doctrine can be farther 
from any passage than this is from the transaction under consideration. There is 
not a word or thought in the passage that looks in the direction of that 
doctrine.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Nor does this idea of dust adhering to the 
feet have the remotest adaptation to symbohise the relations of sin to the soul. 
The idea is never em---~ ployed in the Old Testament as a symbol at all, dust on 
the feet not implying ceremonial uncleanness. In the case before us, considered 
as a figure, it implies a distinction of sins---as great and small---those which 
do and those which in reality do not defile the soul. The Bible makes no such 
distinction. Every sin alike, whatever its form, is a seed of death in the vital 
centre of the soul, and must be removed by the blood of sprinkling, or death 
will ensue. Nothing can be of more subverting tendency than is this misuse of 
the passage under consideration.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The clause, " Ye are 
clean."</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>When the purpose of the service had been 
fully explained, and understood by the disciples, the Saviour said, "Ve are 
clean, but not all." His obvious meaning may be thus expressed: You, one 
excepted, have comprehended and appreciated this service, have put away the 
spirit of rivalry, selfsumciency, and self-exaltation, and have become possessed 
of the "unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace," the spirit of mutual love 
and service, that I desire. If we trace the subsequent history of these then 
sorrowing disciples, we shall find the above statement strictly true. Never, 
from that tiiTie onward, did the spirit of division or rivalry have place among 
them. On the other hand, they were together and one in their sorrow at their 
Lord's sufierings and death, one in their gladness "when they saw the Lord," 
after His resurrection, one in the great joy with which they returned from Mount 
Olivet to Jerusalem, after His ascension, one in the accord with which they 
"waited the Promise of the Father," until the Pentecost, and one in their aims 
and endeavours when they went forth "under the Power of the Spirit" to fulfil 
their great commission. In all their writings, the two great truths represented 
by the Supper, on the one hand, and this service, on the other, have the same 
prominence that they have in the instructions and example of our Saviour. In the 
Churches which they planted---the few excepted who "caused divisions and 
offerices am~ðg them contrary to the doctrine which they had received "---" all 
were of the same heart and mind" in regard to Christ, on the one hand, and to 
"brotherly love" on the other. During the apostolic and mërtyr age, this is 
recorded to the glory of the Churches, that none were more assiduous in caring 
for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted, more ready to "wash the saints' 
feet," and to render aiiy form of service, high or low, by which Christ could be 
glorified. His kingdom advanced, and the wants of believers met, than were the 
most delicate and royally-educated females. As the world looked on, even the 
heathen exclaimed, "See how these Christians love one ~nïther." All admire and 
eulogise such things. '---Happy are we if we do them."</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Will the teachers and friends of the 
doctrine of the "Higher Life" suffer from us a word of exhortation, before we 
close this article. If we have made ourselves understood, every reader has 
distinctly before his mind our apprehensions of the doctrine under 
consideration, and the supreme end towards which all our teachings tend, namely, 
"the perfecting of the saints "in this "excellent spirit"---the spirit of 
absolute supremacy of faith, love, and obedience towards Christ, and of devotion 
to His glory and kingdom, on the one hand, and which, on the other, renders Him 
greatest in the sanctified family who renders himself" the least of all, and the 
servant of all," and induces in all a common readiness "iii love to serve one 
another." This being our common aim, and our eye being single to it, will not 
"our God supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus?" 
Will He not " make all grace abound toward us, that we, always having 
all-sufficiency for all things, may abound unto every good work?"</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>---</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_9_></A>MATTHEW VI. 
12.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"And forgive us our debts, as 
we forgive our debtors."</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THOSE who employ this passage to verify the 
continued conscious sinfulness of all believers in this life reasoii thus 
:---The fact that this petition is found in this prayer implies that all 
believers at all times have present sins to confess, and for which to seek 
forgiveness. The necessary inference is that in this life they will never be 
free from present, actual, conscious sin. The assumption that lies at the basis 
of this deduction is this, that this form of prayer is to be repeated in 
substance by all believers under all circumstances to the end of time, and that 
consequently each blessing designated as an object of prayer will ever lie 
before the mind in the future as such object, and never as an accomplished fact. 
Take away this assumption, and no basis whatever remains for this inference. If 
this inference is correct, the following consequences must be accepted as 
absolutely valid :---i. The kingdom of God, while the world shall stand, will 
never come, the occurrence of that which has actually transpired undeniably not 
being an object of prayer. 2. Our Saviour requires the Church universal at all 
times and in all circumstances to pray specifically for 'vhat He requires all in 
common to believe will never occur, and that it is not the will of God that it 
should occur, namely, that "God's will shall be done in eartb, as it is in 
heaven." In other words, Christ, in fact and form, requires us to pray for a 
specific blessing, and then hangs such weights upon our faith as to render it 
impossible for us to pray in faith for that blessing, it being impossible for us 
to" ask in faith, nothing wavering," for that which we believe---that Christ has 
by a special revelation placed beyond the circle of hope. 3. The time will never 
come when every believer will not constantly be the subject of wrong-doing from 
others. If the petition "forgive us our debts" implies that we shall ever 
continue to sin, the words "as we forgive our debtors" imply that we and every 
other believer to the end of time will be continuously sinned against. 4~ It is 
absolutely improper for us to pray for the forgiveness of past sins---sins of 
which we have repented, and which God has forgiven.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Such are the necessary consequences of the 
deduction which is drawn from the petition under cïnsiIIeratiïð. When we shall 
have demonstrated any one of these consequences, and especially each of them, to 
be in itself untrue, we shall have absolutely invalidated this deduction. Now, 
every one of these consequences, as can very readily be shown, involves a vital 
error. We will examine all of these consequences, beginning with the last. Let 
us for a moment consider the following inspired prayers in regard to sins long 
before repented of and forgiven, prayers dictated and recorded by inspiration of 
the Spirit of God :---" Ïremember not against us former iniquities " (Psa. 
]xxix. 8). " Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions : 
according to Thy ßI~iercy, remember Thou me for Thy goodness' sake, ÏLord" (Psa. 
xxv. 7). We deduce this vital truth from these passages that, while '' the 
eternal judgment "is before us, it is right, proper, and a IIõty, as past sins 
come to remembrance, to confess them anew, and to put up our prayers that they 
may not be reIr~emberecI at the present time, nor at that day. Nor does any one 
know that God does not see reasons why, 'vheu we receive injuries from others, 
we should not recall our own former sins, and pray that God will forgive our 
debts, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Nor does or can any one know 
but that it may be right, proper, and best for us---while liable to be sinned 
against by others, and ---vhile the hour is approaching when "we must all stand 
before the judgment-seat of Christ," even though we, like Paul, may now 1' know 
nothing against ourselves "---to pray daily, "Forgive us our debts, as we 
forgive our debtors;" and this, we believe, is the real lesson which cur Saviour 
intended to teach us through this petition. No deduction can be more 
presuniptuous, unauthorised, and of more dangerous tendency than is this, to 
infer from this petition that all believers to the end of time will in this life 
be in the continuous practice of conscious sin.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In regard to the third consequence, we would 
observe that the period is distinctly revealed 'vhen believers will cease to be 
subject to injury from others, and when none can have OccasiOn to say, "Forgive 
us our debts as we forgive our debtors." The time is coming "wben violence shall 
no more be heard in the land," and "there shall be none to hurt or destroy in 
all God's holy mountains." There will, at that time, be no more occasion for 
saints on earth than for saints in heaven to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we 
forgive our debtors." As the words, "as ~íe forgive our debtors," do not imply 
that each believer will be continuously sinned against by others, so the words, 
"Forgive us our debts," do not and cannot imply that every such believer will, 
while life shall last, be continuously sinning against both God and man. We may 
safely challenge the world to desigmite a more unauthorized and presumptious 
deduction from any passage than is the one under consideration.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In regard to the second consequence, we 
observe that the petition, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven," 
presents ground infinitely more solid for the inference that God's will has 
been, and will be, thus done, than does that under consideration for the dogma 
which has been deduced from said petition. The former must accord with the will 
of God. The latter presents not a shadow of a foundation for the inference 
deduced from it.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In regard to the first consequence we would 
say, that "the kingdom of God will come." The petition, "Thy kingdom come," 
therefore, does not imply that it never, in the history of the race, will ha'e 
come. So the petition, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," does 
not, and cannot imply that every believer will to the end of time, as far as 
this life is concerned, be continuously sinning both against God and man, or 
will as continuously be sinned against by his fellow men. No, Reader, as long as 
the sea shall say of wisdom, "it is not in me," and the deep shall respond, "it 
is not in me," so long will every wise interpreter of the word of God afI~rm 
that the petition under consideration is not the dwelling-place of the dogma 
which has been deduced from that petition.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_10_></A>PSALM 
CXIX. 96.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Ihave seen an end of all 
perfection, but Thy commandment is exceeding broad."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>FEW passages are more frequently cited than 
this, and generally it is cited for one specilk and exclusive purpose---to 
verify the doctrine of the continued conscious sinfulness in this life of all 
saints and believers in Jesus from the beginning to the end of time. This 
knowledge the sacred 'vriter obtained, it is assumed, by looking into the 
commandment, and viewing its broadness, or the extent of its requirements. By 
looking into " the commandment" he saw that all /iumaiz perfection 'vould 
contain in it the element of conscious sin. Let us now look directly into the 
passage itself, and endeavour first to ascertain its real meaning, and then to 
determine its applications.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The Reader will observe that the words "but" 
and " is" are in this passage put in italics to in dicate that there are no such 
words in the original. Leaving out these, the verse would read thus : ' I have 
seen an end of all perfection; thy commandment exceeding broad "---that is, "Thy 
commandment," how "exceeding broad" it is ! This does and must give the more 
exact import of the original.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The original word rendered "end" has, 
according to the highest authorities and Scripture usage, among others, two 
distinct and separate meanings---namely, the termination or boundaries of 
objects---and filling out, completion, consummation, or fulfilment. In this 
second sense the word is em~)1ïyed (Hab. ii. 3, and Daniel viii. 17) to 
represent the filling out, completion, consummation or fulfilment of prophecy. 
The same idea the Saviour represents in the words, " One jot or tittle shall not 
pass from the law until all be fulfilled," and "the Scripture must be fõ1~Çed 
"---that is, whatever is affirmed in " the law" or "Scripture " shall and must 
be filled out, accomplished, consummated. Understanding the word " end" in the 
first sense (that of limitation , the meaning of the passage would be this : "1 
have seen the limit or boundary of all perfection; all comes within the broad 
circle of Thy commandment." In other words still, perfection in no form can 
extend beyond the broadness or limitless application of Thy commandment. 
Understood in the second sense--- that of filling out, completion, consummation, 
or fulfilment---the passage 'vould mean this : " I have seen the filling out or 
consummation of all perfection." This I perceive in "Thy commandment." How 
"exceedingly broad" it is! Perfection can exist nowhere, in men or in angels, in 
any creature, in time or eternity---perfection which is not implied and included 
in "Thy commandment." In. that commandment, therefore, we perceive the comñle~ 
tiori or consummation of all perfection. Let us now consider the original term 
here rendered perfection. This word, Tich-lah, is found nowhere in the 
Scriptures but in this single passage, and is derived from a word now obsolete, 
a word 'vhose meaning is unknown, or a mere matter of opinion. As regards the 
real meaning of the word here, authorities dilTer, some rendering it 
"perfection," and others, "hope, confidence." There is one other word, and only 
one, Tach-leeth, which wa~ derived from the same root as Tich-lah. The word 
Tach-leeth is used five times in the Old Testament. We will refer to all these 
passages. "From the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end (extremity) of 
the House of Eliashib (Zech. iii. 2 i). Here the word means boundary or limit. 
"Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?" (Job. xi. 7). Here the word 
reñre~sents completeness or perfection of creature lcnowkdge, and not the 
character of God. It would be equally proper to ask, Canst thou find out the 
material creation to perfection? as to put the same question in respect to God. 
</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"He hath cïônñassed the waters with bounds, 
until the day and night come to an end," that is, as Gesenius renders it, unto 
the end of light with darkiiess, i.e., where the light terminates in darkness" 
(Job xxvi. io). "He (God) searcheth out all 5IrfeItºïn, the stones of darkness, 
and the shadow of death" (Job xxviii. 3). The obvious meaning here is: God 
searcheth even to all extremities, that is, to the IIeeñest recesses of the 
earth. In other words, the term Tach-leeth, perfection, here represents the 
absolute knowledge which God has of His own works. ' I hate them with a perfect 
hatred" (Ps. cxxix. 22). In this passage the term perfect represents the 
intensity of the hatred, and not its moral character, as Satan hates holiness 
and holy beings with a "perfect hatred." It will be seen clearly that the only 
known word derived from the same root as, and consequently having a similar 
meaning to, Tkh-Iah, never represents the idea of personal holiness or moral 
perfection. The Septuagint renders the passage thus: "I have seen tbe boundaries 
of all completions, or completed things; Thy commandment, how exceeding broad !" 
The word which, in this version, represents the original word rendered 
perfection in the passage under consideration, is often used in the Septuagint, 
the Greek testament, and by Greek authors; but in no case does it represent the 
idea of personal holiness, or moral perfection. We find in the first verse of 
this Psalm the original word commonly employed in the Scriptures to represent 
moral perfection. "Blessed are the undefiled (perfect, according to the marginal 
reading and common usage) in the way." If the sacred writer intenIIed to 
represent the same idea in Verse 96, why did he not employ the same word here ? 
In tbat case his meaning could not have been misunderstood. Why did he, on the 
other hand, employ a word nowhere else found in the Bible, and one which, 
according to the usage of the only known word which was derived from the same 
root, never has any such meaning. If then, the word Tich-lab, in the passage 
under consideration, means perfection, it represents the idea, not in any 
restricted form, as pertaining, for example, to the moral and spiritual 
attainments of men, but in its strictly universal meaning. The passage under 
consideration admits of but three constructions, one of which must be true. We 
give the first two in the words of Prof. Perowne.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. "There is nothing upon earth to which 
there does not (as I have seen) cleave some defect." This does not accord with 
what the Psalmist says elsewhere of the perfection of the Divine works. It also 
implies a degree of knowledge impossible to creature3. No finite mind can have 
such an omniscience of the works of God as to perceive that they are all 
defective, or of the moral attainmems ~f all the saints of God as to see them 
all rningleII with sin. The sacred writer here speaks, not of ---vhiat lie has 
heard, but of'vhat lie has " seen."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. "But perhaps the clause," adds Professor 
Perowne, "shïõIII rather be rendered : 'I have seen an end, a limit, to the 
'vhole range or compass of things ; ' a meaning which may be defended by the use 
of the similar word in Job xxvi. Iï, and xxviii. 3 : and which harmonises 'vith 
the next clause : 'I'hy commandment is exceeding broad'---has no limits, whilst 
all other things are bounded by narrow limits." This construction is perfectly 
consistent with the meaning, as far as can be ascertained, of every word found 
in the passage before us, and is wholly free from all the objections which lie 
against that first given. While finite minds cannot comprehend the works of God, 
such minds can and do know that all created objects, and all attainments of 
created beings, have their limits on the one band, while God's commandment has 
no limits ïôI the other. This construction, therefore, can by no possibility be 
shown to be false.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~. The third, and what we regard as the true 
construction is this: "1 have seen the consummation of all perfection; Thy 
command is exceeding broad." Nothing can exceed, in perfection, the law, or 
"commandment" of God, expressing, as it does, in its limitless applications, the 
responsibilities and duties of all moral agents, in all circumstances and 
relations of existence in time and to eternity, and determining with equal 
absoluteness the moral character and deserts of all their moral states and 
actions. This law is as eternal as "the eternal years of God," as immutable as 
its author, and as universal in its applications as the possibilities of moral 
conduct. This construction, like that just considered, accords with the known 
meaning and usage of all the words found in the passage under consideration, and 
best accords, as we judge, with the true and full idea of the perfection of the 
law, or "commandment," of God, and with what is elsewhere affirmed on the same 
subject. The deduction which follows from the fact that one of these t'vo last 
constructions must be true, and neither can be proved false; the deduction, we 
say, is this, that no foundation at all exists in this passage for the doctrine 
of the continued conscious sin of all believers in Jesus. No idea can be more 
foreign from this passage than is this doctrine. Let us, for a few moments, 
consider the manner in ;---Thicli this doctrine is deduced from this 
passage.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The following addition is commonly made to 
the first clause of this verse, namely, "I have seen an end of all (human) 
perfection," that is, I have, by looking into the law of God, and contemplating 
its broadness, or the extent and limits of the cïm~ mandment, had a perception 
and knowledge of the fact that no human being, no worshipper of God, and no 
believer in Jesus, ever did, or ever will, from the beginning to the end of 
time, attain to a state of conscious freedom from actual and known 
sin.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In view of such an interpretation, we ask, 
in the first place, why the term human is put in here? There is nothing in the 
verse itseIf~ or in the context, to authorise the insertion of any such word. 
The declaration "all perfection," is strictly and absolutely universal in its 
form, and no person has a right to restrict its meaning or application. We might 
as properly affirm that the Psalmist intended to say, I have seen an end of all 
Jewish, heathen, or angelic, as of human, perfection, and in one case we should 
be just as far from the central and exclusive idea in the writer's mind, as in 
either of the others. Nor, as we have seen, can the original word, here rendered 
perfection, be made to bear any such restricted meaning as this, to wit, to 
represent the moral and spiritual state and attainments of any one class of 
creatures. On the other hand, no evidence at all can be adduced that it does 
represent any such attainments at all.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Besides, the term "end," from its literal 
meaning, viz., termination, determines in itself nothing 'vbatever of the actual 
or possible extent or limits of the moral and spiritual attainments of any 
being, or class of beings, where the term perfection is employed to represent 
such attainments. Literally rendered and expounded, that is, according to one of 
the meanings of the term end, the clause before us would mean this: I have seen 
the end, the limit, or boundary of all perfection, that is, such perfection can 
ever extend beyond the broad limits of Gïd'~ commandment. "The law of the Lord 
is perfect," and must, by its exceeding broadness, include and require 
perfection in all its actual and possible forms. To see the end, that is, the 
extent and limits of human perfection, is one thing; to perceive that such 
perfection is marred with conscious sin, is quite another. An angel may say, "I 
have the end (the extent and limits) of all (angelic) perfection, perfection 
being limited in all finite beings. Thy commandment is exceeding broad." Such 
declaration, which would be strictly true, would by no means imply that such 
perfection is marred at all by conscious sin. No such inference as is attempted 
to be drawn from this passage can, without a palpable violation of all the laws 
of language, be forced from it.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The exposition under consideration, we 
remark, in the last place, carries upon its surface its own refutation. Said 
exposition affirms that the Psalmist saw, in the "extent and limits of Gïd~s 
commandment," the certain and inevitable continued conscious sin and 
shortcomings, not only of all saints under the Old, but all believers in Jesus 
under the New, Dispensation. In looking into the "commandment" of God, we can 
discern what creatures ought to be, and to do. "By the law," also, "is the 
knowledge of sin" where sin exists. The possibilities of faith, however, we are 
to determine, not by looking at the "commandment," whatever the broadness of its 
requirements may be, but at the extent and limits of the revealed grace of God 
for our sanctifkation. Nothing can be more absurd than the assumption that by 
looking into the "commandment" we can determine anything whatever in regard to 
the extent and limits of the grace of God, the fulness of Christ, and the power 
of the Eternal Spirit, for accomplishing in us "the will of God, even our 
sanctification." What Christ has specifically revealed Himself as able to do for 
us, what provisions He has revealed Himself as having made for our present 
holiness, what He has promised to do for us in the matter, provided "He be 
enquired of by us to do it for us," and what power the Father and Son have given 
to the Eternal Spirit to work mightily within us, here, and not by looking at 
the "commandment," do we determine the extent and limits of the possibilities of 
faith. Á wider and more palpable misapprehension of a text of Scripture is 
hardly conceivable than is involved in the exposition of Psalm cxix. 96, the 
exposition which we have now refuted.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We have, in the case before us, a palpable 
example of the manner in which a false doctrine may veil from the fund the most 
glorious revelations of God. Few passages in the whole compass of Holy Writ, and 
none, those excepted which open upon our vision "the image of the glory of God 
as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ," disclose to the mind a more glorious 
aspect of the wisdom and glory of God than does the passage before us. Think, 
Reader, of the exceeding broadness of the commandment, the boundless extent and 
adaptations of its applications, and the absolute perfection of all its 
revelations of right, duty, and moral desert. Like its Author, this law is 
infinite. There are two revelations of God upon which pure finite mind will 
expand through eternal ages--- "the consummation of all perfection revealed in 
'the commandment," on the one hand, arid "the grace of God which bringeth 
salvation" on the other. How much of the glory and wisdom of God does the 
individual perceive in Psalm cxix. 96, the individual who approaches it under 
the in-~ lliierice of the doctrine to which we have referred? "Just this and 
nothing more," the validity of the doctrine of the conscious lifelong sinfulness 
of every believer in Jesus. To all the transceridant glory revealed in the 
passage, his vision is perfectly veiled. When will the Eternal Spirit "operI the 
eyes of the understanding" of His people, to read "the mind of the Spirit" in 
His own Word?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>---</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A 
name=N_11_></A>ECCLESIASTES VIX' 20.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"For there is not a just man 
upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>BEFORE proceeding to a direct consideration 
of tbis passage, we would request special attention to certain general 
observations which have a specilk application to this, and other passages of a 
similar character---passages found particularly in the Old 
Testament.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. Whatever is amrrned of the attainments of 
Old Testament Saints, is not to be applied to Christians under the present 
dispensation, unless we have positive evidence that such application was 
sñecif~caI1y intended. We live under a "New Covenant, which is established upon 
better promises," than that under which those saints lived. What was 
impracticable to them may be quite possible to us.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. When the Scriptures would express a fact 
which holds generally, but not universally true, they commonly employ universal 
terms to represent that fact. Take the following statement from the New 
Testament: "Then went out to him (John Baptist) Jerusalem and all Judea, and all 
the region round about Jordan." We have positive evidence that these statements, 
in their strictly universal sense, are not true, and they were never intended to 
be so understood. In looking at particular passages of this character, special 
regard to this principle must be had, or we shall be utterly misled in the 
interpretation of Scripture.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>3. Proverbial utterances, as Bishop WhaIe~ey 
has shown, though the language employed is universal in form, are never to be 
understood in a strictly universal, but only in a general sense. Proverbs are 
al'vays to be distinguished from principles, or laws, to which there are no 
exceptions. Two proverbs, as the Bishop shows, may be strictly contradictory as 
far as their terms are concerned, and yet both, as proverbs, may be true. As for 
example, consider the two following: "Answer a fool according to his folly," and 
"Answer not a fool according to his folly." Not as laws of thought and action, 
but as proverbs or general facts, both of these maxims are true. Take, as an 
illustration of each of the last two propositions, the following admonition of 
the prophet: "Take ye heed every one of his neighbour and trust not in any 
brother; for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbour will walk 
in slanders" Who supposes that this admonition, though expressed in the 
strongest and most universal terms, was intended to be understood as holding 
true of every saint under the Old, and of every Christian under the New, 
Dispensation? As a general maxim, or proverb, or statement of facts, that 
proposition is true, and was never intended to be understood in any other 
sense.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>4. Poetic language very comnionly follows 
the same principle. What is true in a general sense, the poet expresses in 
universal terms. Take, as an example, the following utterance:</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"There is none that doeth good, no not one." 
This passage, if taken in its strict, literal sense, would imply that there was 
not at that time, at least, a single righteous man on earth. The writer does not 
mean that, among the wicked, there is none righteous; that would imply the 
senseless tautology, viz., that among the wicked, none but wicked persons are to 
be found. The manifest object of the writer is to affirm, not that there are no 
righteous persons among men, but the general and desperate depravity of the 
race, of the jews in particular.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Let us now apply these obviously valid and 
generally accepted principles to the passage under consideration, and to others 
of kindred import. On this passage we remark: i. That the declaration, "There is 
not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and siiineth not," if accepted in the 
widest sense, cannot be properJy applied, but to individuals under that 
dispensation, and can have no such application to believers in Jesus, under the 
New Covenant The New is, as we have said, "established upon better ñI~ïmises" 
than the Old. What was not attainable under the former, may be among the common 
possibilities of faith under the latter Dispensation. 2. As a j5rïíerbial 
utterance it would be a violation of all the laws of correct interpretation, to 
give to these words a strictly universal sense, just as much so, and for the 
same reason, it would be to give a similar interpretation to the words of the 
prophet, "every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk in 
slanders." Neither of these utterances any more than the other was ever intended 
to be understood in a universal sense. 3. But the utterance under consideration 
is given, not only as a proverbial one, but as a prudential maxim, and as such 
is given in such a form as to evince absolutely that it was not, and could not 
have been, intended that it should have been understood in a strictly universal 
sense. The word "for," at the commencement of this verse, connects it with the 
preceding one, and makes the letter expressive of a reason for what is affirmed 
or implied in the former. The preceding verse reads thus: "Wisdom strengtheneth 
the wise more than ten migl-ity men that are in the city." In this verse the 
necessity ofcontinu ous caution and vigilant and ever-wakeful circumspection is 
urged, as of supreme importance in our intercourse with mankind. The reason of 
this is then given in the verse before us, and that reason is this: men are not 
to be trusted. If we act upon the assumption that they are just and trustworthy, 
we shall make ship'vreck of all our interests. As a prudential maxim this 
utterance is true, and worthy of our highest regard. When, on the other hand, we 
assume it as universally true, and as a theïIïgk~1 dogma applicable not only to 
saints i~ ancient tirLics but to.believers in Jesus in all ages, we charge 
inspiration with the greatest conceivable absurdity. The reasoning of the sacred 
writer on that hypothesis reads thus:</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten 
mighty men that are iii the city," for no saint under the Old, or believer in 
Jesus under the New, Dispensaticn ever was, or ever will be, free from all sin. 
He must have a great aptitude for the absurd who will impute to inspired wisdom 
such logic as that.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_12_></A>PROVERBS 
XX. 9</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Who can say, I have made my 
heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THE remarks made above upon Eccies. Vii. 20 
have a direct and special bearing upon the passage before us. In looking over 
the world, as it lay out before him, and in contemplating his own life, and that 
of the mass of professed saints around him, one appalling fact impressed the 
writer's mind, and burdened his heart, to wit, the omnipresence of sin in the 
world, and even among those who professed to be pure and upright before God and 
man. Hence the sorrowful exclamation, Where, and upon whom, is not sin to be 
found ~ an exclamation as applicable now as it was then. Where is the basis here 
for the dogma, that no one saint ever was, and no one believer ever will be, 
free from conscious sin? The words employed imply no such dogma as that, and no 
idea could have been more distant from the author's mind than any such 
dogma.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_13_></A>I KINGS 
VIII. 46.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"If they sin against thee (for 
there is no man that sinneth not )."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THIS passage, as here rendered,. implies and 
affirms a universally admitted truth, namely, that all men are sinners. To infer 
anything more than this is to affirm, not only what the words do not imply, but 
what involves a palpable absurdity. Solomon refers to a contingency which was 
likely to occur in the future history of his people, namely, sin in a form which 
would involve them in the judgments of God. How natural, under such an 
impression, is the thought of the universal sinfulness of the race, of the fact 
that all men are sinners. To suppose that under such circumstances his thoughts 
would not turn in this direction, but would run forward to the end of time, that 
none but saints and believers in Jesus would come before his mind, and but this 
one thought in regard to them, viz., that not one of them would, at any period 
of their lives, attain to freedom from conscious sin,---to suppose that this was 
the dogma that then came before his mind, is one of the most palpable 
absurdities that ever danced in the brain of a theologian. There is nothing in 
the circumstances to suggest such an idea, and nothing, we repeat, in the 
language employed that implies it.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The following note from the comprehensive 
Bible shows clearly that still another rendering should be given to the original 
of this passage :--- "The second clause of this verse, as it is here translated, 
renders this supposition, in the first clause, entirely nugatory, for if there 
be no man that sin neth not, it is useless to say, i/they sin.; but this 
contradiction is removed by rendering the original, 'If they shall sin against 
Thee (for there is no man that may not sin),' i.e., there is no man impeccable, 
or infallible---none that is not liable to sin." This rendering, which, as Dr. 
Clarke shows, is demanded by the conjugation in which the word translated sin is 
found, makes the whole passage self-consistent, and fraught with important 
meaning. This unquestionably gives us the true meaning of the author of this 
utterance. In no case, however, can this passage be legitimately made to sustain 
or favour the dogma of the cïntinõeII conscious sinfulness of all 
believers.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_14_></A>JOB IX. 
20.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>If I justify myself, mine own 
month shall condemn me; if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me 
perverse."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>HERE iS a passage intended to have, and 
which undeniably has, no personal reference to any other individual but Job 
himself. Personal confessions have no application but to the person confessing, 
and prove nothing, whatever, in regard to any other individual. If this personal 
confession of Job proves that no saint or believer in Jesus ever was, or ever 
will be, perfect in the sense of the word as here employed, then the personal 
confessions of David in the 51st Psalm, prove, undeniably, that every such saint 
has been, or will be, guilty of the sins which David there confesses. There is 
no escaping this conclusion.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Nor is Job here speaking of his own moral 
and spiritual state at the time when he uttered these words, or at the time when 
God affirmed that he was "a l)erfect man." Job, on the other hand, is speaking 
of his past life, and of entering into judgment with God in regard to the same. 
He had been a sinner and knew it. To deny the fact would prove his perverseness, 
and be adding sin to sin. This is the exact meaning of this confession. To 
attempt to make anything more of it, and above all, to reason from that 
confession---a confession exclusively personal, to the universal conscious 
sinfulness of all saints and believers to the end of time---is a most palpable 
and ~agraõt Violation of all the laws of sound interpretation on the one hand, 
and of sound reasoning on the other.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_15_></A>2 PETER 
III. 18.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Biit grow in grace, and in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Savkrnr Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. 
Amen."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>THE correct reading of the original of the 
first sentence of this passage is this: But grow in the grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To grow in the grace of Christ 
implies continued advancement in whatever renders us the objects of his 
approval, love, and delight. To grow in the knowledge of Christ implies, not 
only advancement iii intellectual apprehensions of His perfections, but a growth 
in our inward experience of the blessedness which results from communion and 
fellowship with Him, an increasing experience, and of a knowledge by experience 
of "the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ 
in us, the hope of glory." Much is said in the New Testament of this 
experimental kno'vledge.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The above passage is everywhere cited by 
those who deny the doctrine of the Higher Life in disproof of that doctrine. 
Growth in grace, it is said, implies a kind and form of growth in which there is 
gradually less and less of sin and more and more of holiness. When individuals 
are urged to put away at once all sin, and accept of Christ as a complete 
Saviour from its power, their reply is:</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We do not believe such a doctrine as that. 
We believe, on the other hand, in growing in grace, that is, in becoming 
gradually less and less sinful, and more and more holy. Hence the advocates of 
the Higher Life are accused of a disbelief in Christian growth, the quite common 
belief being that should we "cease from sin," we should cease altogether to 
"grow in grace." On this doctrine we remark :---</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>I. That if it is true that growth in grace 
implies, as is here affirmed, present sin, then undeniably Christ was a sinner 
and was conscious of the fact. In Luke ii. 52, it is affirmed absolutely that 
Christ did grow in grace. "And Jesus increased (grew) in wisdom and stature and 
in favour (grace) with God and man." The word here renderedfavour is the 
identical word rendered grace in the passage under consideration. We have, then, 
"growth in grace," as a matter of fact, in the total absence of all sin, and the 
precept "grow in grace "does not of itself imply at all the presence of sin in 
any form.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. If the command, "grow in grace," implies 
the presence of sin in the heart, and such growth implies a gradual giving-up of 
sin, then God has given us a positive command not to cease from all sin at once, 
but to do it ~gradõaßIy. We cast infinite dishonour upon God when we impute to 
Him any such precept as that.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~. If all Christians should "cease from 
sin,"growth in grace would cease. Then since there is no sin in heaven, there 
will be no growth in that world of light and love. All virtue, all holiness, on 
the other hand,</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~wiII be at an eternal standstill there. 
Either this idea of growth in grace is utterly false, or this must be true of 
our eternal future, than which a more erroneous idea of heaven is hardly 
possible.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~. If the precept, "grow in grace," 
requires, and it does so according to the exposition under consideration---if it 
requires an advancement from certain degrees of sin to others less sinful, and 
from states of imperfect holiness to others less imperfect, then it is 
impossible for us to intend obedience to this precept, and at the same time 
intend full obedience to the will of God. It is a contradiction in terms to 
suppose that we can aim at the same moment at perfect and imperfect obedience to 
the will of God. An exposition that renders the divine precepts, as this 
probably does, thus contradictory, cannot be true.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>5. Peter, before he wrote the above precept, 
we remark finally, set forth, under the immediate inspiration of tue Spirit, the 
renunciation of all sin as the first condition of real growth in grace. 
"'Vlierefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies, and 
envying, and all evil speaking"(in other words, all âin), "as new-born babes 
desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby." Sin in the 
new-born soul is no more necessary to growth in holiness or grace, than is 
disease in the new-born babe requisite to its normal physical growth and 
development. Sin in the new-born soul is there as a moral and spiritual disease, 
and renders its moral and spiritual growth unhealthy and unnatural, just as 
disease in the new-born babe renders its growth dwarfish, phthisical, or 
consumptive. When we have "put off the old man which is corrupt after the 
deceitful lusts," and " put on the new man which, after God, is created in. 
righteousness and true holiness," then and only then, are we prepared to "grow 
up in Christ in all thiðgs.~' When growth in grace in the Churches shall accord 
with God's revealed conIIitiïns and method, there will be "none sickly and none 
feeble "among their members. Wherever the old and unscriptural idea shall 
obtain, there will be none anlong them but "the sickly and the 
feeble."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_16_></A>HEBREWS 
XII. 6-8</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"Wbom the Lord loveth He 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure (continue 
patient and acquiescent under) chastening (cbild discipline), God dealeth with 
you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye 
be without chastise--- rent (child discipline), whereof all are partakers, then 
are ye bastards, and not sons."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>CHASTISEMENT as above referred to, and as 
spoken of in the Bible, is of two kinds---reformatory punishment for sin---and 
disciplinary "trials of faith." The design of each is one and the same, and, 
therefore, not to be despised, nor fainted under, their common intent being "for 
our profit, that we may be partakers of His (God's) holiness." From the fact 
that all believers are suoject to conscious chastening</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>of one or the other kind, it is inferred 
that no believers ever attain to a state of freedom from conscious sin---that 
is, that in no case under the trial does "patience have her perfect work, and 
the subject become perfect and entire, w~I¿ting nothing." In regard to such an 
idea, we remark :---</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. The case of the earthly parent cited by 
the apostle proves the exact opposite to what this inference affirms. The 
earthly parent does induce obedience in the child, when the latter offends, and 
does so as occasion requires, by the rod. The rod, however, when properly 
applied, induces a state of obedience in which "scourging" is no more needed. 
Such was the experience of the sacred writer under divine chastisement. "Before 
I was amicted," he says, "I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word." 
Chastisement, as "scourging" even, is no evidence at all of the perpetuity of 
conscious sin, unless the former is perpetual. Chastisement in no form is, in 
the case of believers, perpetual and uninterrupted, and therefore is, in itself, 
no proof whatever of the fact that they are always in disobedience.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. It is a most servile and dishonourable 
view of the genuine Christian character and life, that we should regard 
ourselves as "bastards and not Sons," unless we are continually bleeding under 
the rod of rebuke and correction. To those who have such an experience as that, 
the language of our Father is "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will (or 
rather will ye) revolt more and more?"</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The result of the rod in genuine Christian 
experience is thus represented by the Psalmist: "Surely I have behaved and 
quieted myself as a child that is weaned from his mother: my soul is even as a 
weaned child." The true parent, our Father above especially, does not scourge 
his child after chastisement has brought him into such a state as that. There is 
not in all that the Scriptures have said in resñe~t to the discipline of the 
rod, on the one hand, and of afBiction on the other, the shadow of a foundation 
for the dogma of the continued disobedience of all believers in 
Jesus.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~. The habit, we remark once more, of 
regarding all amictive providences, scourgings for sin, and of always expecting 
to sin and be scourged therefor, the idea which induced the inference that such 
providences are of this character, tends to annihilate every sentiment of filial 
love, patience, and quietude in the heart. It is for this reason that so many 
Christians seem to lose almost all consciousness of God's parental love, and to 
regard Him as a heartless master, continuously holding over them, and driving 
them to their duties by, the rod and the lash. Nor will they ever come into such 
relations to Him, that the spontaneous outgoings of their hearts toward him will 
be, "My Father, my Father, Thou art the guide of my youth," as long as they 
continue to expect always to sin, and always to be beaten for the 
same.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4><B><A name=N_17_></A>ROMANS 
VIII. 22, 23.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>'1 we know that the whole creation groaneth 
and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselvss 
also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within 
ourselves, waiting for the iidoption, to wit, the redemption of our 
body."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>FROM such passages as the above, passages of 
the kind with ---vhich the Scriptures abound, the inference is drawn that we 
have here another proof of the continued conscious sinfulness of all believers 
in this life. If there were no sin, but believers were dead to it, and delivered 
from its power, all groaning, it is affirmed, would for ever cease. In regard to 
such an inference we remark :---</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. Groaning is no evidence at all of sin in 
any form. The opposite supposition implies sin in Christ and the Holy Spirit 
too, groaning being affirmed of each. "When Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping, 
and the Jews also weeping which came with h?r, He groaned in Spirit and was 
troubled." "Jesus then again groaning in himself, cometh to the sepulchre" (John 
x. 33---38). "The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which 
cannot be uttered" (Rom. ~ 26).</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. Of the groanings attributed to believers, 
conscious sin is never sñeci1~ed as the cause: nor are such mental states ever 
presented as indicative of the presence of sin.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>3. Of the groanings actually attributed to 
believers, two speci&amp; causes are assigned, namely,---strong aspirations 
after future glory and blessed- 'ness---external amictions, the main portions of 
which are "persecutions for righteousness' sake." "For in this (tabernacle, the 
body,) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is 
from heaven." "For we that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; not for 
that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
up of life" (2 Cor. V. 2, 4). Groaning, and strongly desiring, or aspiring, 
after anything, are often employed in the same sense in the 
Scriptures.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The chief cause of these groanings, 
afflictions brought upon us as diciplinary providences excepted, are 
tribulations from the enemies of Christ, tribulations brought upon believers as 
persecutions for righteousness' sake." Believers are represented as being, in 
these things, "partakers of Christ's suf~riðgs." Of these tribulations, Paul 
thus speaks to those believers who were then subject to such "fiery trials": 
"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that 
trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus 
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels." Such is the language of 
all the New Testament writers in respect to the causes of the groanings under 
consideration.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>4. Hence, the tribulations which induce 
these groanings are spoken of by these writers, not as reasons for repentance 
for conscious sin, but as proofs of fidelity to Christ; grounds of" assurance of 
hope," and sources of present joy and rejoicing. "My brethren," says James, 
speaking of these things, "count it all joy, when ye fall into divers 
temptations" (James xii.). "Beloved," says Peter, "think it not strange 
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing had 
happened unto you: but rejoice, iiiasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's 
sufTerings, that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with 
exceeding joy" (i Peter iv. 12, 13). Such are the revelations of God on this 
subject. Groanings may be occasioned by judgments for sin, and when afflicted, 
we should also carefully and prayerfully inquire for the cause. He reasons most 
illogically, and unwisely, out of the Scriptures, however, who adduces the 
groanings therein attributed to believers, as proof of the continued conscious 
sinfulness of all men iii this life. Nothing can be further from "the mind of 
the Spirit" than such deductions from such facts.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>---</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=5><B>PART II.</B></FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=5><B><A name=N_18_></A>THE TWO 
FOUNDATIONS.</B></FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Doctrine of the continued conscious 
sinfulness of all Believers in this life. Its</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>foundation .</FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>WE have now carefully considered all 
Scripture texts which are ever cited to prove the doctrine of the continued 
conscious sinfulness of all believers in this life, on the one hand, and in 
disproof of the opposite doctrine, that of full redemption from the condemnation 
and power of sin, on the other. If these passages are found to be void of 
validity for the proof and disproof for which they are adduced, then it must be 
admitted, that the doctrine, to verify which the said passages are adduced, has 
rio foundation in the Word of God. In our examination of these passages, the 
following fundamental facts have been found to be true :---</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. For nearly, or quite, four centuries 
after the entire Scriptures were written, the entire Primitive Church had no 
suspicion that these passages ha»e any bearing whatever against the doctrine of 
full salvation from condemnation and power of sin in this life, or in proof of 
the opposite doctrine. On the other hand, that Church, with wondrous unanimity, 
put the identical construction upon these passages, which the advocates of the 
doctrines of the Higher Life now do.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. Since that period, the consent of 
the</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>ages has, throughout Christendom, vastly 
preponderated in favour of the primitive, and against the post-primitive, 
construction.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~. Á. careful and critical examination and 
exposition of these texts has most fully evinced the deduction that not one of 
them sustains the doctrine to verify which they have, in "these latter days," 
been adduced; while not a fe'v of them, when rightly expounded, bear directly 
and strongly in favour of the doctrine of the Higher Life. Such are the actual 
facts of the case. Whatever may be true of the doctrine of the continued 
sinfulness of all believers while life continues, that doctrine is void of 
authority from the Word of God.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Doctrine of Full Salvation from the 
condemnation and Power of Sin. Its foundation.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>If the doctrine we teach should be found to 
rest upon no "more sure word of prophecy" than that whose only claim we have 
considered, we should never again---no, not for an hour---urge the former upon 
the regard of believers. What is the revealed basis on which this doctrine 
rests?</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i.---Christ's revealed power to 
save.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The central rock, on which this doctrine 
rests, is Christ's revealed power to save from the cïndemnation and power of 
sin. "Christ," as we read (i John iii. ~), "was manifested to take away our 
sins; and in Him is no sin." Sin itself, and not condemnation for sin, is here 
directly refeired to, this being the specific subject of discourse. "For their 
sakes," says our Savioiir, "I sanctify (not in part dedicate) myself, that they 
also might be sanctified (not a part, dedicated) through (or for the promotion 
of)the truth." Here we are distinctly informed that "all the fulriess" which, by 
appoint-merit of the Father, dwells in Christ, all the merits and efficacy of 
His Atonement, all the infinitude of His grace and power, are specifically set 
apart, and consequently made available to our faith, for our personal 
sanctification and divine mission and work. "All power in heaven and in earth is 
given unto mc," said our Saviour, again---that is, all the resources of the 
Divine Infinity, are put into My hands, and made subject to My disposal. "And 
Iï, I am with you aiway, even unto the end of the "rorld." Here we are 
distinctly and specifically taught that Christ is ever with us to exert, as we 
shall avail ourselves of it by faith, all this power for our spiritual and 
eternal good, and for the success of His cause in our hands. Everywhere in the 
Bible the power of God is revealed as a sure ground of faith and hope. "Trust ye 
in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." We lay 
this down as a self-evident principle, that whatever form or de'~ree of sa;êtßIf 
cation Christ, or the Father iii him, or the Spirit through lii;", /ms 
spe~øIaIIy revealed himself as able to induce in uS, ~I'e are, by szch 
revelation, aiithorised to expect from 111m, and that in the form and degree 
specifIed. We here adduce three passages which reveal to us in specific form 
what each person of the Trinity is able to do for us in this matter, and which 
reveal the power of each as united with that of both the others to insure this 
one end. "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. Vii. 29). 
"Aiid God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having 
all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Cor. ix. 8). 
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
think, according to (by means of) the power (of the Spirit) that worketh in us, 
unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world 
without end. Amen" (Eph. ~ 21). The meaning of these passages is too plain to be 
misunderstood, and all expositors agree in respect to their meaning. What we 
affirm is this : the revealed power of the Godhead thus to save us from all sin 
authorises us to expect salvation " to the uttermost," or, God's revealed power 
to save, to bless, and to "keep from falling," is, in rio sense or form, a basis 
of hope or trust. Will the opposers of the doctrine of the Higher Life, if we 
have erred in our deduction here, show us 'vherein the error 
consists?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2.---Revealed Provisions and Promises of 
Grace. Let us now turn our attention to the revealed Provisions and Promises of 
Grace for our I resent sanctification. The principle which lies at the basis of 
our reasoning here is this: Whatever form or degree of present sanctification is 
clearly sñec~ed in these provisions and promises, is to all believers an object 
of assured hope and trust. Provisions not available to our faith are, 
undeniably, no provisions at all. The promises are revealed for the specifically 
declared purpose, "that by these," by embracing them by faith, "we might be 
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the 
world through lust." Of the passages pertaining to the provisions of grace we 
adduce but three: "For what the law</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>could not do, in that it was weak through 
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin 
condemned sin in the flesh,</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>that the righteousness of the law might b~ 
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the (Spirit" (Rom viii 
3, ~) The words, "walk not</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>after the flesh, but after the Spirit," show 
absolutely that the provisions here revealed are for believers in this life. 
Equally manifest is the fact, that the words, "righteousness of the law," 
represent righteousness, not in the sense of jõst~)fcatßïn, but of obedience to 
what the law requires. Such</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>&amp;bedience is the specific and exclusive 
subject of discourse in the connection in. which the words are here employed. 
Besides, the words, "righteousness of the law," are never employed to represent 
the doctrine of "justification by faith," but always in the sense under 
consideration. Christ, then, has made provision for our full present obedience 
to the law and will of God---provisions, by availing ourselves of which by 
faith, the "righteousness of the law," the righteousness or obedience which the 
law requires, "may be fulfilled in us." Consider one other passage: "Who His own 
self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed " (i Pet. ii. 
24). (See, also, Eph. ---ô~ 25-27 ; i John iii. ~, 6; Tit. ii. 14.) Of the 
promises which Christ, as the Mediator of the New Covenant, has absolutely 
pledged Himself to render real in our experience, "When He shall be enquired of 
by us to do it for us," we cite only the two following: "Then will I sprinkle 
clean water upon you, anII ye shall be clean: from all your &amp;lthiness, and 
from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a 
new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit 
within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments 
and do them" (Ez. XXXVi. 25-27). "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; 
and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that caileth you, who also 
will do it" (i Thess. V. 23, 24). (See, also, Phil. 1V. 19; Deut. xxx. 6; i Cor. 
×. 13.) No candid enquirer after truth can misapprehend the real meaning of such 
promises, and as to their meaning, all commentators, as far as we know, agree. 
If, then, the revealed provisions and promises of grace are a sure foundation of 
faith and hope, the doctrine under consideration rests upon the rock of 
truth.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~.--- Christ's 1;ztercessory Prayer for alt 
Believers. We now recur to the specific blessings presented to our faith, in our 
Saviour's Intercessory Prayer for all believers. Let the reader carefully ponder 
this prayer, and distinctly notice the blessings therein specified---blessings, 
every one of which distinctly imply utter separation from all sin, a perfected 
union between us and Him, such as exists between Him and the Father, His abiding 
in us, as the Father abides in Him, and our being "made perfect in. one." Nor 
can there be a doubt that this prayer refers exclusively to believers in this 
life. Believers are to be brought into this state of perfection in Christ, as a 
means to an end, the salvation of the world. But to the prayer 
its~If:---"ÍeithÝr pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe 
on me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, 
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that 
Thou hast sent me: and the glory which Thou gayest me I have given them; that 
they may be one, even as we are one: I in. them, and Thou in me, that they may 
be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and 
hast loved them, as Thou has loved me" In respect to this prayer, we 
conclude---and not a shadow of doubt arises, or can rest upon our mind in. 
regard to the absolute validity of that conclusion---that every blessing 
specified in that prayer) and in the form and degree therein specified, fully 
"accords with the Will of God "---that every blessmg designated, the Eternal 
Father holds in readiness for our faith, and that whenever He shall be inquired 
of to do it for us," that prayer will become a divine reality in our 
experience.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We here rest our cause, not referring to 
other grounds, equally immovable, on which the doctrine we maintain has its 
revealed basis. If the specifically revealed power of the Godhead---the equally 
specific provisions and promises of grace, and blessings undeniably specified in 
the intercessory prayer of our Saviour do not present an immovable basis for 
absolute "assurance of faith," "assurance of hope,---"and assurance of 
understanding," then "the foundations are destroyed," and the Bible stands 
revealed as one of the most unmeaning and deceptive books that ever was 
written.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Professed attainments, when 
credible.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We have now before us a clearly revealed 
test, by which we may determine the credibility of any professed attainments in 
the divine life. When such attainments fall clearly within the circle of 
Christ's revealed power to save and to bless---when they</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>are as manifestly included within the circle 
of the revealed provisions and promises of grace, and are as distinctly and 
specifically implied or expressed in the intercessory prayer of our Saviour, 
then, nothing can be more credible in itself than are such affirmed attainments, 
and the question of their actual possession, like that of regeneration 
orjustiflcation, becomes a question of fact, to be determined by its own proper 
evidence. This is the only reasonable and revealed test, by which the 
professions of the advocates of the Higher Life are to be tried.</FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Evidence from 
e÷j5erßence.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Tested by the actual experience of the vast 
majority of professing Christians, the Rest of Faith must be set down as among 
the impossibilities of Faith. The almost exclusive reason why such believers 
regard Rom. vii. as revealing the divinelydra'vn portraiture of Christian 
experience in its highest forms, is the conscious fact, that what they there 
read does accord with their experience. Then, on the other hand, saints in all 
ages---who have regarded this chapter as portraying a legal, in opposition to a 
faith, experience, who rest their faith and hope upon Christ's revealed power to 
save and to bless---upon the revealed provisions and promises of grace, and upon 
Christ's intercessory prayer for all believers---do attain to forms of conscious 
experience and life in all respects the opposite to the portraiture drawn in 
that chapter.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>What evidence do we ~nd in the experience of 
the former class that, beyond what they experience, God has not "prepared some 
better things for us"? The unvarying experieiice of the latter class, on the 
other hand, absolutely verifies the fact, that their faith rests upon the clear 
revelations of the Word of God</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=5><FONT color=#0000ff><B><A 
name=N_19_></A>PART III.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=3> 
</FONT></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#0000ff><FONT size=5><B>TESTED BY THEIR FRUITS, AND</B></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#0000ff><FONT size=3> </FONT></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT><FONT 
color=#0000ff><FONT size=5><B>INTRINSIC TENDENCIES</FONT></FONT><FONT 
size=5></B></FONT> 
<P align=center><FONT size=5><B></B></FONT><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>ISAIAH XLIII. 21.</FONT><FONT 
size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>'·The Lord is well pleased for His 
righteousness' sake. He will magnify the Law, and make it 
honourable."</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>HERE we have a revelation, full and 
distinct, of the light in which the Infinite and Eternal Father regards the 
redemptive work of Christ, and the reason for this regard. In this work Christ 
stands revealed to the world, and to the universe, as "the brightness (the most 
luminous and impressive form) of the Faþer's glory, anII the express image (the 
most full and distinct manifestation) of His sõb.~ stance." His work is, in 
every particular, an absolutely perfected and finished work, so finished and 
perfected that the eye of God cannot discover a single defect in it.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The central reason why God thus regards this 
redemptive work of Christ is given in the second clause of the text : " He wifl 
magnify the law, and make it honourable." This conducts us to th~ theme of this 
discourse, the great idea of the law, as "magnified and made honourable" through 
the redemptive work of Christ. We must bear this in mind, that it was no part of 
this work to render the law more or less sacred in God's regard. God entertains 
an infinite and unchangeable respect for His own law, and nothing has ever 
occurred nor can occur, to increase or diminish that respect. The purpose of God 
is to induce a similar respect in the mind, not only of every believer in Jesus, 
but in that of every unfallen being in existence, so that all, in common, shall 
be as unchangeable in their hatred of sin and love of righteousness as is God 
Himself. "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us," and perfected the 
redemptive work for the revealed purpose ïf~" making an end of sin and bringing 
in everlasting righteousness." The final result of this work will be the 
introduction in all minds, and throughout all worlds, outside of the dark realm 
of the Second Death, of such a sentiment in regard to sin, and such a respect 
for the law of righteousness, that, to eternity, there will never occur a single 
act of violation of the divine law. God, the Eternal Father, has, then, good 
reason to be well pleased with the redemptive work of Christ. Let us now turn 
our thoughts directly to the great doctrine of the text---" the law of God 
magnified and made horiourable" through this redemptive work. In accomplishing 
this object, we will, first of all, direct attention to The Æaþ 
itself.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Of this Law, in the language of another, 
"nothing less than this can be said, that its home is the bosom of God, and its 
voice, the harmony of the universe." Its home is the bosom of God, because, that 
there, from eternity, this law has had its fixed dwelling-place, all God's 
activity, thoughts, purposes, and ways, being in absolute harmony with its 
spirit and principles. "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and "God is love," 
love as representing and implying all possible forms and degrees of moral 
excellence. There is still another reason why the bosom of God is the home of 
this law. As presented to the universe, and imposed upon creatures, it is simply 
the representation of His thought and will, as He has entertained the same from 
eternity.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>This law is the harmony of the universe, 
because that as far as, and wherever, full obedience to its requirements 
obtains, absolute harmony and union are assured between God and His creatures on 
the one hand, and between them, one towards another, on the other. In bringing 
the holy, intelligent creation into absolute conformity to the spirit, 
principles, and precepts of this law, discord iii any form, or degree, becomes 
ab solutely impossible throughout the wide domain of the Kingdom of 
Light.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>We may, perhaps, attain to some proper 
apprehension of this subject, by contemplating it in the light of a single 
passage of inspiration. "There is one lawgiver." One of the greatest thinkers 
America ever knew, the honourable Daniel Webster, once remarked that there was 
one passage of Scripture---a passage upon which he had for many years strongly 
desired to write a sermon. When he had reflected, however, upon the great truth 
therein embodied, he had found that truth too vast for his capacities, so that 
he had been deterred from attempting to accomplish the end desired. The passage 
he remarked is this, "There is one lawgiver." It is more than thirty years since 
we heard that statement. Since that time, that passage has been to us a central 
object of thought. Yet the truth it embodies has ever appeared too vast for our 
capacities. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain 
unto it." Yet there are features and elements of this truth which we can 
understand. One is this: God is the only being in existence who has the 
prerogative of making or prescribing laws for His rational offspring. All moral 
legislation obligatory upon rational, moral natures comes from God, and has 
authority but as expressive of His will. To obey any law which prohibits what 
God commands, or commands what He prohibits, is treason toward God.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>There is, also, as revealed in this passage, 
not only one, and only one, lawgiver, but one and only one---law, one common law 
for all moral beings in all relations and conditions of existence. This law is 
the will of God when revealed as such, to His creatures, a law, first of all, 
written upon the universal conscience, and then written out in the Scriptures of 
truth. Conformity to this law is denominated holiness, righteousness, virtue, 
purity, and perfectness; and nonconformity: unholiness, unrighteousness, 
iniquity, and impurity.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>J~e Law when ÌagnßÞed and made 
Ilonourabk.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>The law is "magnifled and made honourable" 
when, in its spirit, principles, and endlessly diversified applications, it 
becomes the central object and theme of thought, regard, and discourse--- when 
such absolute respect for its requirements is felt as to insure prompt and 
implicit obedience to the same in all their forms---when such obedience insures 
to the subject the highest honour, esteem, and respect, and disobedience covers 
the perpetrator with the deepest shame, disesteem, and reprobation---and when, 
in short, there is an omnipresent interest in, and supreme "love of 
righteousness and hatred of iniquity." Whatever induces such results as these, " 
magnifies the law and makes it honourable," an d this is what Christ has 
accomplished through His. redemptive work. This end He has accomplished, we 
remark.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>flow Christ has magn~ed, and does magn~'fy, 
the Law, and makes it honourable.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. By the absolute obedience which He 
rendered. to the law, and the deep respect which He manifested for it, during 
the entire period of His incarnation, and humiliation on earth. When Christ 
emptied Himself of the glory which He had with the Father before the world 
was---" took upon Himself the form (condition) of a man, and was made in the 
likeness of men," subject to all their trials and temptations, and 
responsibilities too---the eyes, not only of God, but of the universe, were 
fixed upon Him, to see how the case would turn with. Him. Will He stand, or will 
He fall, as Adam did? absorbed the thought of heaven and hell too. When it was 
perceived that in all respects, and in. every condition of being and life, even 
in death, His obedience was perfect and absolute, that not one jot or tittle of 
what the law requires failed in Him: then, in the presence of such an example of 
respect for the law, and obedience to its precepts, the holiness of every being 
in heaven took on the form of eternal stability. To such a degree was "the law 
magnified and made honourable," that to eternity no creature there will disobey 
it. The same is true in this world, just as far as that example is known and 
appreciated. By what means could the Most High so effectually" 
magnify</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>His law, and make it hïnïõrabIe,~? as, in 
the person of Christ, to assume the condition of the creature in its 'vorst and 
most trying possible forms, and there, as an example to the universe, render 
full and absolute obedience to His o'vn law.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>hi all his teachings and associations, 
Christ manifested the same absolute respect for the will and law of God. 
"Whosoever did the will of God," whateverhis condition in other respects, "was 
to him as a brother, and sister, and mother," and whosoever refused such 
obedience, all other conditions and relations not'vithstanding, were the objects 
of His disesteem and reprobation. The love of righteousness (obedience) and 
hatred of iniquity (disobedience) were omnipresent, and all-impressive, 
manifestations of His entire teaching and life.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. In His sj5ecia! redemj5tßíe work, that of 
atonement---every thing possible is done by our Saviour to "magnify the law, and 
make it honour-able." Atonement what is it? A substitute for the penalty of 
violated law, a substitute fully ensuring the end which the penalty was intended 
to insure. In the forgiveness of sin through this divine atonement, þe law is 
not made void, but established. That is done which renders it, not only 
merciful, biitjust, in God, to "justify the believer in Jesus." What awe 
inspiring impressiveness is imparted to the law by the forgiveness of sin, on 
such a ground as this.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>3. In the conditions of pardon and 
acceptance with God, the same respect for the law is most impressively 
conspicuous. Before God will listen at all to a request from the sinner for 
pardon, the latter must, in all sincerity, justify the law both iii its precepts 
and penalties---confess the fact, iriexcusableness, and infinite criminality of 
all his acts of disobedience---and having "broken off his sins by righteousness, 
and his iniquities by cleaving unto the Lord," he must seek and accept 
forgiveness as a matter of exclusive grace and mercy through Christ. Thus again 
is "the law magnified and made honourable."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>4. Let us now turn our thoughts to the 
revealed relations of Christ to all believers. The revealed object of His 
mission and atoning grace is to "save His people from their sins "---to make 
provisions by which "the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in them," 
by which God's laws might be "put into their hearts, and written in their 
minds," and they caused to "walk in God's statutes, and to keep His judgments 
and do them." Asthe mediator of the NewCovenant, Heisrevealed as "able to save 
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him "---to "make all grace abound 
towards them, so that they, having all sufikiency for all things, may abound 
unto every good work" .---anII as "able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
that we ask or think." Then, as the same Mediator, He stands pledged by absolute 
promise, that when He is enquired of by us to do it for us, "He will sprinkle 
clean water upon us arid render us clean, that He will cleanse us from all our 
~Ithiness, and from all our idols; that he will ! put His Spirit within us, and 
cause us to walk in God's statutes, and keep His judgments, and do them "---" 
that he will sanctify us wholly, and preserve our whole spirit and soul and body 
blameless unto His coming." Such are the revealed relations of Christ to us in 
the sphere of our sanctifkation, or "obedience to the will and Jaw of God," 
relations in all of whichthe law is specifkally "magþ1~ed and made 
honourable."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>~. I~ the 1~rIaI Consummation, we remark, in 
the last place, the work under consideration will be rendered complete and 
eternal. All who have repented of sin---" washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb "---and returned to full obedience to the law and 
will of God, will, in the presence of an assembled universe, be received into 
the Kingdom of Light; while all, of every name, 'vho have refused to return to 
obedience will be "covered with shame and everlasting contempt." Christ will 
then have so "magnified the law, and made it honourable," that as we have said, 
outside of the realm of the Second Death, sin will never again have place in the 
universe of God, Christ "having made an end of sin, and brought in EVERLASTING 
righteousness."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Wizen do beIß~íers in Jesus magnify the law 
and make it /ionourable, as Christ "Id?</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>"The glory which the Father gave to Christ, 
He has given to His followers." It is their glory and privilege to "magnify the 
law, and make it honour-able," in their sphere, and through their lives, 
example, and teachings, as He did in His. This high end they accomplish when, 
and only when, their respect for all God's commandments, and their obedience to 
"every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," take form from Christ's 
example, when their esteem and love for those who do, and their disesteem for 
those who do not, "the will of our Father in heaven," and when their "love of 
righteousness and hatred of iniquity" are a copy of those of Christ.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>In the primitive age of the Church, when men 
would affirm anything to be impossible to man, they were accustomed to say: "You 
can no more do that than you can induce a Christian to sin." When the visible 
obedience of believers extorted such confessions from the world, then it was 
that "the Gentiles came to the light of the Church, and kings to the brightness 
of her rising." So it ever will be. When believers in Jesus show visible 
"respect to all God's commandments," and prompt and implicit "obedience to every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," then men fear and tremble at the 
thought of their own sins, and magnify and honour God's law, by "repentance 
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." When believers visibly fall 
short of this, then "the name of God is blasphemed, and His law despised, 
through them."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>III heaven an ë1I-ñ~ríading public sentiment 
exists, requiring of each and every individual implicit and perfect obedience to 
the law and will of God, and a universal expectation that such obedience will be 
rendered. By such a sentiment "the law is magnified and made honourable" there. 
When the same sentiment shall pervade the Church on earth in regard to all its 
members, t1~en will "the law," in. a similar manner, "be rag--- nifled and made 
honourable" here. When, also, in the heart and teachings of the Church, the 
grace of Christ shall be magnifleII as fully adequate and available to enable 
each believer to " stand perfect and complete in all the will of God," the law 
will thereby be magnified also. In making and revealing such grace, God reveals 
infinite respect for that law. Had He provided grace less adequate, or not fully 
available to our faith, He would have manifested indifference to His own 
law.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>14'heõ is a law rendered the object of 
disesteem and disregard?</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Á very important inquiry here 
arises---namely, When is a law rendered the object of disesteem and disregard? 
This result arises, we ansiver, when subjects are in such relations to the law 
that they may violate its spirit, principles, and requirementswith very little 
or no sense of the criminality of such conduct---when they may confess such 
disobedience without shame, or seeming remorse--- when little esteem and honour 
attaches to the fact of obedience, and little disesteem and dishon our to that 
of disobedience---when little obligation is felt or cherished to obey, on the 
one hand, and not to disobey on the other---and finally, when the love of 
righteousness, and hatred of iniquity, have ceased to be supreme in the mind. 
Whenever, and wherever, such results as these appear, but one cause can be 
assigned for the same---viz., a loss of sacred respect for the law itself. No 
principles, doctrines, or teachings, we remark, can be so pernicious and 
subversive in their tendency and inß~õence, as those which intrinsically tend to 
relax the sacredness of the will and law of God upon the obedience, full and 
implicit, of His creatures. No one will question the strict validity of these 
statements. Our last and not least important inquiry is this. What principles, 
doctrines, and forms of teaching, do intrinsically tend to induce such 
pernicious and subversive results? To this inquiry we answer:</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Ñrßnc&amp;5Ies, doctrines, and teachings, 
which "make void the law," ---?r tend to relax a sense of its 
sacredness.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>i. The first that we notice is this: 
Familiarizing-the minds of believers, converts e~/'ecºaIIy, with the fact that 
they will sin---sin daily in heart, thought, word, and act. All are aware of the 
almost resist-less ini~õence which a full conviction that a specific event will 
inevitably occur exerts upon the mind. Death has, in many instances, beef 
induced by the simple belief that it would occur. Familiarize your convert with 
the fact, and induce in him the absolute conviction, that he inevitably will 
sin, and that in the forms above stated, and you have rendered two events 
equally inevitable---the fact that he wfli thus sin, and that he will soon 
become possessed of a conscience seared and deadened to a sense of the 
criminality of the sin which he does commit. No other results will or can 
follow. We lay this down as a principle that knows no exception, a principle 
verified by the entire mass of facts that lie all around us in all the Churches, 
that Christians manifest little remorse, and no shame, in respect to forms of 
sin which they expect and are expected to commit, while their remorse and shame 
are deep and intense in respect to those classes of sins which they are expected 
not to commit. "Forsaking their first love," worldly mindedness and conformity, 
an evil temper, covetousness, and sins of a similar character, Christians 
generally expect, and are expected to commit; while the grosser sins of 
blasphemy, theft, lying, drunkenness, and licentiousness, they are expected to 
avoid. Search Christendom, and you will find the consciences of believers 
comparatively dead to the criminality of sins of the former class, and all alive 
to that of the latter. There are communities called Christian, where Christians 
are expected to perpetrate the latter as well as the former class of sins, and 
here you will find the conscience just as callous to the criminality of the one, 
as of the other class. There are countries where the absence of the virtue of 
chastity in woman, and a robber-life in man, are considered as not incompatible 
with the possession of Christian character and an assured hope of eternal life, 
and where Christians are expected to commit these very sins. Here we find the 
same absence of shame and remorse, for these crimes, that we do in our Churches 
in respect to the sins to which we have referred. Talk to those adulteresses and 
robbers about the vices and crimes which they perpetrate, and they will listen 
to you with the most shameless and unblushing effrontery. Talk to these same 
individuals about eating meat on Friday, neglecting the confessional, the 
sacrament, making the prescribed crossings, or counting their beads, and you 
will find that here their consciences are most quick and wakeful. The reason is 
obvious. In the former case, you speak of sins which the subjects expect, and 
are expected, to commit. In the latter you refer to imagined duties which they 
expect, and are expected, not to omit. The principle is a universal one, and 
just as fixed in its operation as are any of the laws of nature. Teach the 
convert that he «Tili sin, sin daily in heart, thought, word, and act, and these 
results will inevitably follow. In the first place, he will sin, and will go 
farther in sin than you expect. Then, since he does nothing but what he expects, 
and is expected, to do, the fact of sin will not startle or alarm him. As a 
consequence his conscience will slumber, and gradually become callous to the 
criminality of his sin, and if he does not sleep the sleep of death "on the 
enchanted ground," he will "be saved so as by fire." By such teachings he is 
placed under the most perilous influences conceivable.</FONT><FONT size=3> 
</FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>One of the main sources of the peril 
connected with these teachings lies in their indqfniteness The subject, as he is 
assured and made to believe, will sin, sin daily in heart, thought, word, and 
deed. Of the form and dÝg~ree of the sin, which, as he is assured, is inevitable 
(grosser vices and crimes excepted), he has no apprehensions whatever. When he 
aims at perfection, as he is taught that he must, he does so under the absolute 
assurance of failure, failure in what form, and to what extent, of this, the 
grosser sins excepted, he has no conception. Can believers be placed in 
circumstances more open and defenceless to the deadly assaults of "the world, 
the flesh, and the devil," than they are when under the full power of such 
beliefs and expectations as these? If we could only know the form and extent in 
which sin is inevitable, we should have before our minds a definite standard of 
practicable attainment, and should know what to aim at 'vith rational hope. 
Oppressed with the absolute assurance of falling into sin, into what forms and 
to what extent we know not and cannot know, Satan can ask for no more open 
exposures for "his fiery darts," than he here finds the believer in.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Impress the convert, on the other hand, that 
what, and only what, is expected of him is a sacred "respect for all God's 
commandments "---obedience, prompt and implicit, to "every word that proceed eth 
out of the mouth of God;" that he is no more expected to sin in any one form 
than in any other; that a common criminality and peril to the soul's eternity, 
attends sin in all forms alike; and that when sin, in any form, has been 
committed, nothing but "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
Christ," can save the soul from death, and then, and only then, "will his 
righteousness go forth as brightness and his salvation as a lamp that shineth," 
and "God's law will be magnified and made honourable "through Him.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>2. Suppose, now, that the convert, in common 
with other believers, is not only familiarised with the fact, and impressed with 
the conviction, that he will continuously sin, but that this conviction is 
confirmed by the assurance with ---vhich he is also familiarised, that the 
holiest individuals that have ever lived have thus sinned; such individuals, for 
example, as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, Apostles, Paul 
particularly, and all believers in all ages who are most venerated for the 
sanctity of their lives. Even these men, the convert is assured, did sin daily 
in heart, thought, word, and deed, and he must not entertain the proud and 
presumptuous idea of being more holy than they were. What will, what must, be 
the inevitable result of such teachings upon all who receive them as truths of 
God? But one result ever has followed, or can follow. The degree of the sin to 
be committed is unknown; sin in its grosser forms, which no believer is expected 
to commit, excepted. Hence, while the convert avoids these, nothing will occur 
to disturb his fears, or alarm his conscience. However far he may depart from 
God, he will find in the sins of these holiest of men, sins with which you have 
familiarised his mind, just the opiate which will stupefy his conscience, and 
perfect his carnal security. While he may, as he no doubt will, admit the fact 
that he is not where and what he should be, he will do so without shame, or 
disquieting remorse. Admonish him for his shortcomings, and he will confess the 
fact; but will find his apology in the example of those holy men and women, 
whose sins, instead of whose faith, you have really taught him to 
follow.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Apply this principle to specific forms of 
Christian duty in any of the particular relations of life, and what would the 
inevitable result he? Respect for parental authority and other kindred duties 
are, in fact and form, prescribed iii the Bible as essential elements of 
religious duty. Suppose, now, that parents should educate their children in this 
wise:</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>First of all such children are taught that 
they .rnight to "obey their parents in the Lord," and are induced to resolve and 
promise to do so. At the same time they are assured, and that as a revealed 
truth of God, a truth which they will disbelieve at the peril of their souls, 
that no child since the fall, the child Jesus excepted, "hath, by any grace 
received in this life," been able fully to obey such precepts, but "daily doth 
break them in thought, word, and deed." You then confirm your child in his 
expectation of thus sinning, by assuring him that you and all other parents thus 
sinned when you were children, arid that this is true of all the men and women 
whom he holds in the deepest esteem and veneration. You know very well that 
under such teaching all children would become shamelessly lawless and 
disobedient, and void of natural affection. Suppose that teachers in our schools 
should give out their rules, and none but wholesome ones, and should then induce 
their pupils to resolve upon, and most solemnly pledge, full obedience. We will 
then suppose that these pupils are furnished with a manual containing such an 
item as this: No pupil, since schools were organised, hath been able fully to 
obey such rules, but daily doth break them in heart, thought, word, and act. The 
pupils are then assured that all teachers, that all parents, and all the wisest 
and best men and women of all ages, did thus sin, 'vhen they were pupils; and 
that present pupils should not expect to be better than their predecessors. We 
all know what the result would be. The same lawless, remorseless, and shameless 
results would undeniably follow from similar teachings and beliefs in every 
conceivable sphere of human life. Can a sentiment, thus subversive in all other 
relations, be of hallowed influence in the family of God and school of 
Christ?</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>3. Suppose now, that the convert and all 
believers are further taught that God has abundantly, in His own Word, revealed 
the fact---a fact which we must believe, or "make God a liar "---that all 
Christians do, and will, sin daily in heart, thought, word, and act, and that it 
is a perilous error to believe or eêñect the contrary. You go further, and 
furnish your pupils with numberless aflirmed proof texts, confirming the belief 
and expectations under consideration; thus inducing in the mind the habit of 
searching the Bible, not to find "the grace which bringeth salvation," but 
proofs of the fact of the absolute certainty that the subject ---viii sin. The 
conviction, of the inevitable certainty of actual sin is thus confirmed by 
affirmed specific revelations from God Himself. Surrounded as the convert is by 
numberless temptations and besetments from the world, the flesh, and Satan, an 
infinite weight is thus added to the pressure that lures him onward in the 
direction of sin.</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>4. Á wide step, we will suppose, is now 
taken in advance of all this. The convert and other believers are impressed with 
the conviction that it is a revealed and fixed arrangement of divine purpose and 
grace, not only that no believer shall in this life be "sanctified wholly," be 
"saved unto the uttermost," or be "redeemed from all iniquity," but that he 
shall be ~rádõaI1y recovered from the power of sin. You assure the convert that 
while "Christ can, by one word of His power, render us sinless, God is 
glorified, not in the instantaneous perfection of His redeemed, but by their 
gradual deliverance from imperfection." "Gradual growth out of the evil into the 
good is the divine law (method) of holiness." "Man prefers the instantaneous to 
the gradual, but will he prevail against God?" The above are cited from the 
writings of a leading divine of this age. When your pupil has received such a 
doctrine as that, and received it as a revealed truth of God, will he, can he, 
regard the degree of sin, under the power of which, by divine choice and fixed 
purpose, he is left, the degree of sin, deliverance from which would be a 
reversal of "the divine law of holiness" ?---will he, can he, regard this amount 
and degree of sin, as in reality, "an evil thing and bitter"? You may---and he 
may---call it such, but in the presence of such apprehensions, neither He nor 
you can regard it as such. Recognising yourself, on the other hand, as õnIIer 
"the divine law of holiness," as in the state in which alone "God is glorified," 
you cannot, if you respect the law under which God has, as you believe, 
immutably placed you, but be content to continue under the degree of sin where 
God leaves and continues you. It is thus that men "make void the law of God by 
their traditions."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>5. The same baleful influence results from 
those forms of teaching in which sin itself is represented as an infinite evil, 
while "the sense of sin" is eulogized and magnified as of immortal benefit to 
the soul. "The sense of sin," says a distinguished theologian, "is like the 
atmosphere in which the earthly bird wings its flight, for all its powers are 
adapted to a resisting medium." "The sense of sin," he says again, "is to the 
soul what the air is to the bird. In our present imperfect state it is essential 
to its growth." The immutable condition, as this author afterwards states, of 
the existence of "a sense of sin," is the continued conscious presence of sin in 
the heart. How can a spiritual atmosphere, without which spiritual life and 
growth are impossible, be regarded as an infinite good, and the sin without 
which the existence of the atmosphere is impossible, be in the mind's regard our 
infinite evil? "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?" " Abiding 
in Christ," "faith in His name," and the power of the Spirit received by faith, 
are God's revealed atmosphere of spiritual growth and development. For all "the 
sense of sin "needed, "the time past of our lives," we are assured, "may 
suffice."</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>6. We will now refer to the covenant 
ïbIIòatiïns, which every convert is required to assume on his entrance into the 
C[iurch. In every Church the convert is required, under the solemnity of an 
oath, to pledge himself to God, and to His people, to abstain wholly from all 
sin, and to render implicit obedience to "every word that ñrïceedeþ out of the 
mouth of God." In all of the Churches in which the doctrine under consideration 
is received, the convert is required to assume such sacred obligations under the 
avowed expectation of daily violating them in heart, thought, word, and deed. We 
have very high authority for affirming that "it is better not to vow than to vow 
and not pay." What must be the tendency of vowing to God and man with the avowed 
expectation of not paying? Years after the English government was established in 
India, the English judges there affirmed that they had never found a native of 
that country whose oath could be at all relied on in any case where the interest 
or desire of the witness impelled him to perjury. The reason, and only reason, 
was the universal expectation that all oaths would be of this character. The 
same expectation 'vould undeniably impart the same character to oaths in all 
courts of justice on earth. Is this principle reversed in respect to covenant 
vows or oaths of still greater solemnity---vows taken by every conyert on his 
entrance into full standing in the Church? We contemplate with horror such vows. 
If it was the fixed plan to induce general indif· ference to covenant vows, and 
to sin itself, what means, we ask, in all sincerity, could be adopted, better 
adapted to that end, than constraining the convert, in fact and form, to 
covenant with God and nian, and to consider himself under perpetual covenant 
obligations to do what he avowedly expects not to do, and not to do what he 
deliberately expects to do? In entering into the married relation, each party 
solemnly pledges absolute fidelity to the other. What if, in all such 
transactions, those vows were assumed with the avowed expectation of daijy 
violating them in heart, thought, word, and deed, and with the avowed belief 
that, since the fall, no husband or wife has been able to keep such a covenant? 
Covenanting with God is represented in the Scriptures as a marriage. Can it be 
that making vows to God, with the avowed expectation of daily violating them, 
does not have the same fatal tendency that ordinary marriage vows assumed with 
similar expectations, would have?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>6. In prayer, we remark again, grace is 
specifically asked for, that the subject may "stand perfect and complete in all 
the will of God." Yet, wherever the belief under consideration obtains, such 
prayers are offered with the avowed expectation of not receiving the blessing 
asked for. What is the immutable tendency of thus praying, but to render prayer, 
in all its forms, an unmeaning and heartless service?</FONT><FONT size=3></FONT> 

<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>As sin, according to this sentiment, is an 
omnipresent fact in experience, the confession of sin in every prayer is 
required by those who hold this sentiment And what is the character of the 
confessions which we commonly hear? If there is anything which must be "a smoke 
in the nose" of the Almighty, it must be an unfeeling arid heartless confession 
of sin. Yet this is the smoke which is constantly going up from the prayers 
offered everywhere, under the expectation of sinning daily in heart, thought, 
word, arid deed. With what shameless indifference, as if sin was</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>regarded as the merest trii~e, are the 
confessions repeated: "We have done many things that we ought not to have done, 
and left undone many things which we ought to have done." In such prayers 
individuals "become rockers, and render their bands strong," and just such 
prayers will be offered whenever arid wherever the sentiment under consideration 
shall obtain.</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>7. The same result, we remark finally, 
follows from another form of teaching. When the duty and possibility of being " 
cleansed from all sin," through the grace of Christ, and the power of "the 
Eternal Spirit" are presented, we are gravely told that we think thus because we 
have lowered the standard of duty, and relaxed the claims of the law and will of 
God. "Had you," we are told, "such a standard of moral excellence before your 
mind as rises before ours, and were God's claims upon our love and obedience as 
sacred in your regard as they are in ours, you would not speak as you do." A 
certain lady was iii the constant habit of eulogising her minister as one of the 
greatest theologians of the age. "Why," she exclaimed, on a particular occasion, 
"so deep and profound are his teachings, that I don't pretend to understand 
him." You profess, my friend, through your teachings, to "magnify the law and 
make it honourable" by representing its claims as so high and sacred, that you 
never think of keeping them. You will effectively secure this end when, and only 
when, those claims shall become so high and sacred in your regard, that you will 
never think of anything else but keeping them---of anything else than prompt and 
full obedience to "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." God 
never eulogises His law by raising it above the provisions of His grace, the 
power of His spirit, and the possibilities of faith. "This commandment," He 
says, "which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it 
far off. It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to 
heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it 
beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and 
bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto 
thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." This, also, is 
just what Paul affirms to be true of "the word of faith, "as taught by himself 
and inspired associates. Placing God's requirements above the provisions and 
promises of His grace, "the power of the Spirit," and the possibilities of 
faith, does nothing else but impart a fatal opiate to the conscience, and enable 
individuals to sin without shame and almost without remorse.</FONT><FONT 
size=3></FONT> 
<P><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=5><FONT 
color=#0000ff><B>CONCLUSION.</B></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=3> 
</FONT></FONT><FONT size=3></FONT>
<P><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT size=4>Such, undeniably, are the necessary fruits 
and immutable tendencies of the doctrine of the continued conscious sinfulness 
of all believers in this life. In no sense or form does it tend to "magnify the 
law or make it honourable." It does, on the other hand, immutably tend to 
perpetuate sin in the heart and life, to strengthen the power of every evil 
principle within us, to sear the conscience to a sense of sin, to deaden the 
fervour of all religious duty, to render all-powerful "the law of sin which is 
in the members," on the one hand, and, on the other, to hang weights upon our 
faith in the availability of God's revealed power to save, in the efficacy of 
the revealed provisions and promises of grace, of Christ's Intercessory Prayer, 
and of the power of the Spirit. All who read their Bibles under the influence of 
this doctrine read it with a veil before their minds, a veil which hides from 
their hearts God's truth in its divinest forms. Soon, we believe, that veil will 
be taken away, and then will believers, "with open face, behold as in a glass 
the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord."</FONT><FONT size=3> </FONT>
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