*B EbM 
 
 MAHATVPS 
 CHRISTIAN 
 PERFECTION 
 
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 OP 
 
 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION; 
 
 WITH OTHER KINDRED SUBJECTS, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND CONFIRMED 
 
 
 
 A SERIES OF DISCOURSES 
 
 DESIGNED TO 
 THROW LIGHT ON THE WAY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 BY REV. ASA MAHAN, 
 
 Now the just shall live by faith." HKB. x. 38. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY D. S. KING, 
 
 32 Washington Street. 
 
 1839. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by 
 D. S. KING, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 DATID H. ELA, PRINTER, 
 
 19 Washington Street. 
 
TO THE HONEST INQUIRER AFTER HOLINESS, 
 
 This work is respectfully dedicated, with fervent 
 prayer to the blessed Trinity, that its perusal 
 may be to the Reader a source of as great 
 comfort and profit, as its preparation has been 
 to the Author. 
 
Vte 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 DISCOURSE f. 
 Ifs Nature, 9 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 Attainable, 25 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 The Objections Answered, 63 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 The New Covenant, 95 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 Full Redemption, 131 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 Special Redemption, 153 
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 The Promises, 179 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 The Divine Teacher, 201 
 


 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is 
 perfect." Mat. v. 48. 
 
 Two important features of this passage demand 
 our special attention. 1. The command, "Be 
 perfect." 2. The nature and extent of the com- 
 mand ; " even as your Father in heaven is per- 
 fect." In other words, we are here required to be 
 as perfect, as holy, as free from all sin, in our 
 sphere as creatures, as God is in his as our Creator 
 and our Sovereign. 
 
 My design in the present discourse is to answer 
 this one question ; What is perfection in holiness ? 
 In answering this inquiry, I would remark, that 
 perfection in holiness implies a full and perfect dis- 
 
10 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 charge of our entire duty, of all existing obliga- 
 tions in respect to God and all other beings. It is 
 perfect obedience to the moral law. It is " loving 
 the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all 
 our soul, and with all our strength, and our neigh- 
 bor as ourselves." It implies the entire absence 
 of all selfishness, and the perpetual presence and 
 all pervading influence of pure and perfect love. 
 " Love is the fulfilling of the law." 
 
 In the Christian, perfection in holiness implies 
 the consecration of his whole being to Christ the 
 subjection of all his powers and susceptibilities to 
 the control of one principle, " faith on the Son of 
 God." This is what the moral law demands of 
 him in his circumstances. ' Were the Christian in 
 that state in which he should " eat, and drink, and 
 do all that he does for the glory of God," in which 
 his eye should be perfectly single to this one ob- 
 ject ; or in which the action of all hispowers should 
 be controlled by faith, which works by love, he 
 would then, I suppose, have attained to a state 
 of entire sanctification his character would be 
 "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Every 
 duty to every being in existence would be dis- 
 charged. 
 
 It will readily be perceived, that perfect holiness, 
 as above described, does not imply perfect wisdom, 
 the exclusive attribute of God. The Scriptures, 
 
ITS NATURE. 11 
 
 speaking of the human nature of Christ, affirm, 
 that he "increased in wisdom." This surely does 
 not imply that his holiness was less perfect at one 
 time than at another. So of the Christian. His 
 holiness may be perfect in kind, but finite in 
 degree, and in this sense imperfect ; because his 
 wisdom and knowledge are limited, and in this 
 sense imperfect. 
 
 Holiness, in a creature, may also be perfect, and 
 yet progressive progressive, not in its nature, but 
 in degree. To be perfect, it must be progressive 
 in the sense last mentioned, if the powers of the 
 subject are progressive. He is perfect in holiness, 
 whose love at each successive moment corresponds 
 with the extent of his powers. " If there be first 
 a willing mind, it is accepted according to that 
 a man hath, and not according to that he hath 
 not." 
 
 Hence I remark, that perfection in holiness does 
 not imply, that we now love God with all the 
 strength and intensity with which redeemed spirits 
 in heaven love him. The depth and intensity of 
 our love depend under all circumstances upon the 
 vigor and reach of our powers, and the extent and 
 distinctness of our vision of divine truth. " Here 
 we see through a glass darkly ; there face to face." 
 Here our powers are comparatively weak. There 
 they will be endowed with an immortal and tire- 
 
12 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 less vigor. In each and every sphere, perfection 
 in holiness implies a strength and intensity of love 
 corresponding with the reach of our powers and 
 the extent and distinctness of our vision of truth in 
 that particular sphere. The child is perfect in 
 holiness who perpetually exercises a filial and af- 
 fectionate obedience to all the divine requisitions, 
 and loves God with all the powers which it pos- 
 sesses as a child. The man is perfect in holiness 
 who exercises the same supreme and affectionate 
 obedience to all that God requires, and loves him 
 to the full extent of his knowledge and strength as 
 a man. The saint on earth is perfect, when he 
 loves with all the strength and intensity rendered 
 practicable by the extent of his knowledge and 
 reach of his powers in his present sphere. The 
 saint in heaven, will be favored with a seraph's 
 vision, and a seraph's power. To be perfect there, 
 he must love and adore with a seraph's vigor, and 
 bum with a seraph's fire. 
 
 To present this subject in a somewhat more dis- 
 tinct and expanded form, the attention of the rea- 
 der is now invited to a few remarks upon 1 Thes. 
 v. 23. "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." The prayer 
 of the apostles for Christians here is, in the Ian- 
 
ITS NATURE. 
 
 guage of Dr. Scott, that the " very God of 
 peace," " would sanctify them wholly, and in re- 
 spect to their entire nature, as consisting of a 
 rational and immortal soul, an animal life, with 
 its various sensitive appetites, and a material body ; 
 that every sense, member, organ, and faculty, 
 might be completely purified, and devoted to the 
 service of God ; and that thus they might be pre- 
 served blameless till the coming of Christ." In 
 short, the prayer of the apostle is, that all the 
 powers and susceptibilities of our being may not 
 only be purified from all that is unholy, but wholly 
 sanctified and devoted to Christ, and forever pre- 
 served in that state. Now the powers and suscep- 
 tibilities of our nature are all comprehended in the 
 following enumeration : the will, the intellect, and 
 our mental and physical susceptibilities and pro- 
 pensities. The question to which the special at- 
 tention of the reader is invited is this. When are 
 we in a perfectly sanctified and blameless state, in 
 respect to the action of all these powers and sus- 
 ceptibilities ? 
 
 1. That we be in a perfectly sanctified and 
 blameless state in regard to our wills, implies, that 
 the action of all our voluntary powers be in entire 
 conformity to the will of God, that every choice, 
 every preference, and every volition, be controlled 
 by a filial regard to the divine requisitions. The 
 
14 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 perpetual language of the heart must be, " Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me do ?" 
 
 2. That we "be preserved blameless" in re- 
 gard to our intellect, does not imply that we never 
 think of what is evil. If this were so, Christ was 
 not blameless, because he thought of the tempt- 
 ations of satan. Nor could the Christian repel 
 what is evil as he is required to do. To repel 
 evil, the evil itself must be before the mind as an 
 object of thought. 
 
 To be blameless in respect to the action of our 
 intellectual powers, does imply, 1. That every 
 thought of evil be instantly suppressed and re- 
 pelled. 2. That they be constantly employed on 
 the inquiry, what is the truth and will of God, 
 and by what means we may best meet the de- 
 mands of the great law of love. 3. That they be 
 employed in the perpetual contemplation of " what- 
 soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
 whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are 
 pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and 
 if there be any praise," in thinking of these things 
 also. When the intellectual powers are thus em- 
 ployed, they are certainly in a blameless state. 
 
 3. That our feelings and mental susceptibilities 
 be preserved blameless, does not imply, that they 
 are at all times and circumstances in the same in- 
 tensity of excitement, or in the same identical state. 
 
ITS NATURE. 15 
 
 This the powers and laws of our being forbid. 
 Nor in that case, could we obey the command, 
 "Rejoice with those that do rejoice, and weep with 
 those that weep." Nor does it imply that no feel- 
 ings can exist in the mind which under the cir- 
 cumstances then present, it would be improper to 
 indulge. A Christian, for example, may feel a 
 very strong desire to speak for Christ under 
 circumstances when it would be improper for 
 him to speak. The feeling itself is proper. But 
 we must be guided by wisdom from above in re- 
 spect to the question, when and where we are to 
 give utterance to our feelings. 
 
 That our feelings and mental susceptibilities be 
 in a blameless state, does imply, 1. That they all 
 be held in perfect and perpetual subjection to the 
 will of God. 2. That they be in perfect and 
 perpetual harmony with the truth and will of God 
 as apprehended by the intellect, and thus consti- 
 tuting a spotless mirror, through which there shall 
 be a perfect reflection of whatsoever things are 
 "true," " honest," "just," "pure," "lovely," 
 and of " good report." 
 
 4. That our " bodies be preserved blameless," 
 does not, of course, imply that they are free from 
 fatigue, disease or death. Nor does it imply that 
 no desire be excited through our physical propen- 
 sities, which under existing circumstances it would 
 
16 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 be unlawful to indulge. The feeling of hunger in 
 Christ, under circumstances in which indulgence 
 was not proper, was not sinful. The consent of 
 the will to gratify the feeling, and not the feeling 
 i tself, renders us sinners. 
 
 That we be preserved in a sanctified and blame- 
 less state in respect to our bodies, does imply 
 1. That we endeavor to acquaint ourselves with 
 all the laws of our physical constitution. 2. That 
 in regard to food, drink, and dress, and in regard to 
 the indulgence all our appetites and physical pro- 
 pensities, there be a sacred and undeviating con- 
 formity to these laws. 3. That every unlawful 
 desire be instantly suppressed, and that all our pro- 
 pensities be held in perfect subjection to the will of 
 God. 4. That our bodies with all our physical 
 powers and propensities be " presented to God as 
 a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable/' to be em- 
 ployed in his service. 
 
 Such is Christian Perfection. It is the conse- 
 cration of our whole being to Christ, and the per- 
 petual employment of all our powers in his service. 
 It is the perfect assimulation of our entire charac- 
 ter to that of Christ, having at all times, and under 
 all circumstances, the " same mind that was also 
 in Christ Jesus." It is, in the language of Mr. 
 Wesley, "In one view, purity of intention, dedi- 
 cating all the life to God. It is the giving God all 
 
ITS NATURE. 17 
 
 the heart ; it is one desire and design ruling all our 
 tempers. It is devoting not a part, but all our 
 soul, body and substance to God. In another 
 view, it is all the mind that was in Christ Jesus, 
 enabling us to walk as he walked. It is the cir- 
 cumcision of the heart from all filthiness, from all 
 inward as well as outward pollution. It is the 
 renewal of the heart in the whole image of God, 
 the full likeness of him that created it. In yet 
 another, it is loving God with all our heart, and 
 our neighbor as ourselves." 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I. We will in the first place notice some of the 
 features of the subject now under consideration, 
 in respect to which all evangelical Christians are 
 agreed. 
 
 1. All, I have no doubt, will admit that the 
 nature of Christian perfection has been correctly 
 stated in the preceding remarks ; that were any in- 
 dividual actually in the state there described, his 
 moral and Christian character would be " perfect 
 and entire, wanting nothing." 
 
 2. All agree that this entire perfection in ho- 
 liness, is definitely and positively required of us in 
 the Bible, and that, for not rendering such obe- 
 dience to God, we are wholly without excuse. 
 
18 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 3. All agree that the fact, that one is not thus 
 perfect, should be to him a subject of deep repent- 
 ance and humiliation, and of unfeigned sorrow and 
 contrition of heart. It is certainly no pleasing 
 feature of Christian characte f r, that we are living in 
 partial disobedience to the reasonable requirements 
 of our God and Saviour ; and the individual that 
 can contemplate the fact that he is thus living, 
 without deep, unfeigned and unmingled con- 
 trition, penitence and self-abasement, gives fearful 
 evidence, that he is a stranger to the love of 
 Christ. 
 
 4. All admit that it is the indispensable duty of 
 every Christian to aim at entire perfection in 
 holiness, and that the individual, who is not 
 aiming at a full discharge of every duty, is wanting 
 in, at least, one fundamental requisite of Christian 
 character. 
 
 5. All agree that we are not only under obliga- 
 tion to aim at such a state, but to make it the sub- 
 ject of constant and fervent prayer, that God 
 himself will thus sanctify us. 
 
 6. All agree that it is practicable for professors 
 of religion generally, to make far higher attain- 
 ments in holiness than they now do. In view of 
 this admission, let me ask the question : Can he be 
 a Christian who is conscious, that he is living far 
 below his privileges, and is yet comparatively sat- 
 
ITS NATURE. 19 
 
 isfied with his present state, and is not making 
 vigorous and prayerful efforts to arise to the full 
 standard of practicable attainment ? Is he not 
 living in the habitual and allowed neglect of an 
 acknowledged duty ? 
 
 7. All agree that no line can be drawn this side 
 of entire perfection in holiness, beyond which it is 
 not practicable for the Christian to go. 
 
 8. All agree that at death, or a short period 
 prior to that event, every Christian does arrive at 
 a state of entire sanctification. 
 
 Such are the questions connected with this 
 subject, in reference to which all Christians are 
 agreed. We will now, 
 
 II. In the second place, consider the question 
 in respect to which they differ. It is in reference 
 to the simple question, Whether we may now, dur- 
 ing the, progress of the present life, attain to 
 entire perfection in holiness, and whether it is 
 proper for us to indulge the anticipation of mak- 
 ing such attainments. One part of the Church 
 affirm, that the perfect obedience which God re- 
 quires of us, we may render to him. The other 
 affirm, that it is criminal for us to expect to render 
 that obedience. One part affirm that we ought to 
 aim at entire perfection in holiness, with the ex- 
 pectation of attaining to that state. The other 
 
20 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 part affirm, that we ought to aim at the same per- 
 fection in holiness, with the certain expectation of 
 not attaining to that state. On the one hand, it is 
 affirmed, that we ought to pray that the " very 
 God of peace will sanctify us wholly, and preserve 
 our whole spirit, and soul, and body, blameless 
 unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," with 
 the expectation, that God will answer our prayers 
 by the bestowment of that very blessing. On the 
 other hand, it is affirmed, that we ought to put 
 up that identical prayer, with the certain expecta- 
 tion of not receiving the blessing which we " desire 
 of him." On the one hand, it is affirmed that 
 grace is provided in the gospel to render the Chris- 
 tian, even in this life, " perfect in every good 
 work to do the will of God." On the other hand, 
 it is affirmed, that no such grace is provided. 
 
 Such is a fair and unvarnished statement of 
 questions connected with the subject under consid- 
 eration, in respect to which Christians agree and 
 disagree. 
 
 III. No evil can result from the belief, that 
 entire perfection in holiness is attainable in this life, 
 provided the true standard of perfection be kept 
 constantly and distinctly before the mind. No one 
 can show any thing intrinsic in this doctrine, thus 
 entertained, at which the Church ought to be 
 
ITS NATURE. 21 
 
 alarmed. On the other hand, the belief of this 
 doctrine, under the circumstances supposed, must 
 be of the highest practical utility ; because it lays 
 the only adequate foundation for the most vigorous 
 and prayerful efforts after those attainments in ho- 
 liness, at which all admit we are bound to aim. 
 To aim at a state, with the certain expectation of 
 not reaching it, must be a hard task truly, and must 
 render all our efforts well nigh powerless. To 
 aim at a state, on the other hand, with the belief 
 that it is attainable, is the indispensable condition of 
 efficient action. 
 
 IV. Whatever our present condition and cir- 
 cumstances may be, there is no presumption in our 
 indulging the expectation of attaining to entire 
 perfection in holiness, provided corresponding pro- 
 visions are made in the gospel, and God himself has 
 promised thus to sanctify us. If Christ has prom- 
 ised to guard us against all temptation, we ought 
 to expect to be thus kept by him, whatever the 
 temptations may be which beset us. If God, on 
 condition of our trusting him for this very blessing, 
 has promised to " sanctify us wholly," we ought to 
 expect to be thus sanctified. In view of such 
 provisions and promises, there is no more presump- 
 tion in expecting perfect, than partial sanctification ; 
 since our faith, alike in both instances, rests not upon 
 
22 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 an arm of flesh, but upon the grace and power of 
 God. 
 
 V. The question, whether entire perfection in ho- 
 liness is attainable in this life, depends exclusively 
 upon the question, What are the nature and extent 
 of the provisions of the gospel for our present sanc- 
 tification, and of the " exceeding great and precious 
 promises " of divine grace ? In pursuing our in- 
 quiries in respect to this question, we are to look 
 away from our condition and circumstances as sin- 
 ners, and from our natural powers as moral agents, 
 to the provisions and promises of the grace of God. 
 If the " riches of Christ's inheritance in the saints," 
 comprehends their entire sanctification in this life, 
 we certainly are under obligations infinite. to pos- 
 sess that inheritance in all its fullness. Are you, 
 Christian, prepared to enter upon the investigation 
 of the subject before us, with the simple inquiry, 
 What has God provided for and promised to me, 
 as a Christian ? When will the Church be again 
 able to say, " We have known and believed the 
 love which the Father hath unto us ? " 
 
 VI. Finally, Inasmuch as entire perfection in 
 holiness is required of us, not only in the law, but 
 also in the gospel, and is a ceaseless demand of 
 our being, we are under complete obligation to 
 
ITS NATURE. 23 
 
 approach the inquiry, Whether the doctrine, that 
 such perfection is attainable in this life is contained 
 in the Bible, with the hope of finding it there. 
 To this inquiry the attention of the reader will be 
 directed in the following discourse. 
 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 PERFECTION IN HOLINESS ATTAINABLE. 
 
 " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is 
 perfect." Matt. v. 48. 
 
 The object of the preceding discourse was, to 
 illustrate and explain the nature of Christian Per- 
 fection. The object of the present discourse is, to 
 answer the inquiry. Is such a state attainable in 
 this life ?" to ascertain the fact, whether it is prac- 
 ticable for us, as Christians, to consecrate our 
 entire being, with all its powers and susceptibili- 
 ties, to Christ, and to live under the continual 
 influence of the all-pervading and all-controlling 
 principle of pure and perfect love "of faith on 
 the Son of God:' * 
 
 I use the terms attainable and practicable, with 
 reference, not merely to our powers as moral 
 agents, but also with respect to the provisions and 
 promises of divine grace. If provision is made in 
 
 * Parts of this and the following Discourse have already f 
 been before the public in another form. 
 
 2 
 
26 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 the gospel for the entire sanctification of believers 
 in this life, if God has promised to render those 
 " perfect in every good work to do his will," by 
 whom he is inquired of by faith to do it for them, 
 then is such a state, in the highest and most com- 
 mon acceptation of the term, attainable ; and we 
 are under the most sacred obligation to aim at that 
 state, with the full and joyful expectation of attain- 
 ing it. 
 
 The question now returns : Is perfection in ho- 
 liness, in the sense of the term as above explained, 
 attainable in this life ? That it is attainable, I 
 argue from the following reasons. 
 
 I. The Bible positively affirms that provision 
 is made in the gospel, for the attainment of that 
 state, and that to make such provision is one of the 
 great objects of Christ's redemption. Rom. viii. 
 3, 4. " For what the law 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 ; that the righteous- 
 ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the spirit." The 
 phrase, ( righteousness of the law," obviously 
 means the precepts of the law, or the moral recti- 
 tude which the law requires. This I argue, 1st, 
 From the fact that the same phrase is undeniably 
 used in this sense in the preceding part of the 
 
ATTAINABLE. 27 
 
 epistle, chap. ii. 26; "If the circumcision keep 
 the righteousness [the precepts] of the law." 
 Without the best of reasons, we should not sup- 
 pose the apostle to use the same phrase, in entire- 
 ly different senses, in the same epistle. 2d. Justi- 
 fication, the only other sense ever, I believe, at- 
 tributed to the phrase under consideration, is never 
 in the Bible called the justi6cation of the law, but 
 is definitely distinguished from it, by being called 
 "justification by faith." 3d. If justification were 
 the thing primarily referred to in this phrase, still 
 the moral rectitude required by the law, i. e. sanc- 
 tification, is also implied in it. For, if Christ 
 should justify, and not to the same extent sanctify 
 his people, he would save them in, and not from 
 their sins. The phrase, " righteousness of the 
 law," then, directly and primarily means, or ob- 
 viously implies, the precepts of the law, or the 
 moral rectitude required by the law. To have 
 this righteousness fulfilled in us, implies, that it be 
 perfectly accomplished in us, or, that w^ are 
 brought into perfect conformity to the moral recti- 
 tude required by the law. This is declared to be 
 one of the great objects of Christ's death. Such 
 conformity, then, is practicable to the Christian, or 
 Christ failed to accomplish one of the prime pur- 
 poses of his redemption. Again, 1 Peter ii. 24, 
 " Who his own self bare our sins in his own body 
 
28 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live 
 
 unto righteousness." To be dead to sin, and alive 
 
 unto righteousness, implies entire sanctification, or, 
 
 to be dead in sin, does not imply total depravity. 
 
 That we might be thus dead, and thus alive, 
 
 Christ " bore our sins in his own body on the 
 
 tree." Entire sanctification, then, is attainable, or 
 
 Christ failed, in one important respect, to finish the 
 
 work which his Father " gave him to do." 2 Cor. 
 
 v. 15, "And he died for all, that they which live 
 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but 
 
 unto him that died for them, and rose again." In 
 
 other words, Christ died that his people might be 
 
 free from all selfishness, and become purely and 
 
 perfectly benevolent. Did he fail to accomplish 
 
 his work ? 2 Pet. i. 4, " Whereby are given 
 
 unto us exceeding great and precious promises ; 
 
 that by these ye might be partakers of the divine 
 
 nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the 
 
 world through lust." 2 Cor. vii. 1, "Having 
 
 therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us 
 
 cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and 
 
 spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." If 
 
 to "escape the corruption that is in the world 
 
 through lust," and to be " made partakers of the 
 
 divine nature," to " cleanse ourselves from all 
 
 filthiness of the flesh and spirit," and to " perfect 
 
 holiness/ 5 do not imply entire sanctification, how, 
 
ATTAINABLE. 29 
 
 I ask, can that doctrine be expressed ? That the 
 Christian may be thus sanctified is the declared 
 object for which the promises were given. Who 
 will deny that they are adequate to this object ? 
 Unless they are thus inadequate, perfection in ho- 
 liness, is, in this life, practicable to the Christian. 
 
 Under- this head I might cite many other pas- 
 sages, equally to my purpose ; but these must suffice. 
 On these and other kindred passages, I have one 
 remark to make, to which the special attention of 
 the reader is invited. It is this We have the 
 same evidence from the Bible, that provision is 
 made for the entire sanctification of Christians, 
 that we have that provision is made for their entire 
 justification. Any principles of interpretation that 
 will show that provision is not made for the former, 
 will be equally conclusive to show that it is not 
 made for the latter. 
 
 II. Perfection in holiness is promised to the 
 Christian, in the new covenant under which he is 
 now placed. To present this part of the subject 
 distinctly before the reader's mind, we will first 
 inquire what is the old or first covenant. Exod. 
 xxxiv. 27, 28. " And the Lord said unto Moses, 
 write thou these words : for after the tenor of these 
 words have I made a covenant with thee, and with 
 Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty 
 
30 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 days and forty nights ; he did neither eat bread 
 nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables 
 the words of the covenant, the ten command- 
 ments." Deut. ix. 11, 15. "And it came to pass 
 at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the 
 Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the 
 tables of the covenant." " So I turned, and came 
 down from the mount, and the mount burned with 
 fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in 
 my hands." The first, or the old covenant then, 
 is the moral law, that law, by which we are re- 
 quired to " love the Lord our God with all our 
 powers, and our neighbor as ourselves." This 
 covenant, as we learn from Heb. ix. 1 4, had 
 annexed to it the types and shadows of the ancient 
 dispensation. " Then verily the first covenant 
 had " attached to it, " ordinances of divine service, 
 and a worldly sanctuary," &c. 
 
 What the new covenant is, we learn from Jer. 
 xxxi. 3134, and Heb. viii. 8 11. "Behold 
 the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make 
 a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with 
 the house of Judah. Not according to the cove- 
 nant that I made with their fathers, in the day that 
 I took them by the hand to bring them out of the 
 land of Egypt ; (which my covenant they brake, 
 although I was an husband unto them, saith the 
 Lord :) But this shall be the covenant that I will 
 
ATTAINABLE. 31 
 
 make with the house of Israel : After those days, 
 saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
 parts, and write it in their hearts ; and I will be 
 their God, and they shall be my people. And they 
 shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and 
 every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : 
 for they shall all know me, from the least of them 
 unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I 
 will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember 
 their sins no more." 
 
 The following blessings., specifically promised in 
 this covenant, demand our special attention. 1. 
 A confirmed state of pure and perfect holiness, 
 such as the first covenant or moral law demands. 
 " I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts." 2. The pardon of all 
 sin, or perfect justification. " I will forgive their 
 iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more." 
 3. The perpetual fruition of the divine presence 
 and favor. " I will be their God, and they shall 
 be my people." 4. The general spread of the 
 gospel among mankind. " All shall know me." 
 
 We will now notice the relations of these two 
 covenants. 
 
 1. The same standard of character, perfect holi- 
 ness, is common to both. 
 
 2. What the old covenant requires of Christians, 
 the new promises to ihem. For example ; 
 
 *> . i a- 
 
32 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 1st. The old covenant requires perfect holiness. 
 Its language is, " Thou shalt be perfect with the 
 Lord thy God." " He that keepeth the whole 
 law, and yet offendeth in one point, is guilty of all. " 
 
 On the other hand, the new covenant promises 
 to the believer perfect holiness. Jer. xxxi. 32. 
 " But this shall be the covenant that I will make 
 with the house of Israel ; after those days, saith the 
 Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, 
 and they shall be my people." See also Heb. viii. 
 10. Here, as above remarked, the very thing 
 which the moral law requires, is positively promised 
 to the believer. Ezek. xxxvi. 25 27, " Then will 
 I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
 clean ; from all your filthiness, 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 a heart of flesh. And I 
 will put my spirit within you, and cause you to 
 walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg- 
 ments, and do them." Is it in the power of lan- 
 guage to express the doctrine of entire sanctifica- 
 tion, if it is not here expressed? Jer. 1. 2. "In 
 those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the 
 iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall 
 be none ; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not 
 
ATTAINABLE. 33 
 
 be found : For I will pardon them whom I reserve." 
 What other thought, let me ask, is such language 
 adapted to convey but this, a state of entire sanc- 
 tification? Deut. xxx. 6, "And the Lord thy 
 God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of 
 thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine 
 heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.' 7 
 Here the perfect holiness required by the law, is 
 promised in the very words of the law itself. 
 
 Again, 2d. The old covenant or moral law 
 requires not only perfect, but perpetual holiness. 
 Gal. iii. 10, " Cursed is every one that continueth 
 not in all things which are written in the book of 
 the law to do them." The new covenant, on the 
 other hand, promises not only perfect but perpetu- 
 al holiness. Jer. xxxii. 30, 40, "And I will give 
 them one heart, and one way, that they may fear 
 me for ever, for the good of them, and of their chil- 
 dren after them. And I will make an everlasting 
 covenant with them, that I will not turn away 
 from them, to do them good ; but I will put my 
 fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from 
 me." If, to give to Christians one heart and one 
 way, that they may fear God for ever, and never 
 depart from him, does not imply, not only perfect, 
 but perpetual holiness, we may truly say, that lan- 
 guage cannot express that idea. Ezek. xxxvii. 23, 
 " Neither shall they defile themselves any more 
 
34 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 with their idols, nor with their detestable things, 
 nor with any of their transgressions." Every one 
 will perceive, that if the Holy Spirit has not here 
 given us the promise not only of perfect but per- 
 petual holiness, he has made as near an approach 
 to it as is in the power of language to make, and 
 that if he had designed to express that promise, 
 no stronger language could possibly have been 
 used. 
 
 The same truth is taught with equal distinct- 
 ness in Isa. lix. 21, and Luke i. 74, 75 ; "As for 
 me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord : 
 My Spirit which is upon thee, and my words which 
 I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy 
 mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of 
 the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from 
 henceforth and for ever." " That he would grant un- 
 to us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our 
 enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness 
 and righteousness before him, all the rest of our 
 life." 
 
 I cite but one other passage under this head, 
 a passage, which, if we had none others of 
 the kind in the Bible, would place the doctrine 
 under consideration upon an eternal rock. 1 Thes. 
 v. 23, 24, "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 
 
ATTAINABLE. 35 
 
 he that calleth you, who also will do it." Here 
 we have, 1. A prayer, for perfect and perpetual 
 holiness, dictated by the direct inspiration of the 
 Spirit of God. Who can believe, that the Holy 
 Spirit has dictated a prayer which is not " accord- 
 ing to the will of God," and which he requires us 
 to believe that God will never answer by the be- 
 stowment of the blessing " desired of him ?" 2. 
 We have the positive declaration of God himself, 
 that this blessing, when asked in faith, shall be 
 granted. " Faithful is he that calleth you, who 
 also will do it." On the promises of Scripture, as 
 thus presented, I remark ; 
 
 1. That we have evidence just as conclusive, 
 that perfect and perpetual holiness is promised to 
 Christians, as we have that it is required of them. 
 Any principles of interpretation that would prove 
 that the former is not promised, would be equally 
 conclusive to show that the latter is not required. 
 
 2. We have the same evidence from Scripture, 
 that all Christians may, and that some of them will 
 attain to a state of entire sanctification in this life, 
 that we have that they will attain to that state in 
 heaven. No passages can be adduced which 
 more positively affirm the latter than the former. 
 Any principles of interpretation that will show that 
 such passages as I have cited, and shall hereafter 
 cite, do not prove the practicability of perfect holi- 
 
36 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 ness here, will annihilate all evidence that heaven 
 itself is a state of perfect and perpetual purity. 
 
 An objection, deserving a passing notice, is 
 sometimes brought to the view of the new cove- 
 nant here given. This covenant, it is said, is 
 applicable to the Jews only. To this position I 
 reply, 
 
 1st. That to the converted Jew, at least, en- 
 tire sanctification is undeniably attainable. Why 
 deny it to other Christians ? 
 
 2d. Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. 
 Does he, as mediator, sustain one relation to the, 
 Jewish, and another to the Gentile Christian ? Has 
 he not " broken down the wall of partition be- 
 tween them," and made both one ? 
 
 3d. In Eph. iii. 6, and elsewhere, we learn that 
 the Gentiles have become " fellow heirs," and 
 "of the same body," and partakers of the same 
 promise with the Jews. 
 
 4th. The promise, from Thessalonians, above 
 cited, is expressly addressed to all Christians, 
 without discrimination. 
 
 III. I infer, that a state of perfect holiness is 
 attainable in this life, from the commands of Scrip- 
 ture, addressed to Christians under the new cove- 
 nant. I refer here not merely to the fact, that per- 
 fect holiness is required of Christians, but to the 
 
ATTAINABLE. 37 
 
 manner and circumstances in which these com- 
 mands are given. A general sends to a subordi- 
 nate officer, a despatch containing several distinct 
 and specific requisitions. The officer selects one 
 of these requisitions, given in the same manner 
 and circumstances as all the rest, and affirms, that his 
 commander never expected obedience to this com- 
 mand, and that it would be criminal to suppose he 
 did. What would be thought of such a conclusion ? 
 In the light of this illustration let us first contemplate 
 the command of Christ, Matt. v. 48, "Be ye 
 therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven 
 is perfect." To every other precept found in this 
 discourse, all admit that obedience is not only re- 
 quired, but expected. On what authority, I ask, 
 is this one precept selected from the midst of such 
 requisitions, as the solitary command to which 
 obedience is not expected, a command clothed in 
 similar language, given at the same time, and un- 
 der the same circumstances as all the others among 
 which it is found? Again, 2 Cor. xiii. 11, "Fi- 
 nally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good 
 comfort, be of one mind, live in peace ; and the 
 God of love and peace shall be with you." Why 
 except the first of these precepts, and maintain 
 that obedience to all the rest is expected ? How 
 could the expectations of the Spirit be more clearly 
 indicated, respecting the precept, " be perfect," 
 
38 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 than by clustering it, in this manner, with other 
 precepts, in respect to which we know that such 
 expectations exist ? 2 Cor. vii. 1, " Having there- 
 fore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse 
 ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, 
 perfecting holiness in the fear of God/' Who 
 would dare affirm to the Christian that what he 
 is here exhorted and commanded to do, he never 
 can nor will do; and that it is heresy for him 
 to expect it? 1 Timothy vi. 13, 14, "I give 
 thee charge in the sight of God, who quick- 
 eneth all things, and before Jesus Christ, who, 
 before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confes- 
 sion, that thou keep this commandment without 
 spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." The command here referred to, 
 as any one will see, who will read the context, in- 
 cludes every thing required of Christians. Let us 
 suppose that Timothy had answered this epistle, 
 informing Paul that he had read his charge w 7 ith 
 solemn interest, and that, by the grace of God, he 
 expected to keep it. What should we think, if, 
 in Paul's second epistle, such a rejoinder as this 
 were found? "Timothy, your letter to me has 
 filled me with amazement and sorrow of heart. 
 You have become a wild fanatic a Perfectionist. 
 How could you have misunderstood me so much, 
 as to suppose, that I ever dreamed, that you would 
 
ATTAINABLE. 39 
 
 expect to keep that awful charge ?" Why should 
 we be shocked at such a reply ? Simply because 
 we cannot believe that such a charge could be dic- 
 tated by the Spirit of God, not only in the absence 
 of all expectation that it would be kept, but with 
 the intention of impressing the subject with the 
 opposite belief, 
 
 IV. As a fourth argument in favor of the attain- 
 ableness of entire sanctification in this life, we will 
 now consider the prayer, dictated by our Saviour 
 to his disciples, together with the one put up by 
 him, in behalf of the Church, on the evening pre- 
 ceding his crucifixion. Who can believe that 
 Christ 'has dictated a standing petition for the 
 Church, which he requires her to believe that it 
 is not for the glory of God to answer ? Matt. vi. 
 10. " Thy will be done on earth as it is in hea- 
 ven." That this is a prayer for perfection in holi- 
 ness, none, I presume, will deny. From the fact 
 that Christ dictated this petition, I infer, 1st. That 
 the object of this petition is agreeable to the will 
 of God, and consequently that when the Church 
 puts up the petition in faith, she will be heard, and 
 will have the petition which she desired of Him. 
 2d. That in the petition we have the pledge of 
 Christ that it shall be granted when asked in faith ; 
 
40 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 just as the petition, " Thy kingdom come," con- 
 tains a pledge that that kingdom shall come. 
 
 Again, John xvii. 20 23, " Neither pray 1 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 gavest 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 hast loved me." 
 
 On this passage I remark, 1st. That the union 
 here prayed for is a union of perfect love. "As 
 thou, Father, art in me and I in thee." In other 
 words, perfection in holiness is the object of this 
 prayer. 2d. The salvation of the world is de- 
 clared to be suspended upon the existence of this 
 love among believers. " That the world may 
 believe and know that thou hast sent me." Con- 
 sequently, we must admit that this love and conse- 
 quent union will exist among believers, or maintain, 
 1st. That Christ at that solemn hour prayed for 
 that which he requires us to believe, that it is not 
 for the glory of God to bestow upon his children. 
 2d. That the world are never to believe in Christ. 
 Christian, ponder this prayer, and then ask yourself 
 
ATTAINABLE. 41 
 
 if you can believe, or dare affirm, that this love 
 shall never, in this life, exist in your heart. 
 
 V. I argue, that perfection in holiness is attain- 
 able in this life, and that the sacred writers intended 
 to teach the doctrine, from the fact, that inspired 
 men made the attainment of this particular state 
 the subject of definite, fervent, and constant prayer. 
 Col. iv. 12, " Epaphras, who is one of you, a 
 servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring 
 fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand 
 perfect and complete in all the will of God." Heb. 
 xiii. 20, 21, " Now the God of peace, that brought 
 again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every 
 good work to do his will, working in you that 
 which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus 
 Christ." The prayer of the apostle in 1 Thes. v. 
 23, is also distinctly before the reader's mind. 
 " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly," 
 &c. On these and kindred passages I remark, 
 
 1. Such prayers are in perfect conformity with 
 the prayer of Christ himself in behalf of his church, 
 as recorded in John xvii. 20 23, and cited 
 above. They are also in conformity with the 
 standing petition which Christ dictated to his 
 3 
 
42 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 
 
 church. "Thy will be done on earth as it is done 
 in heaven." 
 
 2. All such prayers are dictated by direct inspi- 
 ration of the Holy Spirit. Now in Rom. viii. 27, 
 we learn, that the " Spirit rnaketh intercession for 
 the saints according to the will of God." In 
 1 John v. 14, 15, we also learn, that " this is the 
 confidence that we have in him, [Christ,] that if 
 we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth 
 us : And if we know that he hear us, we know 
 that whatsoever we ask, we have the petitions 
 that we desired of him." Have we not then proof 
 positive, that when we pray, and pray in faith, for 
 perfect holiness, that blessing will be bestowed 
 upon us. Is it possible, reader, for us to believe, 
 that Christ himself prayed, and taught his church 
 to pray, and the Holy Spirit inspired and influenced 
 apostles and saints to pray, for a blessing which 
 the Scriptures require us to believe God will not 
 bestow upon his people ? 
 
 3. Let us suppose that God has revealed to us 
 the fact, that he has made no provision for the be- 
 stowment of a certain blessing upon us, that what- 
 ever our prayers, intentions, and efforts actually 
 may be, infinite wisdom has unchangeably deter- 
 mined to withhold the grace necessary to its attain- 
 ment in this life. Would it be proper for us, under 
 such circumstances, to pray for that blessing? 
 
ATTAINABLE. 43 
 
 What would such a prayer be, less than a request, 
 that God would reverse the revealed dictates of in- 
 finite wisdom ? In what other light shall we re- 
 gard the prayers of inspired men for the perfect 
 holiness of Christians, on the supposition that God 
 had revealed to them the fact, that no provisions 
 were made in the gospel for the bestowment of 
 that blessing, that he had irreversibly determined 
 not to confer the grace necessary to its attainment, 
 whatever the prayers and efforts of his people 
 actually might be, and that it is a dangerous error 
 for them to suppose the opposite? Is not the 
 fact, that inspired men prayed thus fervently 
 and constantly for this blessing, the highest possi- 
 ble evidence, that they regarded the attainment 
 of the blessing, as coming within the range of 
 the provisions and promises of divine grace ? 
 
 VI. I infer that perfect holiness is attainable in 
 this life, from the many promises of Scripture which 
 are conditioned on this state. For example : Isa. 
 xx vi. 3 : " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
 whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth 
 in thee." Mat. vi. 22 : " If therefore thine eye be 
 single, thy whole body shall be full of light." 2 
 Cor. xiii. 11: "Be perfect, be of good comfort, be 
 of one mind, live in peace ; and the God of love 
 and peace shall be with you." Phil. iv. 6, 7 : 
 
44 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 " Be careful for nothing ; but in every thing by 
 prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your 
 requests be made known unto God. And the 
 peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
 shall keep your hearts and minds, through Christ 
 Jesus." All the blessings promised in such pas- 
 sages, of which the Bible is full, are conditioned 
 directly or indirectly on the existence of perfect 
 holiness in the subject. When, for example, God 
 promises " perfect peace to those whose minds are 
 stayed on him," the condition of the promise, is of 
 course, perfect faith, or confidence. Because the 
 want of such confidence would forfeit the blessing, 
 or render the enjoyment of it an impossibility. So 
 also the " single eye," the command, "be perfect," 
 and " be careful for nothing," &c., directly require 
 the same thing, or a state of perfect holiness. 
 Does God promise to his people in this life, bles- 
 sings of infinite value, upon conditions which he re- 
 quires them to regard as impracticable ? What is 
 this but the most solemn mockery conceivable ? 
 A parent continually holds before his children 
 promises of the richest blessings in his power to 
 bestow, but all pledged upon conditions with 
 which he holds it criminal in them to believe they 
 will ever comply. What would be thought of 
 such a parent ? Shall we charge such conduct upon 
 God? 
 
ATTAINABLE. 45 
 
 In reply to the above argument, it is sometimes 
 said, that Christians do experience the fulfilment 
 of these promises in proportion to their fidelity. 
 Very true, I reply. This fact however does not in 
 the least diminish the force of the argument, as 
 above stated. God does hold out the richest bles- 
 sings upon the definite condition of perfect holiness 
 in us. Now if, as is true, according to the com- 
 mon theory, he requires us to believe that these 
 blessings are proffered upon a condition with which 
 we shall not comply, what is this, I ask again, but 
 the most solemn mockery conceivable ? 
 
 VII. I argue, that perfection in holiness is at 
 tainable in this life, from the testimony of Scripture 
 that some did attain to that state. On this subject 1 
 remark, 1 . That from what the sacred writers have 
 left on record in respect to the provisions and 
 promises of divine grace, from their prayers, ex- 
 hortations, precepts, &c., in respect to this identi- 
 cal subject ; in short, from the fact that this partic- 
 ular subject was the special theme of their medita- 
 tions, discourses and prayers, we ought to conclude, 
 in the absence of positive proof to the contrary, 
 that they did attain to this state ; just as, in the 
 absence of evidence to the contrary, we ought to 
 conclude that they died in the triumphs of faith. 
 
 2. The fact, that some of them are said to have 
 
46 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION* 
 
 fallen into sin in some particular instances, is no 
 evidence at all, that they did not subsequently at- 
 tain to a state of entire sanctification, any more 
 than the sins of Paul previous to his conversion are 
 proof of his want of holiness subsequent to that 
 event. 
 
 3. There is no positive evidence on record, that 
 many of those men did not attain to this state, any 
 more than there is, that they did not " die in faith." 
 
 4. There is, on the other hand, positive evi^ 
 dence that some of them did attain to this state. 
 To show this, 1 begin with the character of Paul, 
 as drawn by the pen of inspiration. In respect to 
 this apostle, I remark, 1. That there is but one act 
 of his entire Christian life, on record, which is of 
 a doubtful character. I refer to his controversy 
 with Barnabas. 2. With this exception, and wheth- 
 er it be an exception, is, to say the least, doubtful, 
 his character, as presented by the sacred historian, 
 is " perfect and entire, wanting nothing." 3. The 
 testimony of the apostle to his own attainments, 
 shows that he had arrived to a state of entire 
 sanctification. Gal. ii. 20. " I am crucified with 
 Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by faith on the Son of God." 1 Thes. 
 ii. 10. " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holi- 
 ly, and justly, and unblamably, we behaved our- 
 
ATTAINABLE. 47 
 
 selves among you that believe." 1 Cor. iv. 4. " 1 
 know nothing by myself,' 1 ' i. e., I am conscious of 
 no wrong. Acts xx. 26. " Wherefore I take you 
 to record this day, that I am pure of the blood of 
 all men." Now, who would dare to apply such 
 language to himself, who was conscious of being in 
 any other than a state of entire consecration to 
 Christ? How can he be "pure of the blood of all 
 men," who is constantly failing in his duty ? And 
 we do fail in our duty to men, when we are not 
 wholly consecrated to Christ. How can he be 
 conscious of no wrong, and affirm of himself that 
 he lives " holily, and justly, and unblamably," not 
 in the sight of men merely, but also in the sight of 
 God, who is conscious of daily and hourly depar- 
 tures from the rectitude required by the gospel ? 
 Who, let me ask, in view of the character of Paul, 
 as drawn by the pen of inspiration, and of his own 
 testimony to his own attainments, will dare to lay 
 sin to his charge, or affirm that he did not arrive 
 to a state of perfect consecration to Christ ? 
 
 Again, 1 John, iii. 21, and iv. 17, 18 : " Belov- 
 ed, if our heart condemn us not, then have we 
 confidence toward God." "Herein is our love 
 made perfect, that we may have boldness in the 
 day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in 
 this world." "There is no fear in love, but perfect 
 love casteth out fear." Who can read such decla- 
 
48 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 rations, without the conviction that the apostle in 
 here speaking of what he knew to be true from 
 actual experience ? Was he a stranger to a heart 
 that doth not condemn, and its effects, and to per- 
 fect love, and its consequences ? Is he not testify ing 
 as a witness to what his own consciousness affirm- 
 ed to be a reality ? 
 
 If the " one hundred and forty and four thousand 
 also, who follow the Lamb whithersoever he go- 
 eth," are not declared, Rev. xiv. 4, 5, to have at- 
 tained to perfect holiness in this life, I have failed 
 to divine the meaning of the passage. " These are 
 they who were not defiled with women, for they 
 are virgins." " And in their mouth was found no 
 guile : for they are without fault before the throne 
 of God." The phrase, " they are without fault," 
 evidently relates to their character as Christians in 
 this life. Because the conjunction " for" connects 
 this with the preceding part of the sentence, the 
 meaning of which is perfectly evident ; also, be- 
 cause the reason is here assigned for their preemi- 
 nent glory in heaven. All this may be said to be 
 mere hyperbole. I will not, therefore, insist upon 
 it. The same principle, however, would be equal- 
 ly applicable to any phraseology that could have 
 been adopted. 
 
 Isa. vi. 5 8. "Then said I, wo is me! for I 
 am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, 
 
ATTAINABLE. 49 
 
 and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean 
 lips : for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord 
 of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, 
 having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken 
 with the tongs from off the altar : And he laid it 
 on my mouth, and said, Lo this hath touched thy 
 lips ; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin 
 is purged." Previous to this event, the prophet 
 had at least some degree of holiness. What was 
 his state subsequently, when " his iniquity was ta- 
 ken away, and his sin purged?" Was it a little 
 higher degree of holiness than he before possessed ? 
 Was it not, as the language used implies, a state 
 of perfect holiness? 
 Other cases might be cited ; but these must suffice. 
 
 VIII. I argue that perfection in holiness is at- 
 tainable in this life, from the fact, that no one can 
 point out any incentive to sin, from within or 
 around him, for which a specific remedy is not 
 provided in the gospel. Do our lusts rebel? We 
 are told, that if " Christ be in us, the body is dead 
 because of sin," that " the old man is crucified 
 with him," and that if we will " walk in the spirit, 
 we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Do 
 the world and Satan entice ? We are assured that 
 " this is the victory that overcometh the world, 
 even our faith," that " stronger is he that is in us 
 
50 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 than he that is in the world ;" and that when we 
 have "put on the whole armor of God," we shall 
 be able with the shield of faith to " quench all the 
 firey darts of the wicked one." In short, from 
 whatever source temptation to sin arises, we are 
 assured that God will not " suffer us to be tempted 
 above what we are able," but will " with the temp- 
 tation make way for our escape." With Christ 
 within us, and these " exceeding great and precious 
 promises" around us, we are commanded to " reckon 
 ourselves dead indeed to sin, and alive unto God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." In the presence 
 of such facts and promises, who would dare to say 
 to the Christian, It is impracticable for you to 
 (t cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and 
 spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God ?" 
 
 IX. I argue, that perfection in holiness is attain- 
 able in this life, from the fact, that no one can lay 
 down any line this side of that state, beyond which 
 it is not practicable for the Christian to go. Who 
 would dare to lay down such a line, and then say 
 to the convert, panting after holiness, " as the 
 hart panteth after the water brooks," " Hitherto 
 mayest thou come, and no farther?" 
 
 ,* 
 
 * X. As another argument in favor of the attain- 
 
 * ableness of holiness in this life, I adduce the strik- 
 
ATTAINABLE. 51 
 
 ing contrast between the language of inspiration 
 and of the church upon this subject, wherever the 
 church has denied the doctrine under considera- 
 tion. I appeal/ to the conscience and memory of 
 every one who reads these pages, whether from 
 the pulpit, the press, or the private walks of life, 
 as far as this doctrine has been denied, you have 
 ever heard language which corresponds with the 
 plain, positive, and unqualified declarations of the 
 Bible upon this subject, which have now been 
 spread out before you. Why this contrast between 
 the language of inspiration and of the church ? One 
 supposition, and one only, in my judgment, solves 
 the mystery. The church and the sacred writers 
 hold different sentiments upon this subject. 
 
 Let any minister, for example, holding the com- 
 mon sentiments upon this subject, begin, in the 
 simple and unqualified language of inspiration, to 
 pray that his people may be " sanctified wholly, 
 and preserved in that state unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ;" let him charge them " be- 
 fore God and our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep the 
 commandments of God without spot, unrebukable, 
 until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" let 
 him begin to talk of the perfect peace of pure and 
 perfect love ; let him tell his people that the blood 
 of Christ " cleanseth from all sin," and that he 
 " bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that 
 
52 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 we, being dead to sin, might live unto righteous- 
 ness," that the " righteousness of the law might 
 be fulfilled in us," fee., what would his church 
 and congregation think of him? Would they not 
 conclude, that he had adopted some entirely new 
 theory in regard to Christian Perfection ? I ask 
 again, why has the language of the Bible so en- 
 tirely disappeared, so far as this doctrine is denied ; 
 and why is it, that, as soon as this doctrine is 
 adopted, the simple and expressive language of 
 the Bible reappears, as the only language appro- 
 priate to express the sentiments of the preacher 
 and the church ? 
 
 XL The convictions of the church, as univer- 
 sally expressed in her covenants, demand the ad- 
 mission of the attainableness of perfect holiness in 
 this life. I have never, that I recollect, read or 
 heard of such a covenant, which did not pledge its 
 members to a state of entire sanctification. Every 
 one, in the presence of God, angels and men, and 
 that under the sanction of the most solemn oath, 
 avouches the Lord to be his God, promising to 
 obey him in all things, and none else, to " deny 
 himself of all ungodliness and every worldly lust, 
 and to live soberly, and righteously, and godly, in 
 this present evil world." This is nothing less than 
 
ATTAINABLE. 53 
 
 a pledge to " be perfect," and no church dares to 
 pledge her members to do less than this. 
 
 Yet while this pledge is thus solemnly imposed 
 upon all her members, they are required, under 
 sanctions hardly less awful, to believe, that this 
 pledge will never be redeemed, and that it is a 
 crime to suppose that it may. All this is done in 
 the face of an acknowledged Divine declaration, 
 " It is better that thou shouldst not vow, than to 
 vow and not pay." Now why has the Holy Spirit 
 thus constrained the church to pledge her mem- 
 bers, in direct opposition to her creed ? To open 
 her eyes to the absurdity and ruinous tendency of 
 her creed, in respect to the subject under consid- 
 eration. Such is my solemn conviction. The 
 churches of Christ are bound fundamenlltay to 
 change their covenants, or admit the doctrine under 
 consideration. 
 
 XII. The tendency of this doctrine, as compar- 
 ed with that of the opposite, is another important 
 reason why we should admit it. To place this 
 part of the subject distinctly before the mind, I re- 
 mark, 
 
 1. That as it was observed in the preceding dis- 
 course, no evil can result from the belief of this 
 doctrine, provided we keep the true standard of 
 holiness distinctly in view. Christ requires us to 
 
54 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 consecrate to him our entire being. What evil can 
 result from the belief that we may do this, provi- 
 ded we understand what this requirement is? All 
 the evil that has ever arisen, connected with this 
 doctrine, can be demonstrated to have arisen, not 
 from the belief that perfection in holiness is practi- 
 cable to the Christian, but from a misapprehension 
 of the nature of holiness itself. 
 
 2. The belief that perfection in holiness is at- 
 tainable in this life, involves the very principle 
 that is considered necessary to efficient action on 
 every other subject. Who would expect an 
 army to fight with energy under the impression of 
 inevitable defeat? All acknowledge it to be the 
 duty of the Christian to aim at perfection in holi- 
 ness. How can he do this efficiently, with the 
 persuasion that such perfection is impracticable? 
 
 3. Every Christian also admits, that no one can 
 be saved who does not aim at perfection. Now 
 to aim at this state with the belief that it is unat- 
 tainable, is an absolute impossibility. To aim at 
 the accomplishment of an object, is the same thing 
 as to intend to accomplish it. How can a man in- 
 tend to do that which he regards as impracticable ? 
 Let the hunter, for example, if he can, point his 
 weapon at the moon, with the intention of hitting 
 it. He will find the formation of such intention, 
 with his present belief of the power of his weapon, 
 
ATTAINABLE. 55 
 
 and the distance of the object, an impossibility. 
 Has God required the Christian, upon pain of his 
 eternal displeasure, to aim at perfection in holiness, 
 and then required him to believe a certain fact, the 
 belief of which renders the formation of that inten- 
 tion an impossibility ? Who can believe it ? The 
 principle before us, no one, I believe, at all ac- 
 quainted with the laws of mind, will deny. What- 
 ever a man regards as impracticable, or thinks it 
 absolutely certain that he never will perform, the 
 changeless laws of mind render it impossible for 
 him to aim at, or intend to perform. How can a 
 man throw a stone at the sun, aiming or intending 
 to hit the sun? An individual is shooting at a 
 mark, with the full belief that no man, whatever 
 his natural powers may be, ever did or ever will 
 hit that mark. It is an absolute impossibility that 
 he ever should, with that belief, intend to hit it. 
 For the same reason, while a man regards perfec- 
 tion in holiness as impracticable, while he believes 
 that no man ever did or ever will in this life at- 
 tain to that state, and that it is criminal to suppose 
 the opposite, to aim at perfection in holiness, or to 
 intend to be perfectly holy, is then an absolute im- 
 possibility. Now the church universally affirms, 
 and ministers every where preach the same thing, 
 that no one can be a Christian who does not aim 
 at perfection in holiness, or intend to be perfectly 
 
56 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 holy. The church and the ministry, then, almost 
 as universally, hold it criminal for any man not to 
 believe a certain fact, to wit, that such perfection 
 is unattainable, the belief of which fact renders the 
 existence of such intention an absolute impossibili- 
 'ty. " Thus have ye made void the law of God 
 by your traditions." If a man must aim at perfec- 
 tion in holiness or he cannot be saved, he must 
 theoretically or practically believe that such per- 
 fection is practicable, or he cannot be saved. 
 
 XIII. As a final argument in favor of the truth 
 of the doctrine under consideration, I notice the ab- 
 surdity of the common supposition, that the Chris- 
 tian is always perfectly sanctified at, or a few min- 
 utes before death, and never at an earlier period. 
 Two considerations will place the absurdity of this 
 supposition in its proper light. 1st. The grace 
 which sanctifies the believer amid the gloom and 
 wreck and distraction of dissolving nature, would, 
 if applied, have sanctified him at an earlier period. 
 2d. No other reason can be assigned for this grace 
 being thus withheld, but the supposition that God 
 can be better glorified, and his kingdom better ad- 
 vanced by saints partially, than wholly consecra- 
 ted to their sacred calling. Where is the founda- 
 tion for such an absurdity in the Bible ? 
 
 Some objections to the interpretation which has 
 
ATTAINABLE. 57 
 
 been given to the various passages cited in this 
 discourse, demand a passing notice. 
 
 I. The fact, it is said, that provision is made in 
 the gospel for the entire sanctification of Chris- 
 tians, that this state is promised to them in the 
 new covenant, on condition of their faith, and that 
 in view of these provisions and promises, perfect 
 holiness is required of them, proves merely that 
 such a state is attainable, but not that it is actually 
 attained. I reply, 
 
 1. That my object in citing such passages has 
 been, not to show Christians what they are, but 
 what they may become ; and thus to lay the foun- 
 dation for the exercise of that faith, by which they 
 may come into the full possession of all the " riches 
 of Christ's inheritance in the saints." 
 
 2. The manner in which the sacred writers have 
 presented the provisions, promises and commands 
 of the gospel, demonstrates the fact, that they did 
 expect Christians to "cleanse themselves from all 
 filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfect holi- 
 ness in the jear of God;" an expectation precisely 
 the opposite of what is now commonly entertained 
 upon the same subject. 
 
 3. The supposition, that such men as Paul, for 
 example, knew that provision was made in the 
 gospel for their entire sanctification, that it was 
 
 4 
 
58 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 promised to them in the new covenant, and requir- 
 ed of them as Christians, the supposition, I say, 
 that they knew, that by simply trusting Christ for 
 this blessing, they could enjoy it, and yet withheld 
 the faith necessary to its attainment, is absolutely 
 incredible. It is to suppose, that they lived in the 
 habitual and allowed indulgence of known sin. 
 The same remark is equally applicable to real 
 Christians of every age. When they know their 
 privileges, they .will avail themselves of them. 
 That they may know their privileges, and thus 
 " come out of darkness into God's marvellous 
 light," is the great object of this work, and of all 
 my prayers and efforts. 
 
 II. The prayer of Christ recorded in John 
 xvii. 20 23, it is objected, is put up in behalf of 
 all Christians without distinction ; and this prayer, 
 in all its fullness, must be answered in the expe- 
 rience of each Christian, or Christ prayed in vain. 
 In other words, according to this objection, the 
 union now existing among Christians, is all that 
 is implied in such language as the following : " That 
 they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, 
 and I in thee," that " they may^be one in us," 
 that " they may be made perfect in one ;" and the 
 effects produced by this union is all that is meant 
 by the phrases, " that the world may believe," and 
 
ATTAINABLE. 59 
 
 c; that the world may know," " that thou hast 
 sent me." 
 
 In reply, I remark 
 
 1. That the supposition that the union, or rather 
 the disunion now existing among Christians, pre* 
 sents a full reflection of all that is implied in the 
 language above referred to, renders the Bible the 
 most unmeaning book that ever was written. 
 
 2. The supposition that Christ prayed for any 
 higher union than now exists, involves all the diffi- 
 culties, embraced in the supposition that he 
 prayed for a perfect union. In both instances alike, 
 according to the above objection, he prayed in 
 vain. 
 
 3. If Christ did not here pray for a perfect 
 union among Christians, and consequently for their 
 entire sanctification, it is absolutely beyond the 
 power of language to express such a prayer. 
 
 4. Christ here pra^s as the Mediator of the 
 new covenant, and when the Church comes to her 
 Mediator, in faith, for an answer to this prayer, 
 and the day is no doubt near when she will do it, 
 this prayer, in all its .blessed fullness, will be 
 answered. 
 
 III. It is further objected, that no particular 
 time is specified when the prayer of Christ, and the 
 promises of the new covenant, fee. are to be ful- 
 
60 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 filled ; consequently, they do not prove the attaina- 
 bleness of entire sanctification in this life. I 
 reply 
 
 1. In some of the promises, the time of their 
 fulfilment is definitely specified. For example, 
 1 Thess. v. 23. When can our " whole spirit, and 
 soul, and body, he preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," if not in this 
 life? 
 
 2. If no time were specified, we should involve 
 ourselves in infinite guilt, were we to " limit the Holy 
 One," by fixing the time, at or subsequent to the 
 hour of death. Such a limitation of the promises 
 sanctions those principles of interpretation by which 
 the worst forms of error are sustained from the 
 Bible. Take, for example, the passage, "With- 
 out holiness no man shall see the Lord." True, 
 says the Universalist, and all men will be holy in 
 eternity. Shall we sanction such a principle by our 
 manner of limiting the application of the exceed- 
 ing great and precious promises of divine grace ? 
 
 I close this discourse with a few brief reflec- 
 tions. 
 
 1 . We are now prepared for a distinct survey of 
 the foundation on which the doctrine under consid- 
 eration rests ; a doctrine upheld by the declared 
 provisions and promises of the gospel ; a doctrine 
 
ATTAINABLE. 61 
 
 sustained by the prayer of Christ as the Mediator 
 of the new covenant, and by " the prayers of the 
 saints/' as dictated by him and by the spirit of 
 grace ; a doctrine which so perfectly corresponds 
 with what God requires of us as Christians, and 
 with all that inspired apostles and prophets taught 
 and wrote upon the subject. Upon what foundation 
 does such a doctrine rest, but upon the " Rock of 
 Ages?" 
 
 2. We see the reason of the aspect of living 
 death which the Church now presents to the world. 
 It is simply this : She is in a state of unbelief in 
 respect to the nature and extent of the provisions 
 and promises of divine grace. 
 
 3. We see when it is, that the Church will 
 realize in her own experience, the fulfilment 
 of the promises of the new covenant. 1. When 
 she becomes fully aware of the nature and ex- 
 tent of these promises. 2. When the condi- 
 tions are fulfilled by her on which the fulfilment 
 of these promises rests as recorded in Ezek. 
 xxxvi. 37 ; " Thus saith the Lord God ; 1 will yet 
 for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to 
 do this thing for them." When this is done, and 
 the time is near, I believe, when it will be done, 
 there will then exist upon earth, " a holy genera-, 
 tion, a royal priesthood and a peculiar people." 
 
 4. Christian brother, suppose, that in view of all 
 
62 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 the facts, arguments, and divine declarations, which 
 have now been spread before you, you should ap- 
 proach your Redeemer with holy boldness, confi- 
 dently expecting that his " blood shall cleanse you 
 from all sin " " that the very God of peace shall 
 sanctify you wholly, arid preserve your whole 
 spirit, and soul, and body, blameless to the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ," would that Redeemer, 
 think you, frown you from his presence, for having 
 asked and expected more than he himself has au- 
 thorized you to ask and expect ? On the other 
 hand, should you refuse to "open your mouth thus 
 wide," would he not charge it to your unbelief, 
 and would he not marvel at that unbelief? 
 
DISCOURSE III. 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 " Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these 
 things be ? 
 
 " Jesus answered, and said unto him, Art thou a master of 
 Israel, and knowest not these things?" John iii. 9, 10. 
 
 The evidence by which the attainableness of a 
 state of entire sanctification in this life is sustained, 
 is now, to some extent, before the reader's mind, 
 as the subject presents itself to my own. Notwith- 
 standing the abundance and force of the evidence, 
 some may still be disposed to ask, How can 
 these things be? Are there not many passages of 
 Scripture which positively contradict this doctrine ; 
 and are there not many fundamental objections 
 against it ? To a consideration of such passages 
 and objections, the attention of the reader is now 
 invited. 
 
 I. We will first consider the objections drawn 
 from Scripture. 
 
 I begin with Romans vii. 14 25. (The read- 
 
64 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 er is referred to the Bible, as the passage is too 
 long to be quoted entire.) The bearing of this 
 passage upon the doctrine under consideration, 
 depends upon the question whether the apostle is 
 here describing the state of the Christian under 
 the gospel, or of the sinner under the law, and 
 acted upon by legal motives only. In favor of the 
 first supposition, two, and only two considerations 
 deserving notice, have, to my knowledge, been 
 adduced. 
 
 1. The present tense is here used; "I am 
 carnal," &c.; showing, it is said, that the apostle is 
 describing his present character as a Christian. In 
 answer to this, I remark, 1st. That it is perfectly 
 common for the sacred writers to use this tense in 
 describing not only past but future events. 2cL 
 The present tense was demanded in this instance^ 
 inasmuch as the design of the apostle is to describe 
 his own, and the state of every other person, under 
 the exclusive action of legal motives, in opposition 
 to their state under the gospel. Under the former y 
 he says, " I am," (and of course every other man 
 is,) "carnal, sold [a bond slave] under sin." 
 Under the latter, chap. viii. 2, " I am free from 
 the law of sin and death." Thus said Whitefield y 
 as a drunkard was reeling before him, "There is 
 George Whitefield, but for the grace of God." 
 Supposing the apostle here to be describing his- 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWEREJ>. 65 
 
 state as a sinner under the law, the present tense is 
 demanded just as much as if he were describing 
 his state as a Christian. 
 
 2. The language used by the apostle in this 
 passage, it is said, is applicable to the Christian 
 only. For example, " I delight in the law of God 
 after the inward man." " That which I do, I 
 allow not." " What I hate, that I do," &c. To 
 this I answer, 1st. That language equally strong is 
 applied to the sinner in other parts of the Bible. 
 Ezek. xxxiii. 32, "And lo ! thou art unto them as 
 a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, 
 and can play well on an instrument : for they hear 
 thy words, but they do them not ;" Isaiah Iviii. 
 2, " Yet ye seek me daily, and delight to know 
 my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and 
 forsook not the ordinances of their God : they ask 
 of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight 
 in approaching to God." John v. 35, " He was 
 a burning and a shining light ; and ye were willing 
 for a season to rejoice in his light." Rom. ii. 17, 
 18, " Behold thou art called a Jew, and restest in 
 the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest 
 his will, and approves! the things that are more 
 excellent, being instructed out of the law." Many 
 other passages of similar import might be cited. 
 With what propriety, I ask, can the language used 
 in Rom. vii. be cited as proof, that the sinner can- 
 
66 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 not there be referred to, when language equally 
 strong is so frequently applied to him in other parts 
 of the Bible. 2d. Precisely similar language was 
 at this time in common use among the heathen, 
 and by them applied to men as sinners. " He 
 that sins/' says one, " does not what he would, 
 but what he would not, that he does." " I see 
 the good," says another, " and approve it, but fol- 
 low the bad." " I have forgotten none of the 
 things about which you admonished me, but al- 
 though I have a desire to do them, nature strug- 
 gles against it." "I knew that it was becoming, 
 but me miserable ! I could not do it." Such is 
 the language common with those very heathen 
 converts to whom the apostle was writing, and 
 applied by them to sinners as such. On what 
 principle, I ask, is it asserted, that they would un- 
 derstand this language, in opposition to all previous 
 usage, as applicable to the Christian only. 
 
 We will now consider a few of the reasons in 
 favor of the supposition that the sinner under the 
 action of legal influences, and not the Christian 
 under the gospel, is the subject of the apostle's 
 remarks in this passage. 
 
 1. It was so understood by the entire primi- 
 tive Church for the first two or three centuries 
 after the epistle was written. This, none, I be- 
 lieve, acquainted with the records of the primitive 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 67 
 
 Church, will deny. Did the entire Church who 
 received the passage directly from the apostle, 
 mistake his meaning? 
 
 2. The supposition that the Christian is here 
 referred to, places what the apostle says of himself 
 as a Christian in this passage and elsewhere, in pal- 
 pable and irreconcilable contradiction to eacli other. 
 In the state here described, the apostle says of 
 himself, " I am carnal, sold under sin/' that is, a 
 bond slave under the power of sin, as the slave is 
 under the absolute control of his master. We 
 might here ask, Is this the Christian? Again, 
 " The good that I would," i. e. approve, " I do 
 not, but the evil that I would not," i. e. disapprove, 
 " that I do ;" " I find then a law," an invariable 
 order of sequence, for such only is law, " that 
 when I would do good, evil is present with me." 
 Speaking of himself as a Christian, the apostle 
 says, " I keep my body under, and bring it into 
 subjection." Again, " The life that I now live 
 the flesh, I live by faith on the Son of God." 
 Are these states compatible? Are they one and 
 the same ? Again, the Christian is represented in 
 the Bible as "overcoming the world." The in- 
 dividual here referred to is invariably overcome by 
 the world. Are these characters identical? 
 Again, in the state here described, the apostle 
 declares himself to be in " captivity to the law of 
 
68 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 sin and death." In chap. viii. 2, he says, that as a 
 Christian he is free from that very law. How can 
 an individual be a captive under a law, and free from 
 that law at one and the same time ? Once more : 
 In the state here referred to, the apostle says, " I 
 am carnal." In chap. viii. 9, he declares absolute- 
 ly, that every real Christian is " not in the flesh," 
 that is, carnal, " but in the spirit ! " How can 
 these states be identical ! 
 
 3. If the apostle has described the condition of 
 the Christian under the gospel, in the passage under 
 consideration, he has defeated his own object, by 
 showing that the gospel is equally impotent with 
 the law in producing holiness of heart, the opposite 
 of which he designed to show. The law convicts 
 of sin, and then leaves the subject in bondage under 
 sin. What more does the gospel, if the Christian 
 also is " carnal, sold under sin ? " 
 
 Well might the Jew ask, in view of such a pre- 
 sentation of the power of the gospel, What ad- 
 vantage hath the Christian, and what profit is there 
 in faith in Christ, as far as holiness is concerned ? 
 Do the " motions of sin which are by the law 
 work in my members to bring forth fruit unto 
 death?" So is the Christian, by the same in- 
 fluence precisely, " brought into captivity to the 
 law of sin, which is in his members." Am I in 
 the flesh? The Christian, also is "carnal.*' Am 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 69 
 
 I in bondage under the power of sin ? The Chris- 
 tian, also, is a bond slave, " sold under sin ? " Do 
 I " approve of the things which are more excellent," 
 and delight to know God and the " ordinances of 
 righteousness," and at the same time remain in a 
 state of disobedience to God? The Christian, also, 
 " delights in the law of the Lord, after the inward 
 man," without obeying that law. " The good 
 that he would he does not; but the evil that he 
 would not, that he does." How could the apostle, 
 by such a train of reasoning as this, convince the 
 Jew, that in depending upon the law for sanctifica- 
 tion as well as for justification, he was as a sinner 
 leaning upon a broken reed ? and that the gospel 
 alone not only justifies but sanctifies the sinner ? 
 
 4. The apostle, in the passage before us, de- 
 clares expressly that he refers to his state as a sin- 
 ner. " In me, that is, in my flesh," that is, in 
 my carnal unrenewed state, " dwelleth no good 
 thing." 
 
 5. The individual here described is by the apos- 
 tle's own showing, totally depraved. Notwithstand- 
 ing all the opposition which the law of God and 
 the law of his mind make to sin, he invariably 
 practices it, on all occasions and under all circum- 
 stances. If such a state does not indicate the en- 
 tire absence of holiness, nothing can do it. The 
 whole matter is summed up by the apostle in verse 
 
70 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 25, "So then, with the mind, I myself serve 
 the law of God ; but with the flesh the law of sin." 
 That is, in the language of Professor Stuart, 
 " While my mind, i. e. 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. For a full and complete illustration of the 
 meaning of the entire passage, the reader is re- 
 ferred to the commentary of Professor Stuart. 
 
 I conclude, then, that this chapter, as it refers to 
 another subject, has nothing to do with the ques- 
 tion whether entire holiness is attainable in this 
 life. 
 
 Gal. v. 17, " For the flesh lusteth against the 
 Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these 
 are contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot 
 do the things that ye would." The apostle here 
 gives the reason for the declaration found in the 
 verse preceding, " Walk in the Spirit and ye ,shall 
 not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." The reason as- 
 signed is this. The dictates of the flesh and of 
 the spirit are in contradiction the one to the 
 other. Obedience to one excludes subjection to the 
 other. Hence, if we "walk in the Spirit," we 
 " cannot do the things that we would," i. e. " ful- 
 fil the lusts of the flesh." Strange that an objec- 
 tion to the doctrine of holiness should be drawn 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 71 
 
 from this passage, which when rightly understood, 
 directly asserts the doctrine ; unless the ground is 
 taken that obedience to the command, "walk in 
 the Spirit," is impracticable. 
 
 The common explanation of the passage makes 
 the apostle assign the strange reason for the de- 
 claration, " walk in the Spirit and ye shall not ful- 
 fil the lusts of the flesh," that as the flesh and 
 Spirit are contrary the one to the other, the Chris- 
 tian cannot do the things that he would, i. e. can- 
 not walk in the Spirit. 
 
 Phil. iii. 12, " Not as though I had already at- 
 tained, either were already perfect." On this 
 passage I remark, 1st. From a comparison of this 
 passage with the phrase in verse 15, " Let us 
 therefore, as many as be perfect," it is evident 
 the apostle considered himself in one sense per- 
 fect, and in another imperfect. Why then is the 
 inference directly drawn that, in verse 12, he af- 
 firms his imperfection in holiness, when the oppo- 
 site conclusion is as fully sustained by verse 15? 
 But 2d. The apostle, as is perfectly evident from 
 the context, is not here speaking of sanctification 
 at all. There are three senses, somewhat differ- 
 ing the one from the other, in which the verb, 
 here rendered perfect, as well as the adjective 
 from which it is derived, are used in the Bible. 
 1. To designate moral perfection, or entire sane- 
 
72 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 tification in holiness, as in Mat. v. 48 : " Be ye 
 therefore perfect." 2. Maturity in Christian 
 knowledge and virtue, 1 Cor. ii. 6, " We speak 
 wisdom to them that are perfect. 5 ' 3. Exalta- 
 tion to a state of reward or happiness in a future 
 world, in consequence of a life of devotion to the 
 divine service in the present world. Thus in 
 Heb. ii, 10, Christ, as the Captain of our salvation, 
 is said to have been made " perfect," that is, ad- 
 vanced to a state of glory, " through [or on ac- 
 count of] sufferings." "Among the Greeks," 
 says Professor Stuart, speaking upon the passage 
 last referred to, " this verb was employed to desig- 
 nate the condition of those who, having run in the 
 stadium and proved to be victorious in the contest, 
 were proclaimed as successful combatants, and had 
 the honors and rewards of victory bestowed upon 
 them." Such persons were said to be perfect, or 
 to have been perfected. Now, that the apostle 
 uses the term perfect in this last sense exclusively, 
 in Phil, iii, 12, is demonstrably evident, from the 
 fact that he was writing to Greeks, and uses it 
 with reference to the very custom, in reference to 
 which they had been accustomed to use the term 
 in this one sense only. He represented himself as 
 running in a race ; but not as yet being " perfect ;" 
 that is, as not having been advanced to a state of glo- 
 ry in consequence of having victoriously finished his 
 
UJ5JJCCTTONS ANSWERED. 73 
 
 course. It is then, in reference to having finished 
 his course and received the consequent rewards, 
 and not in reference to mofal perfection, that the 
 apostle uses the term " perfect " in the passage 
 under consideration. This the apostle himself di- 
 rectly affirms. He uses the phrases, " not as 
 though I had already attained, either were already 
 perfect," and " I count not myself to have ap- 
 prehended/' with express reference, not to present 
 holiness at all, but with exclusive respect to the 
 " resurrection of the dead," and " the prize of the 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus," i. e. to the 
 glory and blessedness consequent on having victori- 
 ously finished his Christian race. Hence Profes- 
 sor Robinson, in his Lexicon on the New Testa- 
 ment, thus explains the phrase : " either were al- 
 ready perfect." "Not as though I had already 
 completed my course and arrived at the goal, so 
 as to receive the prize." In respect to holiness, an 
 individual who is running the Christian race is 
 perfect, who puts forth his entire energies in that 
 course. In respect to a state of glory and bless^ 
 edness, he is perfect when, and only when, he has 
 finished his course and received the consequent re- 
 ward. It is with exclusive reference to the latter, 
 and not to the former, that the apostle affirms, 
 that he had not " attained, and was not perfect." 
 The passage, then, has no reference at all to the 
 5 
 
74 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 question, whether perfection in holiness is attaina- 
 ble in this life. 
 
 1 John i. 8, " If we say that we have no sin, 
 we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
 The phrase, " have no sin," may relate to our 
 present or to our past character. Thus when a 
 man says, " I am- a sinner," he may mean, I am 
 now actually sinning, or I have sinned, and on that 
 account sustain* the character of a sinner. In 
 which sense dees the apostle here use the phrase, 
 " If we say we have no sin ?" Does he refer to 
 our character in view of what we are now doing, 
 or of what we have done in past time ? To the 
 latter, I argue, for the following reasons: 1st. 
 The denial here spoken of stands opposed to the 
 phrase " confessing our sins," in the following 
 verse. Confession relates to past, and not to pre- 
 sent sin ; it being absolutely impossible for a per- 
 son to commit a sin, repent of it, and confess it, at 
 one and the same moment ; which must be the 
 case if confession relates to sins which we are now 
 committing. 2d. In verse 10, the apostle repeats 
 the thought contained in the phrase under consid- 
 eration, in a manner which leaves no doubt in re- 
 spect to his meaning ; " If we say we have not 
 sinned, we make him a liar." This declaration is 
 added, to give emphasis to the affirmation, " If we 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 75 
 
 say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," and 
 is only another form of stating the same thing. 
 3d. The context plainly shows, that the apostle 
 is speaking of another thing, altogether, than the 
 question, whether a man ever attains to a state of 
 entire holiness in this life. In the verse preceding, 
 he says : " 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." He then adds, " If we say we have no 
 sin," [to be cleansed from, to be forgiven,] that is, 
 if we deny our need of the redemption of Christ, 
 " we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
 Now, what class of persons existed at the time, to 
 whom this declaration was applicable ? I answer, 
 it was the unconverted Jew, who maintained, that 
 in consequence of his obedience to the law he was 
 free from all sin, and did not need the redemption 
 of Christ. Such persons, the apostle addresses by 
 saying, If we deny our need of Christ's redemp- 
 tion, by affirming our freedom from sin, we de- 
 ceive ourselves ; and not only so, by saying that 
 " we have not sinned," i. e. affirming that " we 
 have no sin," we also make God a liar. The 
 passage, then, refers exclusively to sinners who deny 
 their need of Christ's redemption, by saying that 
 they " have not sinned," and not to such men as 
 John Wesley and James B. Taylor, who believed, 
 
76 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 that, by the grace of Christ applied to " cleanse 
 them from all sin," they had " been made perfect 
 in love." To be made thus perfect, is what we 
 are here taught to expect, as the consequence of 
 "walking in the light," and "confessing our sins." 
 The passage then, instead of contradicting the doc- 
 trine under consideration, when rightly explained, 
 altogether favors the doctrine. What else can be 
 the meaning of the declarations, " 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? " Also, " If we 
 confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 
 our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- 
 ness." 
 
 James iii. 2, " In many things we offend all." 
 Here it is said, we have the positive testimony of 
 inspiration, that in many respects all Christians 
 sin. If so, the doctrine under consideration must 
 be given up of course. But what is the meaning 
 of the above declaration ? To answer this, it is 
 necessary to explain the verse preceding. " My 
 brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we 
 shall receive the greater condemnation." The 
 term masters may mean simply religious teachers, 
 or it may mean slanderers, or critics on the man- 
 ners and morals of others. The Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, as Calvin remarks, in speaking upon the term, 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 77 
 
 "were at that time accustomed to call persons of 
 the class last mentioned, masters, because they set 
 themselves up as masters in morals." In this sense, 
 not only Calvin, but Schleusner explains the term. 
 It is used in the same sense as the term "judge " 
 is in Matt. vii. 1, the same identical sin being pro- 
 hibited in the phrase, " judge not," as in the pro- 
 hibition, "Be not many masters." That the 
 term masters is to be understood, in this passage; 
 in this sense, as designating, not religious teach- 
 ers, but slanderers, or critics on the manners of 
 others, I argue, 1st. From the fact, that the 
 abuse of the tongue, is the exclusive subject of dis- 
 course, in the whole passage with which the term 
 is connected. 2d. The apostle declares, abso- 
 lutely, that if we are " masters," we shall receive 
 greater condemnation, which is only conditionally 
 true of religious teachers, that is, if they sim 
 The apostle, as Calvin observes, forbids "that 
 there should be many masters," because many are 
 every where disposed to rush into this business. 
 Understanding the term " masters," here in this^ 
 its true sense, the declaration " in many things 
 we offend all," may be readily explained. It 
 contains the reason why " we shall," if we are 
 "masters," "receive the greater condemnation." 
 The reason is this, as masters " we all offend in 
 many things," that is, are great offenders. The term 
 
78 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 "polla," here rendered "many things," is often 
 used adverbially in the Bible, as explained above. 
 Thus the apostle says, " I wept much" Again, 
 " He straitly charged them," i. e. earnestly. "And 
 he besought him much" " I greatly desired him 
 to come to you." In all these passages, the term 
 rendered " many things " in the passage under 
 consideration, is used. Now, when the apostle 
 says, that " we all offend greatly," or are aggra- 
 vated offenders, he does not affirm this of us all 
 as Christians, but as masters ; just as in the phrase 
 " we shall receive greater condemnation," he af- 
 firms that as masters, and not as Christians, we 
 shall be thus condemned. If we are masters, we 
 are to receive greater condemnation ; because we 
 then are aggravated offenders; the only reason 
 conceivable why we should be thus condemned. 
 
 The common explanation of the passage makes 
 the apostle render the strangest reason conceivable, 
 for the fact that masters " will receive the greater 
 condemnation," to wit, that all men sin in many 
 things. How does the fact, that all men sin in 
 many things, prove, that those who are guilty of 
 particular sins shall receive severer punishment 
 than others? Or that religious teachers even, if 
 they sin, will be thus punished ? Suppose a per- 
 son should reason in a similar manner in respect 
 to any other crime, murder for example. "All 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 79 
 
 men sin in many things. Therefore the murderer 
 shall receive the greater condemnation." This 
 would be just as reasonable, as in reference to the 
 sin of evil speaking, or the sins of religious teach- 
 ers. Further, according to the common explana- 
 tion of the passage, " masters " are to be pun- 
 ished more than they deserve. Two men, we 
 will suppose, commit to-day the same sin. One 
 immediately dies without repentance. The other 
 subsequently becomes a " master," or slanderer. 
 The former, according to the Bible, will be pun- 
 ished for that sin, all that it deserves. The latter, 
 according to the present explanation of the pas- 
 sage, is for that identical sin to receive still "great- 
 er condemnation," i. e. to receive greater punish- 
 ment than the sin deserves. The meaning of the 
 passage, together with the context, may be thus 
 expressed. Do not multitudes of you, my breth- 
 ren, be "masters" or slanderers. -If we are, we 
 shall receive greater condemnation ; because, in 
 that case, we all offend in many things, that is, 
 are aggravated offenders. On the other hand, 
 " if any man offend not in word, the same is a per- 
 fect man." The object of the apostle is, to con- 
 trast our character and prospects as "masters," 
 with our state, when our tongue is subject to 
 the law of love. In the former case we are to 
 "receive greater condemnation," because we are 
 
80 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 then all of us great offenders. In the latter, we 
 are perfect. Nothing, then, was farther from the 
 intention of the sacred writer, than the design of 
 denying the doctrine of holiness, as maintained in 
 these discourses. 
 
 Matt. vi. 12, "And forgive our debts, as we for- 
 give our debtors." From the fact, that this peti- 
 tion is found in the Lord's prayer, it is argued, that 
 Christians will always have sins to confess, or will 
 never arrive at a state of perfect holiness in this life. 
 This principle, if admitted, would prove that the 
 kingdom of God will never come, and that the Chris- 
 tian will never be in a state in this life in which he 
 will not be subject to injuries from others. The 
 time will arrive, when the kingdom of God will 
 have come, and when " they will not hurt nor de- 
 stroy in all God's holy mountain." At that time the 
 above petitions will be inappropriate ; because the 
 prayers of all the saints in this respect will have 
 been fully answered. So of the petition under 
 consideration. The Saviour says, "After this 
 MANNER, pray ye ;" that is, if ye have, among 
 other things, sins to confess, confess them in this 
 manner. It was no part of his design, to affirm 
 or deny that we shall ever be in a state in which 
 our " heart will not condemn us." 
 
 Heb. xii. 6 : " Whom the Lord loveth he chas- 
 teneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiv- 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 81 
 
 eth." From the fact, that all Christians are 
 chastened of God, it is inferred, that they never 
 become perfect in holiness in this life; because 
 they would not then need chastisement. I reply, 
 that the case of the earthly parent, cited by the 
 apostle to illustrate his meaning, proves precisely 
 the opposite of what the objection supposes. An 
 earthly parent induces obedience in his child by 
 the rod, but the rod, properly applied, Brings the 
 child into a state in which the rod is no more 
 needed. So of the rod in the hand of our heav- 
 enly Father. Its object is to render us " parta- 
 kers of his holiness." Till this end is accom- 
 plished, the rod will be used. When this end is 
 accomplished, it will no longer be needed. That 
 the Christian will never come into this state, in 
 this life, it was no part of the apostle's object to 
 affirm. 
 
 These are all the passages that I have met with 
 from the New Testament, which have been sup- 
 posed to deny the doctrine under consideration. 
 A very few passing remarks are called for, upon 
 certain passages in the Old Testament, which are 
 commonly adduced for the same object as the pas- 
 sages noticed above. Two preliminary observa- 
 tions are deemed requisite to a correct understand- 
 ing of these passages, in respect to the subject 
 before us. 
 
82 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 1. Whatever is said of the character of saints, 
 under the old dispensation, cannot be applied to 
 Christians under the new, unless such application 
 was manifestly intended by the sacred writer. The 
 ancient saints, we are told, " received not the 
 promises, God having reserved some better things 
 for us, that they without us should not be made 
 perfect." 
 
 2. When the sacred writers would express a 
 fact which is true of the majority of men, though 
 not of every individual, they make use, in most 
 instances, of universal terms. 
 
 One example will illustrate both of the above 
 principles. Jer. ix. 4, " Take ye heed every one 
 of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother ; 
 for every brother will utterly supplant, and every 
 neighbor will walk with slanders/"' Who suppo- 
 ses, that this passage is applicable to all Chris- 
 tians, or even to real saints, at the time the prophet 
 wrote, to the prophet himself, for example. 
 Now, in the light of this example, let us contem- 
 plate two similar passages. Eccl. vii. 20, " For 
 there is not a just man on earth that doeth good 
 and sinneth not." On this passage I remark, 1. 
 If it is to be understood in an unlimited sense, no 
 reason can be assigned, why it should be applied 
 to Christians in the full possession of the blessings 
 of the new covenant. It was made with refer- 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 83 
 
 ence to men in the state then present, and not with 
 reference to their condition under an entirely dif- 
 ferent dispensation. 2. The context shows that 
 it is only in a general, and not in an unlimited 
 sense, that this passage is to be understood. In 
 the verse preceding, the writer says, " Wisdom 
 strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men 
 that are in the city." We are here exhorted to 
 use prudence in our transactions with men. The 
 reason is then assigned, " There is not a just man 
 upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not," i. e. 
 in all your transactions with men, act upon the 
 prudential maxim, that no man can be trusted. 
 As a prudential maxim, the declaration under 
 consideration is true, true not in a universal, but 
 general sense ; just as the declaration of the pro- 
 phet, above cited, is true in a similar sense. In 
 this sense only, each of the writers under conside- 
 ration evidently designed to be understood. 
 
 Again, Prov. xx. 9, " Who can say I have made 
 my heart clean, I am pure from my sin ?" The 
 first remark upon the passage last cited is equally 
 applicable to this. The true meaning of this pas- 
 sage, however, is, in my judgment, generally 
 overlooked. The design of the sacred writer, as I 
 suppose, is this ; to ask the question, " Who, in 
 looking over his past life, can deny the fact that he 
 is a sinner, and is clear from all the sin charged 
 
84 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 upon him. When an individual, in the language 
 of the Bible, would affirm his innocency of any 
 crime, or sin, he was accustomed to affirm that 
 he " had cleansed his hands," or " washed them 
 in innocency," i. e. had kept himself pure. So of 
 the sacred writer, in the passage before us. " Who 
 can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from 
 my sin ;" i. e. who can sayl have preserved my heart 
 free from all sin, and my hands from all the iniqui- 
 ty that may be laid to my charge ? This question 
 is asked with reference to the entire past life, and 
 not with reference to the fact, whether any individ- 
 ual does, at any period of life, attain to a state of 
 entire sanctification. 
 
 Job ix. 20, " If I say, 1 am perfect, that also 
 will prove me perverse." How does this declara- 
 tion which Job applies to himself, and to no other 
 person, prove that all other saints, and Christians 
 even, are imperfect ; any more than the confession of 
 David proves that all are guilty of adultery ? The 
 inference is just as legitimate in one case, as in the 
 other. 
 
 1 Kings viii. 46, "If they sin against thee, (for 
 there is no man that sinneth not.") This passage, 
 if rightly translated, simply affirms, that all men do, 
 at some period of their lives, sin, and not that no 
 man, at any period, arrives at a state of entire holi- 
 ness. The former, and not the latter, is the 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 85 
 
 thought that would naturally suggest itself to the 
 speaker, under the circumstances in which he was 
 then placed. The following note, from the Com- 
 prehensive Bible, shows clearly to my mind, that 
 a different rendering should have been given to 
 the 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 sinneth not, it is useless to say, If they 
 sin : but this contradiction is removed by render- 
 ing the original, " If they shall sin against thee, 
 (for there is no man that may not sjn,") i. e. there is 
 no man impeccable, or infallible ; none that is not 
 liable to sin. In the conjugation in which the word 
 is here found, this is its appropriate meaning. 
 
 The imperfection of good men, whose lives are 
 recorded in Scripture, is also adduced to prove 
 that perfection in holiness is impracticable in this 
 life. In reply, I remark, that all that is recorded 
 is the simple fact, that such men were, at particu- 
 lar times, guilty of particular sins. How does this 
 prove that, subsequently, they did not attain to 
 perfection in holiness? How, for example, does 
 the fact, that Paul disputed with Barnabas, the only 
 sin, if it be a sin, of Paul's Christian life, I believe, 
 on record, how does this fact, I say, prove, that 
 when Paul afterwards said, "The life which I 
 now live in the flesh, I live by faith on the Son of 
 
86 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 God," he was not in a state of entire sanctifi- 
 cation ? 
 
 Having noticed all the objections derived from 
 Scripture to the doctrine under consideration, it 
 remains to notice some others arising from the sup- 
 posed tendencies of the doctrine itself. 
 
 I. This doctrine, it is said, is, or in its legitimate 
 tendencies, leads to Perfectionism. If any indi- 
 vidual will point out any thing intrinsic in the doc- 
 trine here maintained, at all allied to that error, I, 
 for one, will be among the first to abandon the 
 position which I am now endeavoring to sustain. 
 Perfectionism, technically so called, is, in my judg- 
 ment, in the native and necessary tendencies of its 
 principles, worse than the worst form of infidelity. 
 The doctrine of holiness, now under consideration, 
 in all its essential features and elements, stands in 
 direct opposition to Perfectionism. It has abso- 
 lutely nothing in common with it, but a few terms 
 derived from the Bible. 
 
 1. Perfectionism, for example, in its fundamen- 
 tal principles, is the abrogation of all law. The 
 doctrine of holiness, as here maintained, is perfect 
 obedience to the precepts of the law. It is the 
 " righteousness of the law fulfilled in us." 
 
 2. In abrogating the moral law, as a rule of duty, 
 Perfectionism abrogates all obligation of every 
 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 87 
 
 kind, and to all beings. The doctrine of holiness, 
 as here maintained, contemplates the Christian as a 
 " debtor to all men," to the full extent of his ca- 
 pacities, and consists in a perfect discharge of all 
 these obligations of every obligation to God and 
 man. 
 
 3. Perfectionism is a " rest " which suspends all 
 efforts and prayer, even, for the salvation of the 
 world. The doctrine of holiness, as here main- 
 tained, consists in such a sympathy with the love 
 of Christ, as constrains the subject to consecrate 
 his entire being to the glory of Christ in the salva- 
 tion of men. 
 
 4. Perfectionism substitutes the direct teaching 
 of the Spirit, falsely called, in the place of the 
 " word." This expects such teachings only in 
 the diligent study of the word, and tries every doc- 
 trine by the " law and the testimony," " the law 
 and the testimony " expounded in conformity with 
 the legitimate laws of interpretation. 
 
 5. Perfectionism surrenders up the soul to blind 
 impulse, assuming, that every existing desire or 
 impulse is caused by the direct agency of the Spirit, 
 and therefore to be gratified. The doctrine of 
 holiness, as here maintained, consists in the subjec- 
 tion of all our powers and propensities to the re- 
 vealed will of God. 
 
 6. Perfectionism abrogates the Sabbath, and all 
 
 
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 the ordinances of the gospel, and, in its legitimate 
 tendencies, even marriage itself. The doctrine of 
 holiness, as here maintained, is a state of perfect 
 moral purity, induced and perpetuated by a careful 
 observance of all these ordinances, together with 
 subjection to other influences of the gospel, re- 
 ceived by faith. 
 
 7. Perfectionism renders, in its fundamental 
 principles, all perfection an impossibility. If, as 
 this system maintains, the Christian is freed from 
 all obligation, is bound by no law in short, if 
 there is no standard with which to compare his 
 actions, and there is none, if the moral law, as a 
 rule of action, is abrogated, moral perfection can 
 no more be predicated of the Christian, than of the 
 horse, the ox, or the ass. The doctrine of holi- 
 ness, on the other hand, as here maintained, con- 
 templates the moral law as the only rule and standard 
 of the moral conduct, and consists in perfect con- 
 formity to the precepts of this law. 
 
 8. Perfectionism, in short, in its essential ele- 
 ments, is the perfection of licentiousness. The 
 doctrine of holiness, as here maintained, is the 
 perfect and perpetual harmony of the soul with 
 " whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
 are honest," " just," " pure," lovely," and of 
 " good report," and if there be any virtue, " and 
 if there be any praise," with these things also. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 89 
 
 What agreement, then, has the doctrine of ho- 
 liness, as here maintained, with Perfectionism ? 
 The same that light has with darkness. A man 
 might, with the same propriety, affirm that I am a 
 Unitarian, because I believe in one God, while I 
 hang my whole eternity upon the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, as to affirm that I am a Perfectionist, be- 
 cause I hold the doctrine of holiness as now pre- 
 sented. 
 
 II. This doctrine, it is said, will lead to spiritual 
 pride. 1 answer, 1. An individual holding the 
 sentiment under consideration, who has the true 
 standard of holiness before his mind, and is con- 
 scious of coming " short of the glory of God," 
 will be weighed down in deep humiliation and self- 
 abasement, under the conviction that he not only is 
 not what he ought to be, but what he might 
 become. On the other hand, the man holding the 
 common views, will be greatly comforted, under a 
 consciousness of moral imperfection, with the 
 thought that he, in common with holy Paul, and 
 David, and Isaiah, and all the purest saints that 
 ever lived, through the "law in his members war- 
 ring against the law of his mind, is in captivity 
 unto the law of sin and death." 2. If an individ- 
 ual should attain to a state of entire consecration 
 to Christ, spiritual pride would, of course, be 
 6 
 
90 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 wholly excluded. I shall recur to this subject 
 again in a subsequent discourse. 
 
 III. It is further objected, that the belief of this 
 doctrine will lead individuals to suppose themselves 
 perfect, when they are not, and thus leave them in 
 delusions fearfully dangerous. I answer, 1. This 
 will not be the case, if, as remarked in a former 
 discourse, the true standard of holiness be kept 
 before the mind. 2. If no doctrine is to be pro- 
 claimed which hypocrites will abuse, we must cer- 
 tainly find some other doctrine than this, that none 
 are entirely sanctified in this life. 
 
 IV. I have never yet seen any person that was 
 perfect. I answer, 1. The reason may be, and I 
 have no doubt is, the unbelief of the Church in 
 respect to the nature and extent of the provisions 
 and promises of divine grace. 2. If, brother, 
 your confidence in the provisions and promises of 
 divine grace, is at all weakened, or your judgment 
 of their nature and extent is at all influenced by 
 the actual attainments of Christians at the present 
 time, you ought to know that your faith rests upon 
 " things seen," and not upon the word of God. 
 Where is the authority for determining the mean- 
 ing of God's declarations by the attainments of 
 those who, by their unbelief, perhaps, are " mak- 
 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 91 
 
 ing void the law of God?" 3. The objection 
 under consideration lies with equal force against 
 the divine declaration, that the " earth shall yet 
 *be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 
 cover the sea." No such event has ever yet taken 
 place. What should we think of the Christian, who, 
 for this reason, should affirm that such an event 
 never will take place ? The question hefore us, 
 is, not what Christians have attained, but what 
 God has promised. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 1 . The reader is now prepared to determine the 
 fact, where the weight of evidence lies, in respect to 
 the momentous question, Is perfection in holiness 
 attainable in this life ? On the one hand, we have 
 a long array of divine declarations in respect to the 
 provisions of the gospel and the design of the re- 
 demption of Christ. We have also a similar array 
 of " exceeding great and precious promises," the 
 meaning of which cannot easily be misapprehend- 
 ed by the honest inquirer after truth.. In addi- 
 tion to all these, we have the express commands of 
 Scripture addressed to us as Christians, together 
 with the prayer of Christ, and of inspired men, 
 who spake and prayed as they were "moved by 
 the Holy Ghost," all bearing upon this one poinU 
 
92 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 On the other hand, we have a small number of 
 passages, a careful analysis of which, clearly shows 
 to have no relevancy to the subject whatever, 
 passages, the most important of which, such, for 
 example, as Rom. vii.j Gal. v. 17, Phil. iii. 12, 
 and 1 John i. 8, have long since been given up as 
 proof texts upon this subject^ by many, who deny 
 the doctrine maintained in these discourses. Under 
 such circumstances, how is it possible for us to 
 doubt, not only where the weight of evidence, but 
 wiiere the truth, lies ? 
 
 2. Here, also, I may be permitted to allude to 
 the manifest carelessness with which the Church 
 generally has made up her judgment upon the doc- 
 trine under consideration, and to the necessity of a 
 careful and prayerful re-examination of the whole 
 subject. In reading the works of the ablest di- 
 vines upon this subject, I have been forcibly struck 
 with their manner of treating it, as indicating the 
 fact, that their opinions were formed, and their 
 proof texts selected, almost at random, without 
 reference to fundamental principles. How else 
 can we account, for example, for the strange phe- 
 nomenon, that a declaration, which Job made with 
 exclusive reference to himself, has been so univer- 
 sally cited, as proof that the man who embraces 
 the views maintained in these discourses is not only 
 deceived, but shows himself, by the sentiment 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 93 
 
 which he has embraced, to be perverse. How 
 else can we account for the general adoption of the 
 maxim, as if it were a revealed truth, that, if a man 
 should become entirely sanctified, he would be 
 taken directly to heaven, and not be permitted to 
 live on earth a moment. Sin, or at least some 
 degree of it, is regarded as an essential element of 
 Christian character, as a life preserver, notwith- 
 standing the divine declaration, that "he that 
 would love life and see good days, must refrain 
 his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak 
 no guile," and that implicit obedience to all God's 
 commandments is the only surety for long life ? 
 
 3. Permit me, in conclusion, to allude to the 
 state of mind necessary to a correct investigation of 
 this subject. It is a supreme and ardent desire 
 after holiness, and a knowledge of the means of 
 attaining it. " If thine eye be single, thy whole 
 body shall be full of light." Without this state of 
 mind, we are unprepared, not only for this, but for 
 every inquiry in respect to the Scriptures. 
 
 Reader, is this your state ? Is the inquiry after 
 the way of holiness the great and absorbing inqui- 
 ry of your heart ? " Blessed are they that hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be 
 filled." 
 
DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 " Behold the day is come, saith the Lord, when I will 
 make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the 
 house of Judah ; not according to the covenant that 1 made 
 with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand 
 to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they contin- 
 ued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the 
 Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the 
 house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put 
 my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts ; and 
 will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people ; and 
 they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man 
 his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for all shall know me, 
 from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their 
 unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I re- 
 member no more. In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath 
 made the first old." Heb. viti. 813. 
 
 "And to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant." Heb. 
 xii. 24. 
 
 The great difficulty which a vast majority of 
 Christians feel, in respect to holy living, is the 
 want of the constant presence and influence of a 
 filial, affectionate, confiding and obedient spirit 
 
96 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 towards God, a spirit which perpetually cries, 
 Abba, Father, and consists in the spontaneous flow of 
 the heart's purest and best affections towards Christ. 
 If the mind could always be in this state, how easy 
 it would be to avoid all sin, and perfectly to obey all 
 the divine requisitions. This spirit, Christians often 
 resolve to cherish. They find their resolutions, how- 
 ever, wholly inefficient to move the heart. To re- 
 medy the difficulty, they resort to their Bibles and to 
 prayer, and renew their resolutions with increasing 
 earnestness. Still the heart remains comparatively 
 unmoved ; and, whatever effect is produced by 
 such means, very soon passes away, " like the 
 morning cloud," leaving in the heart the same 
 " aching void " as before. Now while the Chris- 
 tian is thus " resolving and re-resolving," and 
 constantly sliding back to the cheerless state from 
 which he started, while; in spite of his efforts, he 
 is perpetually sinking deeper and deeper in the 
 " mire and deep waters," suppose the divine 
 Redeemer should pass along, and say to his weary 
 and desponding disciple, " If you will at once cease 
 from all these vain efforts, and yield yourself up to 
 my control, relying with implicit confidence in my 
 ability and faithfulness, I will enter into a covenant 
 with you, that I will myself shed abroad in your 
 heart, that "perfect love which casteth out all 
 fear," that filial and affectionate spirit which you 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 97 
 
 have vainly endeavored to induce in your own 
 mind. I will so present the truth to your appre- 
 hension, that your heart's purest and best affections 
 shall constantly and spontaneously flow out to- 
 ward me. I will secure you in a state of perfect 
 and perpetual obedience to every command of 
 God, and in the full and constant fruition of his 
 presence and love. All this I will do in perfect 
 consistency with the full, and free, and uninterrupt- 
 ed exercise of your own voluntary agency." Such 
 a message would be to the believer, " afflicted, 
 tossed with tempest, and not comforted," as life 
 from the dead. This, Christian, is precisely what 
 the Lord Jesus Christ offers to do for you, as the 
 Mediator of the new covenant. With the Psalm- 
 ist you can say, " I will run in the way of thy 
 commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my 
 heart." Christ is now ready thus to enlarge your 
 heart, that under the spontaneous flow of pure and 
 perfect love, you may do the whole will of God. 
 Till your faith is fastened upon Christ, as the life 
 and light of the soul, as the " quickening spirit," 
 who alone is able to breathe into your heart the 
 breath of spiritual life, all your efforts after holi- 
 ness will be vain. 
 
 My object in the present discourse, is to present 
 to your contemplation and faith this new covenant, 
 and Christ as the Mediator of this covenant. In 
 
98 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 illustrating this subject, the attention of the reader 
 is invited to a consideration of the following propo- 
 sitions : 
 
 I. The nature of the new covenant, as distin- 
 guished from the first, or the old covenant. 
 
 II. The relation of these two covenants. 
 
 III. The object of Christ in the provisions of 
 divine grace. 
 
 IV. The conditions on which he will fulfil in 
 us what he has promised as the Mediator of the 
 new covenant. 
 
 I. The nature of the new covenant, as distin- 
 guished from the first or the old covenant. 
 
 The old covenant, as was shown in a preceding 
 discourse, is the moral law, the covenant originally 
 made with Adam, re-announced at Mount Sinai, 
 and which now exists between God and all unfall- 
 en spirits. 
 
 The new covenant, on the other hand, is the 
 covenant of grace, obscurely disclosed to our first 
 parents, in the promise, " the seed of the woman 
 shall bruise the serpent's head," more distinctly un- 
 folded in the promise to Abraham, and brought out 
 in all its fulness in the new dispensation. As the 
 Mediator of this covenant, Christ, as shown in the 
 text and in a preceding discourse, promises to be- 
 lievers, on condition of their faith in him, the fol- 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 99 
 
 lowing blessings 1 . A confirmed state of pure and 
 perfect holiness, such as is required by the moral 
 law. 2. The full pardon of all sin, or entire justi- 
 fication. 3. The perpetual fruition of the divine 
 presence and favor. 4. The consequent universal 
 prevalence of the gospel. Such are the " riches 
 of Christ's inheritance in the saints." Such is the 
 " completeness of the saints in him," as the Me- 
 diator of the new covenant. We will now, 
 
 II.* Consider the relations of these two cove- 
 nants. This subject was alluded to in a preceding 
 discourse. My object now is, to present the whole 
 subject with greater distinctness and fulness than I 
 then could do for the want of space. I remark 
 
 1. As then observed, the same standard of char- 
 acter, perfect holiness, is common to each of these 
 covenants. 
 
 2. In the first covenant, holiness is required of 
 the creature. In the new covenant, the same thing 
 is promised to the believer. 
 
 3. The condition on which the blessings prom- 
 ised under the first covenant are secured, is, Do and 
 live. " Moses describeth the righteousness which 
 is of the law, that the man that doeth these things 
 shall live by them." The condition of the new 
 
 * Most of the distinctions here made between the two 
 covenants, were suggested to my mind by my beloved asso- 
 ciate, Rev. C. G. Finney. 
 
100 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 covenant is, Believe and live. " Now the just shall 
 live by faith." " But the righteousness, which is of 
 faith, speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, 
 Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring 
 Christ down from above.) Or, Who shall descend 
 into the deep ? (that is, to bring up Christ again 
 from the dead.) But what saith it ? The word 
 is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, 
 that is, the word of faith which we preach. That 
 if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord 
 Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God 
 raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 
 For with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
 ness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto 
 salvation." 
 
 4. The " surety " of the first covenant is the 
 creature himself. The " surety " of the new cov- 
 enant is Christ. In other words, the salvation of a 
 creature under the former depends upon the faith- 
 fulness of the creature himself. The salvation of a 
 creature under the latter depends upon the faithful- 
 ness of Christ. Hence Christ is said, Heb. v. 
 22, to have been " made a surety of a better testa- 
 ment," [covenant.] In Heb. viii. 6, as the Media- 
 tor of the new covenant, Christ is also declared to 
 be the " Mediator of a better covenant, which was 
 established upon better promises." 
 
 5. The first covenant is adapted to the condition 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 101 
 
 of creatures only who have never sinned. The 
 new covenant is adapted, by infinite wisdom and 
 love, to the condition of sinners involved in infinite 
 guilt, and hopelessly lost, as far as any efforts of 
 their own are concerned, under the power of sin. 
 
 6. The exclusive influence of the first covenant 
 upon sinners, is to increase their guilt, and aggra- 
 vate their depravity. The new covenant redeems 
 these very sinners from the curse of the law, and 
 " delivers them from the bondage of corruption 
 into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 
 Hence the first covenant is said to " gender to 
 bondage," i. e. sinners under its influence are left 
 in hopeless bondage, under the power of sin ; 
 while all who are under the full influence of the 
 new covenant, are free, i. e. are delivered from the 
 power of sin, and introduced into a state of purity 
 and blessedness, Gal. iv. 25, 26. " For these are 
 the two covenants ; the one from the Mount Sinai, 
 which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For 
 this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth 
 to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with 
 her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is 
 free, which is the mother of us all." 
 
 7. The first covenant is a dispensation of justice. 
 The new is a dispensation of mercy, under the 
 influence of which the sinner is brought to the 
 " blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things 
 
102 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 than the blood of Abel." The former influences 
 the subject by commands and prohibitions, rewards 
 and penalties ; the latter subdues and melts the 
 heart of the rebel by the power of love. 
 
 8. Finally, whatever the old covenant, or the 
 moral law, requires of the creature, the new cove- 
 nant, as shown in a former discourse, promises to 
 the believer. The first covenant, for example, 
 requires of the creature perfect and perpetual holi- 
 ness. The new covenant promises to the believer 
 perfect and perpetual holiness. I will first cite a 
 few of the passages quoted in that discourse, to sus- 
 tain the above declaration, and will then offer some 
 general remarks to show, that the construction there 
 put upon them is correct. Jer. xxxii. 39, 40 . "And 
 I will give them one heart and one way, that they 
 may fear me for ever, for the good of them and of 
 their children after them ; and I will make an ever- 
 lasting covenant with them, that I will not turn 
 from them to do them good ; but I will put my 
 fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from 
 me." Ez. xxxvi. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all 
 your filthiness, 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 
 the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give 
 you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 103 
 
 within you, and cause you to walk in ray statutes, 
 and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." 
 Deut. xxx. 6. "And the Lord thy God will cir- 
 cumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
 all thy soul." Jer. 1. 20. " In those days, and at 
 that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel 
 shall be sought for, and there shall be none ; and 
 the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." 
 1 Thess. v. 23, 24. "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. Faith- 
 ful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." 
 That Christ, as the Mediator of the new covenant, 
 does, in these and kindred passages, promise to the 
 believer all that the law requires of him, will ap- 
 pear perfectly evident from the following consider- 
 ations. 
 
 1. This sentiment is in accordance with the 
 most direct and obvious import of the phraseology 
 employed in such passages, that meaning I refer 
 to, which most naturally suggests itself to plain and 
 unlettered men, reading the sacred text without 
 note or comment, and with the*ir judgments un- 
 biassed by pre-conceived opinions. For such 
 minds the Bible was written, and its import to 
 
104 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 them, in the state referred to, is in accordance 
 with the "mind of the Spirit." 
 
 2. This is the construction which would, by all 
 mankind, be put upon the same language, if found 
 in any other book but the Bible. 
 
 3. Let any minister, in any congregation in the 
 land, use this identical language in the same full 
 and unqualified manner in which the sacred writers 
 use it, and their hearers will, with one voice, charge 
 him with holding the doctrine of Christian Perfec- 
 tion, as maintained in these discourses ; so obvious 
 is the import of such phraseology, when presented 
 without qualification. 
 
 4. All Christians admit that entire justification 
 is promised in the new covenant, that the Bible 
 teaches that heaven is a place of perfect holiness, 
 and that Christ was free from all sin while on 
 earth. Now the same identical principles of inter- 
 pretation, by which either of the above doctrines 
 can be proved from the language of the Bible, de- 
 mand the admission of the doctrine under consid- 
 eration, in all its fulness. If the language employed 
 in the above passages, does not sustain this doc- 
 trine, neither of the above doctrines can be sustain- 
 ed by the language of inspiration. Every candid 
 reader of the Bible, who will carefully study the 
 sacred volume, with his eye upon the phraseology 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 105 
 
 there employed, in reference to all these doctrines, 
 will find the above affirmations fully sustained. 
 
 5. The principles of interpretation by which it 
 can be shown that the phraseology of the passages 
 before us does not sustain the doctrine under con- 
 sideration, would be equally conclusive against any 
 other phraseology which the sacred writers could 
 have employed, when from such phraseology this 
 doctrine should be inferred. 
 
 6. This is the very sentiment which is invariably 
 impressed by the Spirit of God, upon the young 
 convert in the warmth of his early love. The 
 language and sentiment of every such heart, is 
 
 " Lord, I make a full surrender; 
 Every thought and power be thine 
 
 Thine entirely, 
 Through eternal ages thine." 
 
 With the young convert, this is not a poetical 
 hyperbole, but the real sentiment and conviction 
 of the heart. Now present to such a mind, in the 
 unsophisticated worth of its " first love," the ex- 
 ceeding great and precious promises of the new 
 covenant, and how would he interpret them? Who 
 can doubt that he would understand them in con- 
 formity with the pure sentiments and convictions 
 impressed upon his mind by the Spirit of God, in 
 his conversion ? Such are the promises of the 
 new covenant, of which Christ is the Mediator. 
 7 
 
106 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 In looking to Christ for the fulfilment of these 
 promises, would he not charge upon us the sin of 
 unbelief, should we expect less from him than that 
 he should " redeem us from all iniquity," and 
 render us " perfect and complete in all the will of 
 God ? " We come now to consider 
 
 III. The object of Christ in the provisions of 
 divine grace. It is, to lay the foundation and pro- 
 vide the means, for the fulfilment, in believers, of 
 all that is promised in the new covenant ; to wit, 
 the full and entire pardon of all their sins, their 
 redemption from all iniquity, their perfection in 
 holiness, and their perfect and perpetual blessed- 
 ness, in an eternal fruition of the divine presence 
 and favor. 1 Pet. ii. 24, " Who his own self bare 
 our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, 
 being dead to sin, might live unto righteousness : 
 by whose stripes ye were healed." Eph. v. 25 
 27, " Even as Christ also loved the church, and 
 gave himself for it ; That he might sanctify and 
 cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 
 that he might present it to himself a glorious 
 church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing ; but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish." Tit. ii. 14, " Who gave himself for us, 
 that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
 purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 107 
 
 good works." ' John iii. 16, 17, " For God so 
 loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever belie veth in him, should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent 
 not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
 but that the world through him might be saved." 
 Rom. viii. 3, " For what the law 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 ; that the righteous- 
 ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 1 John iii. 
 5, "And ye know that he was manifested to take 
 away our sins ; and in him is no sin." 
 
 Such is the design of Christ, in all the provis- 
 ions of divine grace. It is to lay a broad founda- 
 tion for the fulfilment, on his part, as the Media- 
 tor of the new covenant, of all the blessings 
 promised in that covenant. This was the work 
 which Christ undertook to accomplish, as the in- 
 carnate, atoning Saviour ; and, blessed be God, the 
 work, which he assumed in our behalf, he finished. 
 " I have finished the work which thou gavest me 
 to do." "When Jesus therefore had received 
 the vinegar, he said, It is finished ; and he bowed 
 his head, and gave up the ghost." 
 
 Having finished this work, he now presents 
 himself to us, as, " able to save them to the utter- 
 
108 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 most, that come unto God by him,' seeing he ever 
 liveth to make intercession for us." We are per- 
 mitted, by faith, to " behold his glory, the glory as 
 of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
 truth." "And of his fulness we may all receive, 
 and grace for grace." Listen, hearer, to the 
 " gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth," 
 as our high priest, and intercessor, as the "Media- 
 tor of the new covenant." " I am the resurrec- 
 tion and the life ; he that believeth in me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 
 " Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
 upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your 
 souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is 
 light." " I will give to him that is athirst of the 
 fountain of the water of life freely." We. will 
 now consider, 
 
 IV. The conditions on which Christ will fulfil 
 in us what he has promised, as the Mediator of the 
 new covenant. These conditions are distinctly 
 stated in Ez. xxxvi. 37, " Thus saith the Lord 
 God ; I will yet for this be inquired of by the 
 house of Israel, to do it for them." The things 
 promised, permit me to remind the reader, are 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 109 
 
 these the unlimited pardon of all sin entire re- 
 demption from the power of sin the perfect and 
 perpetual subjection of all our powers to the 
 "whole will of God" and the full and eternal 
 fruition of the divine presence and favor. The 
 condition, on which all this is promised, is, that 
 God be " inquired of," through Christ, as the Me- 
 diator of the new covenant, to do it for us." Now 
 inquiring of Christ for those blessings, implies, 
 
 1. A consciousness of our need of divine grace 
 of our infinite guilt and hopeless bondage under 
 sin of the absolute hopelessness of our securing 
 either of these blessings, through any unaided ef- 
 forts of our own. 
 
 2. Confidence unshaken in Christ's ability and 
 willingness to do all this for us. Suppose, Christ 
 should address you as he did one of old in respect 
 to another subject, " Believest thou that I am 
 able to do this ?" " Do you believe that I am now 
 standing at the door and knocking, and, that, if 
 you will hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
 come in and sup with you, and you with me," 
 and confer upon you this full and finished redemp- 
 tion ? What would be your answer ? Could your 
 soul settle down immovably upon the affirmation, 
 " Lord I believe." 
 
 3. A preference of these blessings above all 
 objects in existence. Suppose God should call 
 
110 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 upon you, to lift your heart to his throne, and ask 
 of him what blessing you pleased. Would your 
 mind fasten upon a heart perfectly pure, together 
 with its consequences, as the "pearl of great 
 price," as the treasure in comparison with which, 
 all other objects are, in your estimation, "but 
 loss." If this is your state of mind, there is but 
 one thing more to be done, which is this : 
 
 4. An actual reception of Christ, and reliance 
 upon him for all those blessings, in all their ful- 
 ness a surrender of your whole being to him, 
 that he may accomplish in you all the " exceed- 
 ing great and precious promises" of the new 
 covenant. When this is done, when there is that 
 full and implicit reliance upon Christ, for the en- 
 tire fulfilment of all that he has promised, he 
 becomes directly responsible for our full and com- 
 plete redemption. "He that believeth in me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live: And 
 whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die." To us his word stands pledged to " put the 
 laws of God in our minds, and write them in our 
 hearts ;" to " circumcise our heart and the heart of 
 our seed, to love the Lord our God with all our 
 heart and with all our soul ;" " to sprinkle clean 
 water upon us, so that we shall be clean ;" to 
 " give us one heart and one way, that we may fear 
 God forever; to make an everlasting covenant 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. Ill 
 
 with us, that he will not turn away from us to do 
 us good, but that he will put the fear of God in 
 our hearts, that we may not depart from him ; 
 finally, to " sanctify us wholly, and preserve our 
 whole spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Reader, 
 "believest thou this?" Can you open your mouth 
 thus wide ? Dare you ask, or expect, from your 
 Redeemer, less than this ? Methinks, 1 hear that 
 Redeemer asking you the question, "Do you now 
 believe ?" " According to thy faith, be it unto 
 thee." Reader, let me ask you again, Do you 
 desire to be imbued with a filial, confiding and 
 obedient spirit towards God, to be brought into 
 such a state, that your heart's purest and best af- 
 fections shall spontaneously flow out towards 
 Christ, and the " peace of God, which passeth all 
 understanding, keep your heart and mind through 
 Christ Jesus?" Christ is now present in your 
 heart, and ready to confer all this purity and bless- 
 edness upon you ; if you can believe that he is 
 able and willing to do it for you, and will cast your 
 entire being upon his faithfulness. To you he 
 says, " If thou canst believe, all things are possible 
 to him that believeth." Come to the fountain, 
 reader, and " wash your garments and make them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb." "Christ bore 
 your sins in his own body on the tree, that you, 
 
112 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 being dead to sin, might live unto righteousness." 
 Why should you any longer bear the burden of 
 those sins ? especially when Christ, in view of the 
 provisions of his grace, calls upon you to " reckon 
 yourself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God 
 through Jesus Christ your Lord." 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I. We may now understand the reason, why 
 Christ himself prayed, and taught his church to 
 pray, and why the Holy Spirit constantly influ- 
 ences inspired men to pray, for this one specific 
 blessing entire perfection in holiness. Also, why 
 this is required of us, as Christians, and such re- 
 wards are held before us, to induce us thus to 
 consecrate ourselves to Christ. Such prayers, 
 commands, and motives, are all based upon the 
 provisions and promises of divine grace, which se- 
 cure to the believer, on condition of his faith, this 
 very blessing ; and are designed to raise the 
 church to a comprehension of the " fullness that 
 she has in Christ," that she may take possession 
 of her purchased and promised inheritance. We 
 are taught to pray for this blessing, and such a 
 state is required of us, because, provision is made 
 in the gospel, for God to answer such prayers, 
 when we "ask in faith, nothing wavering," and 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 113 
 
 for us to attain to that state, by casting ourselves, 
 in the exercise of similar faith, upon the power 
 and faithfulness of Christ. 
 
 II. We learn how to understand and apply such 
 declarations of Scripture as the following : " Wash 
 you, make you clean ;" " Make to yourselves a new 
 heart and a new spirit ;" " Let us cleanse ourselves 
 from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," fcc. 
 The common impression seems to be, that men are 
 required to do all this, in the exercise of their own 
 unaided powers; and because the sinner fails to 
 comply, grace comes in, and supplies the condition 
 in the case of Christians. Now I suppose, that all 
 such commands are based upon the provisions of 
 divine grace. The sinner is not required to 
 " make himself clean," or to " make to himself a 
 new heart," in the exercise of his unaided powers ; 
 but by application to the blood of Christ, " which 
 cleanseth from all sin." The grace which purifi- 
 eth the heart is provided : the fountain, whose 
 waters cleanse from sin, is set open. To this 
 fountain the creature is brought, and because he 
 may descend into it, and there " wash his garments 
 and make them white," he is met with the com- 
 mand, " Wash you, make you clean," " make to 
 yourself a new heart and a new spirit," and 
 " cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh 
 
114 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 and spirit." The sinner is able to make to him- 
 self a " new heart and a new spirit," because, he 
 can instantly avail himself of proffered grace. He 
 does literally " make to himself a new heart and 
 a new spirit," when he yields himself up to the 
 influence of that grace. The power to cleanse 
 from sin lies in the blood and grace of Christ ; and 
 hence, when the sinner " purifies himself by obey- 
 ing the truth through the spirit," the glory of his 
 salvation belongs, not to him, but to Christ. 
 
 Herein also lies the ability of the creature to 
 obey the commands of God, addressed to us as 
 redeemed sinners. " He that abideth in me, and 
 I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for 
 without me ye can do nothing." "As the branch 
 cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
 vine : no more can ye, except ye abide in me." 
 These declarations are literally and unqualifiedly 
 true. We can " abide in Christ," and thus bring 
 forth the fruit required of us. If by unbelief we 
 separate ourselves from Christ, we of necessity 
 descend, under the weight of our own guilt and 
 depravity, down the sides of the pit, into the eter- 
 nal sepulchre. 
 
 'HI. In view of the provision of divine grace for 
 our full redemption, and of the promises of Christ, 
 as the Mediator of the new covenant, to that effect, I 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 115 
 
 would remark, that a state of entire sanctification, 
 is, and appears to be, the most natural and simple 
 form of Christian experience the form which we 
 ought to expect to find most common in the 
 church. If Christ has made provision for our en- 
 tire sanctification, and promised thus to sanctify 
 us, on condition of faith in him on our part, that 
 any sincere Christian, who is aware of his privileges, 
 should ask for, or expect less from him, is the 
 most unnatural form of Christian experience con- 
 ceivable, and one whose occurrence, we should 
 think, would be regarded as a strange anomaly 
 among the disciples of such a Saviour. So I have 
 no doubt it will be regarded, when Christians 
 come to a full understanding of their " complete- 
 ness " in Christ. 
 
 IV. We are now prepared to contemplate the 
 relation between the views maintained in these 
 discourses, and those very commonly held by 
 Christians upon the same subject. In reference to 
 the standard of moral obligation there is a per- 
 fect agreement. The only existing difference re- 
 spects the extent of the provisions and promises of 
 divine grace, in respect to Christians in this life. 
 
 V. We are also prepared to estimate the diffi- 
 
116 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 culties in which the common theory is involved. 
 
 will specify a few of them. 
 
 1. The advocates of the common theory main- 
 tain, that the sacred writers designed to teach the 
 doctrine, that no individual ever attains to a state 
 of entire sanctification in this life ; while, it was 
 their object to teach the fact, that Christ was free 
 from all sin, that all Christians are perfectly justi- 
 fied here, and will be perfectly sanctified in a 
 future state, and that perfect holiness is required 
 of us in this life. Now, if the above positions are 
 true, how can we account for the strange fact, that 
 the same identical principles of interpretation, by 
 which either of the doctrines last mentioned can 
 be proved from the phraseology of the sacred wri- 
 ters, demand, when applied to the phraseology 
 which they employed in expressing the nature 
 and extent of the provisions and promises of divine 
 grace, the admission of the principle, that entire 
 holiness is attainable in this life a principle pre- 
 cisely opposite to the one which, it is maintained, 
 they intended to teach. Again, how can we ac- 
 count for the fact, in consistency with the common 
 theory, that the sacred writers employed a phrase- 
 ology which, if found in any other book, or if now 
 used by individuals in the same unqualified man- 
 ner as used by them, would be universally under- 
 stood to affirm the doctrine maintained in these 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 117 
 
 discourses ? Would the sacred writers have em- 
 ployed such a singular phraseology as this, had it 
 been their object, as the advocates of the common 
 theory affirm, to impress their readers with the 
 conviction, that perfect holiness is, in this life, 
 unattainable ? Again, no phraseology conceivable 
 is more perfectly adapted to convey the sentiment 
 maintained in these discourses, than that employed 
 by the sacred writers. To draw any other doc- 
 trine from it, it must be narrowed down, and 
 regarded as altogether hyperbolical. Now how 
 can we account for the strange anomaly, that in- 
 spired men adopted a phraseology adapted to con- 
 vey one sentiment, and that only, when, as the 
 common theory affirms, their definite object was, to 
 convey precisely the opposite sentiment ? These 
 are some of the difficulties in which the common 
 theory is inextricably involved, as far as the laws 
 of interpretation are concerned. 
 
 2. That Christ prayed, and taught his church 
 to pray, and that the Holy Spirit inspired and in- 
 fluenced the apostles and primitive Christians, to 
 pray, continually and fervently, for this one specific 
 object the entire sanctification of believers in this 
 life, all admit. According to the common theory, 
 it was a prime object of the sacred writers, to im- 
 press their readers and hearers with the conviction, 
 that such prayers will never be answered, by the 
 
118 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 bestowment of the blessing desired. How can we 
 account for such prayers, in consistency with such 
 an object ? Above all, how shall we account for 
 the fact, that Christ and inspired men prayed for 
 one specific blessing the entire sanctification of 
 believers in this life, when their intention was, to 
 impress us with the conviction, that such a blessing 
 will not be conferred ; while they did not pray for 
 another blessing the partial holiness of the Chris- 
 tian, when their design was to impress us with the 
 conviction that this blessing is agreeable to the 
 will of God ? 
 
 3. All admit that the richest blessings are prom- 
 ised to us on the specific condition of perfect holi- 
 ness. According to the common theory, the 
 sacred writers designed to impress their readers 
 with the conviction, that this is a condition with 
 which they will never in this life comply. How, 
 as asked in a former discourse, can such a fact be 
 accounted for, in consistency with the sincerity 
 and love of God ? 
 
 4. According to the common theory, God re- 
 quires us, in the most solemn manner conceivable, 
 to be perfectly holy, and then, in a' manner equally 
 solemn, requires us to believe, that with such com- 
 mands we shall not comply. How can such a fact 
 be explained? 
 
 5. Certain maxims, which have been almost 
 universally regarded as of fundamental importance 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 119 
 
 to efficient action, not only in religion, but other 
 subjects, present difficulties equally inexplicable 
 in consistency with the common theory. For ex- 
 ample, " What ought to be done, may be done," 
 i. e. we should expect to do. " God bestows upon 
 everyone as much holiness and peace, as he sincere- 
 ly desires and prays for." Suppose, that with these 
 maxims before me, I am met by the command, " Be 
 ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven 
 is perfect." Suppose that in view of this com- 
 mand, I lift my heart in honest and fervent sin- 
 cerity to God, for grace to keep that command. 
 Now, under such circumstances, the advocates of 
 the common theory must either give up the above 
 maxims altogether, or admit the attainableness of 
 entire sanctification in this life. 
 
 6. According to the common theory, we are 
 required to aim at perfection in holiness, and at 
 the same time, as shown in a former discourse, to 
 believe that such a state is unattainable a belief 
 which renders the formation of the intention re- 
 quired an impossibility. 
 
 7. The advocates of the common theory gene- 
 rally admit, that perfection in holiness is attainable 
 in this life ; but at the same time maintain, that it 
 is never attained, and that it is a great error to 
 suppose that it is attained. Now what evidence 
 can we have, that such state is unattainable, higher 
 
120 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 than this, that all Christians in all past ages have 
 honestly and prayerfully aimed, and all will contin- 
 ue to the end of time, thus to aim at this state, a 
 fact which all admit, with the absolute certainty 
 of not attaining to it? Should it be said, that 
 such efforts are not made with sufficient vigor ; 
 the answer is, that, to put forth efforts with the 
 adequate vigor, is the very thing at which all are 
 aiming. On the supposition above referred to, 
 how can the position be sustained, that the state 
 under consideration is attainable ? 
 
 The sinner, it is said, in illustration of the posi- 
 tion that perfection in holiness is attainable, but 
 never attained, is able to repent, in the absence 
 of special grace, though he never will do it. To 
 make the cases parallel, let us suppose, that all 
 sinners, in the absence of such grace, are honestly 
 and prayerfully striving after holiness ; with the 
 absolute certainty of not, in the circumstances sup- 
 posed, attaining it. With what propriety, I ask, 
 could it, then, be said, that holiness is practicable 
 to the sinner, in the absence of special grace. 
 What is here supposed of the sinner, is actually 
 true of every sincere Christian. Paul, for exam- 
 ple, for the space of thirty or forty years, aimed 
 steadily and prayerfully at this one definite state, 
 and that, according to the sentiment under consid- 
 eration, with the absolute certainty of falling short 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 121 
 
 of his object. The same experiment, and with the 
 same result, every Christian has repeated, and every 
 true Christian will continue to repeat to the end of 
 time. Yet, it is said, to attain to that state, is to 
 every individual, at every moment, perfectly prac- 
 ticable. What conceivable meaning do such per- 
 sons attach to the terms attainable and practicable, 
 when so used ? The advocates of the common 
 theory are sacredly bound to take the ground that 
 the state under consideration is not attainable, in 
 any appropriate sense of the term. 
 
 VI. We are now prepared to understand the 
 nature and character of the Antinomian, legal, and 
 evangelical spirit. 
 
 The Antinomian spirit relies upon Christ for 
 justification, in the absence of personal holiness, 
 or sanctification. It looks to him to be saved in . 
 and not from sin. 
 
 The legal spirit assumes two forms 1. It ex- 
 pects justification and sanctification both through 
 deeds of the law. This is the spirit of the ancient 
 Pharisee and modern moralist. 2. It expects jus- 
 tification from Christ, and sanctification from per- 
 sonal effort. Under the influence of this spirit, an 
 individual will be perpetually and vainly struggling, 
 by dint of resolutions, against the resistless current 
 of carnal propensities. In this hopeless bondage 
 8 
 
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 he cries out, " Who shall deliver me from the body 
 of this death ? " 
 
 The evangelical spirit looks to Christ alike for 
 justification and sanctification both, and, by implicit 
 faith in him, obtains a blissful victory over the 
 "world, the flesh, and the devil." It is the 
 " spirit of adoption which cries, Abba, Father," 
 and in that cry, seeks and obtains deliverance from 
 the " bondage of corruption into the glorious lib- 
 erty of the children of God." The Antinomian 
 spirit is the stagnation of the moral powers in a 
 state of spiritual death. The evangelical spirit is 
 their full, and free, and perpetual action, in a state 
 of life and peace. While the legal spirit, in its 
 hopeless struggle with the flesh, cries out, "O 
 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death ;" the evangelical spirit, 
 in the triumph of faith, exclaims, " I thank God, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." The legal spirit 
 crying 
 
 " Where is the blessedness I knew 
 When first I saw the Lord ? " 
 
 looks back to its first love, as the brightest spot in 
 its whole experience, for it was then joined with 
 another spirit than itself. The evangelical spirit, 
 with its eye steadily fixed upon the " bright and 
 morning star," moves peacefully and perpetually 
 onward, in a path which "shines brighter and 
 
THE NEW COVENANT* 123 
 
 brighter unto the perfect day." The legal spirit, 
 " vainly puffed up/' notwithstanding its perpetual 
 short comings, " with its fleshly mind," in view 
 of a few fancied attainments, made by dint of 
 resolution, exclaims to the stander-by, " Stand by 
 thyself; I am holier than thou." The evangelical 
 spirit, overwhelmed with a sense of the grace of 
 God in its redemption, exclaims, "Behold what 
 manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, 
 that we should be called the sons of God ? " Not 
 for works of righteousness which we have done, 
 but according to his mercy, hath he saved us." 
 
 " Infinite grace to vileness given, 
 
 The sons of earth made heirs of heaven." 
 
 In short, the Antinomian spirit is. the spirit of 
 spiritual death. The legal spirit is the " spirit of 
 bondage." The evangelical spirit is the " glorious 
 liberty of the children of God." 
 
 VII. We are now prepared for a distinct con- 
 templation of the grand mistake, into which the 
 great mass of Christians appear to have fallen, in 
 respect to the gospel of Christ. It is this : Ex- 
 pecting to obtain justification, and not, at the 
 same time, and to the same extent, sanctification 
 by faith in Christ. Where is the Christian who 
 can say from experience, " This is the victory that 
 overcometh the world, even our faith ? " When 
 
124 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 do we hear the convert, for example, directed to 
 faith in Christ, as the certain means of subduing 
 his temper, subjecting his appetites, crucifying his 
 sinful propensities, overcoming the great enemy, 
 " fulfilling the righteousness of the law," and 
 enjoying perpetual and perfect peace and blessed- 
 ness in God ? An almost entire new leaf will be 
 turned over in Christian experience when the 
 Church knows Christ as such a Saviour. 
 
 The consequence of the mistake under consider- 
 ation, is what might be expected. The great mass 
 of the Church are slumbering in Antinomian death ; 
 or struggling in legal bondage, with barely enough 
 of the evangelical spirit, to keep the pulse of spi- 
 ritual life faintly beating. When will the Church 
 arise from this state of gloom, and death, and bar- 
 renness, to an apprehension and enjoyment of her 
 privileges in Christ, as the Mediator of the new 
 covenant ? 
 
 A 
 
 VIII. We are also prepared to account for a 
 melancholy fact which characterizes different stages 
 of the experience of the great mass of Christians. 
 From the evangelical simplicity of their first love, 
 they pass into a state of legal bondage, and after a 
 fruitless struggle of vain resolutions with the 
 " world, the flesh, and the devil," they appear to 
 descend into a kind of Antinomian death. The 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 125 
 
 reason why Christian experience takes such a 
 course, I suppose to be this : The young convert, 
 in the first instance, is turned away from Christ, 
 to his own resolutions, fcc., as the means of contin- 
 uance in the path of life, and this with the assurance 
 that his carnal propensities will never be fully cru- 
 cified, till death shall release the captive. Thus 
 he is very soon conducted into the region of legal- 
 ism, with the atmosphere around him already 
 charged to no small extent with the cheerless, 
 deadening vapors of Antinomianism. Here, after a 
 vain struggle of longer or shorter continuance, with 
 sin and sinful propensities, the spirit of Antinomian 
 slumber prevails, and death, and not a present 
 Christ, is looked for, as the great deliverer from 
 bondage. This direction, Christian experience 
 will unchangeably take, till Christians fully under- 
 stand the import of the question, " Who is he that 
 overcometh the world, but he that believeth that 
 
 Jesus is the Christ ! " 
 
 
 
 IX. We are now fully prepared to understand 
 the design of Paul in the 7th and 8th chapters of 
 Romans. The whole epistle is mainly directed 
 against two fundamental errors of the Jews, to wit, 
 that justification and sanctification, are both to be 
 obtained by deeds of law. The first error he ex- 
 plodes in the preceding chapters, showing the 
 
126 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 hopeless condemnation of all men under the law, 
 and their entire justification through faith in Christ. 
 In chapters vii. and viii., he pursues a course in 
 regard to sanctification, precisely similar to what 
 he had done in the chapters preceding, in regard 
 to justification. His object is, to contrast the 
 hopeless bondage, and fruitless struggle of the 
 creature after holiness, under the old covenant or 
 moral law, with his perfect liberty, blessedness and 
 safety, under the new covenant. As the apostle 
 had himself fully tested the influence of both cove- 
 nants upon men as sinners, he gives us his own 
 experience ; first as a Pharisee under the old, and 
 secondly, as a Christian under the new covenant. 
 Under the former, he says, notwithstanding the 
 law is good, and I delight in it " after the inward 
 man," and often resolve to keep its pure requisi- 
 tions, still " I am carnal, sold under sin." "The 
 good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I 
 would not, that I do." Under the new covenant, 
 on the other hand, I am " free from the law of 
 sin and death," breathe the " spirit of adoption," 
 am free from all condemnation, possess a hope sure 
 and steadfast, and am an " heir of God and a 
 joint heir with Jesus Christ." In short, in chap- 
 ter vii. he gives us a view of the bondage of 
 the legal spirit, in its fruitless struggle against the 
 current of carnal propensities. In the 8th, he 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 127 
 
 gives us the triumph and freedom of the evangeli- 
 cal spirit, through faith in Christ, as the " Media- 
 tor of the new covenant." 
 
 X. We now see the reason why most professors 
 of religion find their own experience portrayed in 
 the 7th instead of the 8th chapter of Romans. 
 One of two reasons must be assigned for this mel- 
 ancholy fact. Either they have never known any 
 other than the legal spirit, or else, " Having begun 
 in the spirit," they are engaged in a vain struggle 
 to be "made perfect in the flesh." In other 
 words, they are now in legal bondage. To Christ, 
 as a sanctifying Saviour, as the " Mediator of the 
 new covenant," they are, comparatively speaking, 
 strangers. When they thus know Christ, they 
 will find their experience portrayed in another and 
 different chapter than the one now under consid- 
 eration. 
 
 XL Finally, we may now contemplate the rea- 
 son why, to most Christians, the idea of arriving to 
 a state of entire sanctification in this life, appears so 
 chimerical. With the views commonly entertained 
 of the power of the gospel, and of the means of 
 holiness, the thought of arriving to such a state is 
 one of the most chimerical ideas that ever entered 
 the human mind. If there is no other means of 
 
128 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 coming into that state, but by forcing my way, by 
 dint of personal effort, through the dead sea of my 
 carnal propensities, I may as well give over the 
 struggle first as last. Whatever my natural powers 
 may be, a victory I shall never obtain in this man- 
 ner. But if, on the other hand, I am permitted to 
 hear the voice of Christ saying, Look to me, and 
 I will enter into a covenant with you, that I will 
 myself "circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul," 
 that I will " redeem you from all iniquity," and 
 cause you to stand " perfect and complete in all 
 the will of God ; " then I find myself standing in 
 an entirely different relation to the state under 
 consideration. The condition on which all this 
 blessedness is promised I can perform. I can as 
 easily look to Christ for perfect, as for partial 
 holiness ; and when my faith hangs upon him for a 
 fulfilment of all that he has promised, he has 
 mercifully assumed the responsibility of doing for 
 me according to the faith which his own spirit has 
 induced me to exercise. 
 
 Christian, " you have not come unto the mount 
 that might be touched, and that burned with fire, 
 nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 
 and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of 
 words ; which voice, they that heard, entreated 
 that the word should not be spoken unto them any 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 more. For they could not endure that which was 
 commanded, And if so much as a beast touch 
 the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through 
 with a dart ; and so terrible was the sight that even 
 Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But 
 ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city 
 of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to 
 an innumerable company of angels, to the general 
 assembly and church of the first born which are 
 written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, 
 and to the spirits of the just made perfect. And to 
 Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to 
 the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better 
 things than the blood of Abel. See that ye re- 
 fuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped 
 not who refused him that spake on earth, much 
 more shall not we escape, if we turn away from 
 him that speaketh from heaven." To this " blood 
 of sprinkling," let us come and " wash our gar- 
 ments, and make them white," and then lift our 
 hearts to heaven, and exclaim, " Unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
 God and his father ; to him be glory and dominion 
 forever and ever. Amen." 
 
DISCOURSE V. 
 
 FULL REDEMPTION IN CHRIST. 
 
 " Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost, that 
 come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make inter- 
 cession for them." Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 " But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
 him, shall never thirst : but the water that I shall give him, 
 shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life/' John iv. 14. 
 
 In remarking upon these passages, the attention 
 of the reader is invited to a consideration of the 
 following propositions, which it will be my object 
 to illustrate and establish. 
 
 I. Christ presents himself to us as a Saviour in 
 this sense, that he is both able and willing to meet 
 fully every real demand of our being; in other 
 words, perfectly to supply all our real necessities. 
 
 II. We will notice some of the demands of our 
 nature, which Christ pledges himself to meet. 
 
 HI. Illustrate the nature of faith in Christ as 
 such a Saviour. 
 
 IV. I will endeavor to show that the object of 
 Christ, in all his dispensations toward his people, 
 
132 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 is to induce in them the exercise of this implicit 
 faith towards him. 
 
 V. That it is only when this implicit faith is ex- 
 ercised towards Christ, that he can accomplish in 
 us all that he has promised. 
 
 VI. That Christians honor Christ most highly, 
 when and only when they rely upon him, for an 
 entire fulfilment in them of all that he has prom- 
 ised. 
 
 I. Christ presents himself to us as a Saviour, in 
 this sense, that he is both able and willing to meet 
 fully every real demand of our being; in other 
 words, perfectly to supply all our real necessities. 
 The truth of this proposition, I argue 
 
 1. From the fact that it is positively promised 
 in the text, and elsewhere in the Bible. " He is 
 able to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
 God by him." Whosoever shall drink of the water 
 that I shall give him shall never thirst, i. e., all his 
 real necessities shall be perfectly supplied. Phil. iv. 
 19, " But my God shall supply all your need ac- 
 cording to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 
 Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. "For the Lord God is a sun and 
 shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no 
 good thing will he withhold from them that walk 
 uprightly." Rom. viii. 32. " He that spared not 
 his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 133 
 
 how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
 things." 
 
 2. On this condition only, can Christ claim to 
 be unto us the object of supreme regard. If there 
 was any real demand of our nature, which he was 
 unable or unwilling to meet, for the supply of that 
 demand, we should look to some other source. 
 
 3. Christ is infinite in power and love; and 
 therefore must be both able and willing thus to 
 "supply our need." 
 
 II. We will now consider some of the demands 
 of our being, which Christ pledges himself to meet. 
 All the real demands of our nature are comprehend- 
 ed in these two a state of perfect moral purity 
 and blessedness. That these may be possessed in , 
 all their fulness, the following special demands must 
 be met. 
 
 1. As sinners, we need pardon. Till we are 
 conscious that God has forgiven our sins, and fully 
 restored us to his favor, a state of well-being is, 
 with us, an absolute impossibility. To meet this 
 demand, Christ presents himself to us, as our "ad- 
 vocate with the Father," and as the " propitiation 
 for our sins." " Being justified by faith, we have 
 peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 "And not only so, but we also joy in God, through 
 
134 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now 
 received the atonement." 
 
 2. Another demand of our nature is, entire de- 
 liverance from the power of sin, into a state of 
 conscious, perfect moral rectitude. In every con- 
 dition, actual and conceivable, this is a changeless 
 demand of our being. Until it is met, and perfect- 
 ly met, the want of it will, of necessity, render 
 our minds " like the troubled sea." To meet this 
 demand, Christ presents himself as able and willing 
 to "redeem us from all iniquity," and render us 
 " perfect and complete in all the will of God." 
 
 3. Another demand of our nature is, conscious 
 security against all the temptations to sin, from the 
 " world, the flesh, and the devil." To meet this 
 demand, the Saviour pledges himself that "he 
 will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are 
 able, but will with the temptation make a way to 
 escape, that we may be able to bear it." He 
 presents us with the armor of righteousness, assur- 
 ing us that, if we will " put on the whole armor of 
 God," we shall be " able to stand against all the 
 wiles of the devil." 
 
 4. Another fundamental demand of our being, is 
 a love of knowledge. In view of this demand, 
 Christ holds before our minds the declaration of 
 eternal love, "And this is life eternal, that they 
 might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 135 
 
 whom he hath sent/ 5 and then presents himself to 
 us, as able and willing, through his Spirit, to com- 
 municate this knowledge to us. 
 
 5. To a state of perfect well-being, the friendship 
 and favor of other minds is an indispensable requisite. 
 To supply this want of our being, he holds before 
 us the divine declaration, " I will dwell in them 
 and walk in them ; " "And will be a father unto 
 you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith 
 the Lord Almighty." He then lifts our contem- 
 plation to the eternal throne, and pledges himself 
 to introduce us to an endless and blissful associa- 
 tion with the pure spirits that are congregated 
 there. 
 
 6. We have also certain demands through our 
 physical constitution, which need to be met. To 
 meet these, Christ stands ready to do for us the 
 following things 1. To render us perfectly con- 
 tented with our circumstances, whatever they may 
 be. 2. To render us in the highest sense blessed, 
 in what infinite love actually confers upon us. 
 The saint who could sit down to her meal, which 
 consisted barely of a cup of water and a few dry 
 crusts of bread, and lift her heart to heaven with 
 the exclamation, "All this, Lord, and Jesus, too," 
 hardly needed another ingredient to her cup of 
 blessedness, to cause it to overflow. 3. To 
 bestow upon us all that will be to us, in our cir- 
 
136 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 cumstances, a real blessing. " Seek first the king- 
 dom of God, and his righteousness, and all these 
 things shall be added unto you." 4. To cause 
 " all things to work together for our good." 
 
 7. I notice but one other demand of our nature 
 which is met in Christ, which is this, an assured 
 hope of a peaceful death and a glorious immortal- 
 ity. To meet this demand, he spreads before us 
 the following assurance, " In my father's house 
 are many mansions : if it were not so, I would 
 have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
 come again and receive you unto myself, that 
 where I am there ye may be also." With what 
 infinite sweetness can we pillow our heads upon 
 such a pledge as this. 
 
 Such, Christian, is the fulness that dwells in 
 Christ for you. Such, also, is your completeness 
 in him. In view of this fulness, this perfect com- 
 pleteness, he claims to be the sun and centre of 
 your soul. " To whom shall we go," blessed 
 Jesus, but unto thee? "Thou hast the words of 
 eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that 
 thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ? " 
 
 III. We are now prepared for our third inqui- 
 ry, which is, The nature of faith in Christ as such 
 a Saviour. It implies 1. A consciousness o 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 137 
 
 infinite guilt, poverty, and helplessness in our- 
 selves. 2. The apprehension of Christ as a pre- 
 sent Saviour, able and willing to meet all the 
 demands of our being, as described above. 3. 
 The actual reception of him, and cordial and vol- 
 untary surrender of our whole being to his control, 
 that he may accomplish in us all that he has prom- 
 ised to those " who come unto God by him." 
 The individual, that knows and believes the love 
 that the Father hath unto us ; " that relies with 
 implicit confidence upon the absolute truth and 
 rectitude of all that Christ has affirmed, and casts 
 all his powers and interests upon his faithfulness, 
 with the peaceful expectation of realizing, in his 
 own experience, a blessed fulfilment of all that He 
 has promised, such an individual exercises that 
 faith by which we are told the "just shall live." 
 This leads me to remark 
 
 IV. That the object of Christ, in his dispensa- 
 tions and teachings, is, to induce in us the exercise 
 of this implicit faith in himself. A bare allusion to 
 a few circumstances in the life of our Saviour will 
 afford a sufficient illustration of this part of our 
 subject. For example, 1. The promptness with 
 which he invariably granted the requests of those 
 who cast themselves with implicit faith upon his 
 power and faithfulness, together with the com- 
 9 
 
138 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 mendation which he always bestowed upon such 
 acts of confidence. 2. The fact that he always 
 required such confidence, as a condition of extend- 
 ing relief, by the exertion of miraculous power. 
 " If thou canst believe, all things are possible to 
 him that believeth." 3. His perpetual reference 
 to the unbelief of his disciples, as the cause of their 
 failure to perform miracles, of their fear in the 
 tempest, and of their carefulness in respect to the 
 supply of their temporal necessities. 4. The 
 repeated assurances that he gave them, that, if 
 they would only exercise this implicit faith in him, 
 " nothing should be impossible to them." 5. 
 The manner in which he sent them forth to 
 preach, and then asking them, at the close of his 
 ministry, whether, in going out under his protec- 
 tion, as " sheep in the midst of wolves," without 
 any provision at all for their wants, they had 
 lacked any thing? One object is perfectly visible 
 in all these instances, which was, to break their 
 hold of every other object, and to lead them to 
 hang their entire being, with implicit trust, upon 
 his power and faithfulness. Such was the single 
 object of his entire course of treatment in respect 
 to his disciples and hearers while on earth. The 
 same object, Christian, he 'is now pursuing to- 
 wards you. When unbelief has disappeared 
 from your heart, when you will " credit all that 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 139 
 
 lie lias said," when you shall calmly and peace- 
 fully repose all your powers and interests upon his 
 faithful word, then his object in respect to you is 
 accomplished. Then he will open the fountains 
 of eternal love, and let its life-giving waters flow 
 in upon you for ever. He then can and will ac- 
 complish in you all that infinite love desires. 
 " Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, 
 thou shouldst see the glory of God ?" 
 
 V. I am now to show, that it is only when this 
 implicit confidence is exercised towards Christ, as 
 a Saviour able and willing to meet all our necessi- 
 ties, that he can accomplish in us all that he has 
 promised. How else, for example, can he pre- 
 serve us, free from all care, and " keep us in per- 
 fect peace. 57 While the mind reposes with un- 
 wavering trust in his ability and faithfulness to 
 meet all its necessities, the necessary result is a 
 state of perfect quietude. Distrust, on the other 
 hand, as necessarily throws the mind into a state 
 of agitation. The little child could be preserved 
 in a state of perfect peace, in the midst of the 
 wildest fury of the hurricane, by the thought that 
 his father held the helm, so long, and so long only, 
 as he reposed implicit confidence in that father's 
 ability and faithfulness to guide the vessel through 
 the storm, So of the Christian: Christ will 
 
140 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 " keep those in perfect peace," 1 whose minds are 
 staid and pure, because they trust in him. To 
 keep the mind thus, while in a state of distrust, is 
 an absolute impossibility. 
 
 For the same reason, it is impossible for Christ 
 to be unto us an object of supreme love and 
 delight, until we are brought to confide in him 
 as being such a Saviour as he represents himself 
 to be. Then, and then only, can he stir up the 
 deep fountains of feeling within us, and cause the 
 tide of love and blessedness to roll on for ever. 
 
 How, it may further be asked, is it possible for 
 Christ to bring us into a state of perfect obedience 
 to his will, until we are induced to exercise im- 
 plicit confidence in the absolute wisdom and rec- 
 titude of his requisitions? Whatever Christ does 
 for us as a Saviour, he does and must do, on one 
 condition only, that confidence implicit is reposed 
 in his ability and faithfulness to meet and supply 
 our necessities. The experience of every individ- 
 ual will present a perfect verification of his decla- 
 rations. " I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
 that believeth in me though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live : And whosoever liveth and believeth 
 in me shall never die." On the other hand, " U 
 ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 141 
 
 VI. Lastly, I am to show, that Christians 
 honor Christ the most highly, when and only 
 when, they rely upon him for an entire fulfilment 
 in them, of all that he has promised, i. e. to sup- 
 ply all our real necessities. The more enlarged 
 and confiding their expectations, the higher the 
 honor they confer upon him. This is evident 
 from the following considerations. 
 
 1. They then, and then only, give him full and 
 perfect credit for veracity in the testimony which 
 he has given respecting himself. Such a Saviour 
 he represents himself to be. When we trust him 
 with full and perfect confidence as such a Saviour, 
 we honor him as a " faithful and true witness." 
 Unbelief, a want of this implicit confidence, casts 
 the highest possible dishonor upon Christ, because 
 it practically affirms, that he is not what he has 
 declared himself to be. 
 
 2. In the exercise of this full and implicit con- 
 fidence in Christ as a perfect Saviour, we honor 
 in the highest possible degree, his benevolence, 
 his mercy, his love. To expect less from Christ 
 than a full supply of all our necessities, is to affirm, 
 that his love is not infinite. 
 
 3. In the exercise of this confidence only, we 
 give him credit for being a perfect Saviour. If 
 there is a solitary demand of our being, which he 
 is not able and willing to meet, he is so far, as a 
 Saviour, imperfect. 
 
142 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 Do you wish, Christian, to put the highest pos- 
 sible honor upon Christ ; " open your mouth wide,"' 
 with the joyful confidence that he " will fill it."" 
 Cast all your cares upon him. Believe that in 
 him you are " complete," and seek and expect 
 from him the most perfect fulness. When you 
 expect from him less than this, you cast reproach 
 upon his character for veracity, and faithfulness, 
 as possessed of infinite love, as an all powerful 
 and perfect Saviour. You affirm that " in him all 
 fulness " does not dwell. You wound his heart 
 of love. You " grieve his Holy Spirit." You 
 put out the light of your own soul. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I. We may now understand the distinction be- 
 tween perfect and imperfect faith. They are not 
 distinguished, I suppose, by this, that in reference 
 to the same object, and the same feature of Christ's 
 character, the mind may be in a state of trust, and 
 distrust, at one and the same moment. Our faith 
 may be imperfect for two reasons. 1. We may 
 repose confidence in one, and not in every fea- 
 ture of Christ's character as a Saviour. For 
 example, the mind, in consequence of ignorance 
 of the perfect fulness of Christ's redemption 
 in all respects, may repose full confidence in 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 143 
 
 Christ as a justifying, but not as a sanctifying \ 
 Saviour? 2. For the same reason, the mind may / 
 repose confidence in Christ, for sustaining grace, in 
 one condition in life, and not in another. We 
 may, for example, expect Christ to bless us in our 
 closets, but not in the midst of our business trans- 
 actions. The faith of all such persons is imper- 
 fect. Perfect faith, on the other hand, is a full and 
 unshaken confidence in Christ, as in all respects, 
 at all times, and in every condition, a full and per- 
 fect Saviour, a Saviour able and willing to meet 
 every possible demand of our being. 
 
 II. We also see how it was, that Satan effected 
 the ruin of our first parents. It was by persuad- 
 ing them, that there was one fundamental demand 
 of their being, a love of knowledge, which God 
 did not design to meet ; and by inducing them to 
 attempt to supply that demand by transgressing 
 the divine prohibition. In this state of distrust of 
 God's power or willingness to meet and supply all 
 their necessities, all mankind now are by nature, 
 and this distrust is the sole cause of every act of 
 disobedience on earth. 
 
 III. We may now understand one fundamental 
 design of the plan of redemption. It is to restore 
 in man the full, implicit, and universal confidence, 
 
144 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 in the power, wisdom and love of God, which was 
 exercised by our first parents before the fall, and 
 is now exercised by all holy beings in existence. 
 What God said to .Abraham, he says to all the 
 sons of men, who will hearken to his voice, as Abra- 
 ham did, "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding 
 great reward." When God is chosen by the soul 
 as its eternal portion, in whom every demand of 
 its being is perfectly meet, then the work of re- 
 demption is accomplished in man, as far as his 
 restoration to the love and favor of God is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 IV. We also see when it is that an individual 
 is brought into a state of entire and permanent ho- 
 liness. When he is settled into a state of full and 
 perpetual consciousness, that in Christ every de- 
 mand of his being is met, and when all his pow- 
 ers are sweetly yielded up to his control, that he 
 may thus supply our wants, and accomplish in and 
 through us, all the good pleasure of his goodness. 
 Of such a person, in such a state, it may truly be 
 said, " There is none occasion of stumbling in 
 him." Nor will there ever be to all eternity. 
 Into this blissful state, Christian, Christ is both 
 able and willing to bring you. Into this state he 
 will bring you, as soon as you will credit his testi- 
 mony to his own ability and willingness, and 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 145 
 
 will accordingly surrender yourself to his sweet 
 control. 
 
 V. We are now presented with another inex- 
 plicable difficulty in the way of the theory, that 
 perfection in holiness is unattainable in this life. 
 The advocates of that theory are bound to take 
 the ground, that in our condition in this life, such 
 perfection, i. e. a state of perfect moral rectitude, 
 would not be, on the whole, a blessing to us, for 
 the glory of God, and the good of the universe ; or 
 admit that Christ is able and willing to confer this 
 perfection upon us. If it is a good, Christ stands 
 pledged to confer it upon us. For God has said, 
 that, " No good thing will he withhold from them 
 that walk uprightly." " My God shall supply all 
 your need, according to his rich'es in glory by 
 Christ Jesus." Further, if such perfection would 
 be a good to us, and Christ did not present 
 himself to us as able and willing to meet this per- 
 petual and changeless demand of our being, he 
 would be to us an imperfect Saviour. 
 
 If such perfection is not a good, we are bound 
 not to pray for or to aim to attain it. That a 
 state of perfect moral rectitude would be a good to 
 us, for the glory of God, and for the good of the 
 universe, is a self-evident truth. It is also demon- 
 strably evident, from the fact, that it is required of 
 
146 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 us in the Bible ; that Christ prayed for it in behalf 
 of Christians, and taught them to pray for it ; and 
 that such motives are held before us in the Bible, 
 to induce in us this perfect obedience to God. 
 We are bound, then, to take the ground, that Chris- 
 tian perfection is a good, and consequently attaina- 
 ble ; or, that it is not a good, and consequently, 
 cease to aim at it, or pray for it. 
 
 VI. We see, also how it is, and by what means, 
 that Satan is endeavoring to draw Christians away 
 from Christ. It is by tempting them to believe, 
 that some one or more of the demands of their being 
 are not met in Christ ; and thus to draw off their 
 hearts from him to some other object. In every 
 instance in which a Christian falls into sin, he does 
 it under the influence of some such temptation as 
 this. For the time being, he is led practically to 
 distrust the power or willingness of Christ to an- 
 swer some of the demands of his nature. To 
 meet this demand, the individual trespasses the 
 command of Christ. 
 
 VII. We see, also, that the sentiment, that 
 Christ is not both able and willing to render us, 
 in this life, perfect in holiness, and thus meet this 
 great, this fundamental demand of our nature, is 
 directly and most perfectly adapted, to induce dis- 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 147 
 
 trust in him, and throw the mind under the power 
 of the great enemy. No sentiment can be con- 
 ceived of, which is more perfectly adapted to se- 
 cure this object, than the one under consideration. 
 
 VIII. We may now understand the full 
 meaning of the passage, " Christ is the end of 
 the law for righteousness to every one that 
 believeth." The meaning of the passage, I sup- 
 pose to be this : Christ accomplishes in and for the 
 believer, all that the law would have done, had he 
 always perfectly obeyed its requisitions. For ex- 
 ample, perfect obedience to the law secures to 
 the subject a full exemption from all condemna- 
 tion, and a sure title to the protection and favor of 
 God. This the Christian enjoys through faith in 
 Christ. Entire obedience to the law would have 
 rendered his moral character absolutely perfect, 
 and infinitely lovely and excellent, in the estima- 
 tion of God, and of all intelligent beings. A char- 
 acter equally perfect, lovely and excellent, the 
 believer receives through implicit faith in Christ. 
 Further, obedience to the law would have rendered 
 the believer perfectly blessed in the love and favor 
 of God. A blessedness equally perfect descends 
 to the believer, through faith in Christ. Again, 
 obedience to the law would have secured to the 
 believer a full and perfect supply of every neees- 
 
148 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 sity. Every demand of our being is met with 
 equal fulness in Christ. All that the law would 
 have done for the believer, had he perfectly obeyed 
 its requisitions, Christ does for him, and infinitely 
 more. 
 
 IX. We are also prepared to answer an objec- 
 tion, which is sometimes brought to the doctrine 
 maintained in these discourses, to wit, that it tends 
 to dishonor the law by lowering the standard of 
 moral obligation. When I hear this objection, I am 
 often reminded of a declaration made to Paul, by 
 a fellow apostle ; " Thou seest, brother, how many 
 thousands of Jews there are, that believe; and 
 they are all zealous of the law." But how a law 
 is honored, by maintaining that the subject will 
 never obey it, is more than I can understand. And 
 what is gained by elevating the standard of theo- 
 retical, and lowering that of practical attainment, is 
 equally inexplicable to my mind. Christians 
 should also understand, that in their zeal to ele- 
 vate the law, they may limit the grace of God. 
 To place the law far above the provisions and 
 promises of Christ's redemption, confers honor 
 neither upon the law nor Christ. On the other 
 hand, "Christ magnifies the law and makes it 
 honorable" in the highest sense possible, when, 
 as the Mediator of the new covenant, he " puts 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 149 
 
 the law in the minds, and writes it in the hearts " 
 of his people, and brings all the powers of their 
 being into sweet subjection to its requisitions. 
 
 X. In the light of this subject, you see, Chris- 
 tian, the real cause of every sin you commit ; of 
 all your "care and trouble about the many things" 
 of this life ; of your want of perpetual peace in 
 God, and of the " aching void" in your heart in 
 its stead, and of the absence of that state of perfect 
 content, which arises from the consciousness that 
 all your wants are met in Christ. All this has its 
 origin in one principle exclusively, unbelief -a 
 want of confidence in Christ as a full and perfect 
 Saviour. Until you become fully sensible of this 
 fact, until you are led to refer all your particular 
 sins, all your carefulness and anxiety about your 
 worldly interest, your want of perfect peace, and 
 every improper feeling that arises in your mind, 
 to one source, unbelief, you 'will never feel as 
 you ought the " exceeding sinfulness of sin." 
 
 XI. We may understand the origin and cause of 
 the profound insensibility and hardness of heart, in 
 respect to the love of Christ, of which professors of 
 religion so commonly complain. These facts will 
 sufficiently account for this state of gloom and 
 heartfelt despondency 1. Christians generally are 
 
150 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 ignorant of the fulness of that redemption which 
 they have in Christ. Unbelief has taken their 
 Lord away from their hearts, and they know not 
 where it has laid him. The secret of having a 
 heart always melted with love and tenderness, is 
 an indwelling Christ, from whose fulness our cup 
 of blessedness may perpetually flow. 2. Another 
 cause of the state under consideration, is this 
 The fact that almost every Christian, in uniting 
 with the Church, took upon him the most solemn 
 covenant and vow to live in a state of entire con- 
 secration to Christ, not only in the absence of all 
 expectation that such vow would be kept, but 
 with the definite belief that it would not be kept. 
 With such a vow and such a belief lying together 
 upon your conscience, Christian, cease to wonder, 
 that your heart has been hardened into the pro- 
 foundest insensibility and gloom. 3. Another 
 cause of this state of things, is the daily habit of 
 praying definitely" for a state of entire sanctifica- 
 tion, with the full belief, that God will not answer 
 such requests by the bestowment of the blessing 
 prayed for. Let me beseech you, Christian, as 
 you value the presence and favor of God, as you 
 would not fasten a heart of stone as a perpetual 
 mill-stone to your deathless soul, never to put up 
 such a prayer again. " Be ye not mockers, lest 
 your bands be made strong." 
 
FULL REDEMPTION. 151 
 
 XII. Finally', brethren, seeing we have such a 
 full and perfect redemption in Christ, " What sort 
 of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation 
 and godliness." For remaining under the form of 
 sin, we have no excuse. To " rejoice in the Lord 
 always," we are under obligation infinite. " The 
 joy of the Lord is our strength." To be free 
 from all care ; to be perpetually peaceful and 
 blessed in Christ ; to " show forth the praises of 
 him who hath called us out of darkness into his 
 marvellous light;" to breathe his spirit, walk in his 
 steps, exemplify his virtues, and having his "joy 
 fulfilled in us," is our high privilege, and sacred 
 duty. " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ; 
 if any man will hear my voice, and open the door, 
 I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he 
 with me." 
 
DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 
 
 "And we have known and believed the love that God hath 
 to us." 1 Johniv. 16. 
 
 " I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live ; yet not 
 I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life that I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by faith on the Son of God, who loved me, and 
 gave himself for me." Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 " But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower .than the 
 angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
 honor ; that he by the grace of God should taste death for 
 every man." Heb. ii. 9. 
 
 [The last clause of this passage might more properly have 
 been rendered thus Because that he, by the grace of God, has 
 tasted death for every man.'] 
 
 "And he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours 
 only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John ii. 2. 
 
 There are three positions, which have been 
 taken by different classes of Christians, in respect 
 to the nature and extent of the redemption of 
 Christ. 
 
 1. Christ died for a part only of the humarT\ 
 race the elect. This is called limited redemp- I 
 tion or atonement. This doctrine, I would simply 
 10 
 
154 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 remark, is positively contradicted by the passages 
 cited above, and stands opposed to -the whole 
 aspect of the gospel, as presented in the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 2. Christ died for no individuals of our race in 
 particular, but for all in general. This is called 
 general atonement or redemption. This doctrine 
 embodies one important and fundamental element 
 of the grace of the gospel, the universality of its 
 provisions. It fails, however, to present one of the 
 most interesting and important features of the pro- 
 visions of divine grace, as we shall see, when we 
 contemplate, 
 
 3. The third position which has been taken in 
 respect to the subject under consideration, which 
 is this, That Christ, instead of dying for no one 
 in particular, died for every man in particular. 
 This is positively affirmed in the text. " He 
 tasted death for every man." " He loved me, 
 and gave himself for me." The redemption of 
 Christ had as special a regard to each individual, 
 as if that one individual was alone concerned in it. 
 This- is what is called special atonement or redemp- 
 tion. I use the term redemption here, not in its 
 strict theological sense, to designate the accom- 
 plishment of the provisions of mercy in the actual 
 salvation of the sinner. In this sense of the term, 
 redemption is limited by the reception of grace 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 155 
 
 by the sinner. I use the term to designate the full 
 and special provisions which Christ has made for 
 the salvation of every individual of our race. 
 
 My object in the present discourse is, to present 
 to the contemplation of the reader the special re- 
 demption of Christ; to show what is implied in 
 the fact that Christ, as explained above, " has by 
 the grace of God tasted death for every man." 
 We will then inquire, What is implied in 
 " knowing and believing the love that God hath to 
 us." 
 
 I. What is implied in the fact that Christ has 
 tasted death for every man ? It implies 
 
 1. That in assuming the work of our redemp- 
 tion, Christ had our entire condition and necessi- 
 ties, as sinners and as creatures, distinctly before 
 his mind. Otherwise, he could not, with pro- 
 priety, be said to have " tasted death," specifically 
 " for every man." The same truth is also implied 
 in the fact, that Christ is omniscient, and must 
 have had his contemplation turned with perfect 
 distinctness upon the entire condition and necessi- 
 ties of every individual, for whose redemption 
 he died. 
 
 2. That the object of Christ, in thus tasting 
 death for every man, was, to provide a redemption 
 specifically adapted to the special condition and 
 
156 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 necessities of each individual for whom he died. 
 For what reason should he taste death particularly 
 for each individual, if this was not his object ? 
 
 3. That Christ has provided for each individual 
 of our race, all the good that infinite wisdom could 
 devise and infinite love desire. In short, he has 
 accomplished a redemption for us, which covers 
 our entire necessities in time and eternity. This 
 he was able to accomplish, when he assumed the 
 work of our redemption, and his infinite love would 
 not permit him to accomplish less than this. This 
 was the work, reader, which Christ undertook for 
 you and me; and having assumed it, he never 
 ceased to travail in the greatness of his strength, 
 till he could say, "It is finished." If you will 
 believe it, such is the "fullness" which you have 
 in Christ. 
 
 4. That Christ has rendered the attainment of 
 all this good practicable to us; that is, he has not 
 only provided it for us, but proffered it to us, upon 
 conditions with which we can comply. To sup- 
 pose that he has offered it upon other conditions, 
 is to accuse him of mocking our misery in the 
 most flagrant manner conceivable, i. e. providing 
 for creatures blessings infinite, and then proffering 
 them upon impracticable conditions. Instead of 
 doing this, Christ has presented the blessings of 
 his redemption to us upon such conditions, that 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 157 
 
 there is an infallible certainty, " that every one 
 that will ask shall receive, that he that will seek 
 shall find, and that to him that knocketh it shall 
 be opened." 
 
 The attention of the reader is now invited to a 
 few particular examples, designed still further to 
 illustrate the fullness and speciality of Christ's re- 
 demption. 
 
 1. He has made full provision, reader, for the 
 entire pardon of every sin that you ever commit- 
 ted. As your mind ranges over the dark catalogue 
 of past transgressions, remember that those partic- 
 ular sins he " bore in his own body on the tree." 
 For all those sins which rise up in appalling re- 
 membrance before you, he was " wounded and 
 bruised," so that by "his stripes you may be 
 healed." He has made such perfect provision for 
 the forgiveness of each and every sin of your 
 entire past existence, that there is no more necessi- 
 ty that you should be excluded from the presence 
 and favor of God, on account of those sins, than 
 there is that the purest spirit before the throne of 
 God should be excluded. 
 
 2. Christ has provided means specifically adapt- 
 ed to secure your entire perfection in holiness. He 
 perfectly understood your case when he undertook 
 the work of your redemption. Every obstacle that 
 
158 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 lies in the way of your perfect sanctification was 
 distinctly before his mind, and he has provided 
 means fully adequate, and specifically adapted to 
 remedy all the consequences of your sins. How- 
 ever low you may have sunk in sin, he is able 
 to lift you out of the "horrible pit and miry clay." 
 However hard your heart may be, he can take it 
 from you, and give you a heart of flesh in its 
 stead. However firmly fixed your habits of sin 
 may be, he can break them all up. However 
 strong the power of your carnal inclinations, he 
 can subdue them all, and give you a perfect victory 
 over them. Whatever temptations to sin beset 
 you, from within or around you, he can give you 
 strength to endure them. The means to accom- 
 plish all this, and specifically adapted to your par- 
 ticular case, are all provided by his infinite love. 
 " If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. 
 Old things have passed away ; behold, all things 
 have become new." Why, then, should you re- 
 main under the power of sin ? Why should you 
 be appalled by the fixedness of your habits of sin, 
 by the strength of your carnal inclinations, or the 
 multiplicity and power of the temptations which 
 beset you ? Christ saw all these when he assumed 
 the work of your redemption. For all these he 
 has provided a specific and all-powerful reme- 
 dy. Go to Christ, and you will find that in 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 159 
 
 him there is redemption in readiness for yon, to 
 render you " perfect and complete in all the will 
 of God." Clad in the armor of righteousness, 
 which he has provided for you, you will find your- 
 self able to stand against all the wiles of the 
 wicked one. 
 
 3. In the redemption of Christ, there is special 
 consolation provided for all the particular afflictions 
 which come upon you. " In all your afflictions 
 Christ was afflicted." If you will carry your 
 wounded spirit to him, he will bind it up, however 
 deep and multiplied the wounds may be. No 
 one of them was forgotten by your Saviour, when 
 he undertook the work of " bearing your griefs, 
 and carrying your sorrows." Balm specifically 
 adapted to heal all those wounds is in readiness for 
 you. Whatever the particular affliction may be, 
 which falls upon you at any particular time, re- 
 member that that affliction with all its peculiarities, 
 has been specifically provided for by the love of 
 Christ. 
 
 4. Whatever the sphere in life may be, in 
 which you may at any time be called to move, for 
 you Christ has provided special wisdom to meet 
 all the exigencies and responsibilities that fall upon 
 you in that sphere. When you lack wisdom, go 
 to him, and he will "give liberally and not upbraid 
 you." The means to do it are all provided. 
 
160 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 5. Christ, in short, has made ample provision 
 for every particular necessity which may come 
 upon you in time and eternity. There is not a 
 solitary want of yours, throughout the endless 
 future beyond you, for which a special supply is 
 not made in the redemption of Christ. For you 
 there is provided a seat in heaven, a robe of right- 
 eousness, a harp of gold, a crown of glory, and a 
 special place in the centre of God's heart of eternal 
 love. 
 
 Such is the redemption of Christ. 1 might 
 have illustrated the sentiment of this discourse, by 
 referring to other particulars. These are sufficient, 
 however, to present the subject with entire dis- 
 tinctness to the contemplation of the reader. We 
 will now inquire 
 
 II. What is implied in our knowing and believ- 
 ing the love that the Father hath to us. This im- 
 plies three things 
 
 1. That we apprehend that love as it is, i. e. 
 the infinite love of God in giving his Son to make, 
 by his incarnation and death, such full and special 
 provisions for our necessities. 
 
 2. That we credit this love as a reality. In other 
 words, that we give the Lord Jesus Christ full 
 credit for being such a full and special Saviour as 
 he represents himself to be. 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 161 
 
 3. That we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as 
 such a Saviour, and yield up our whole being to 
 his control, that he may accomplish in us all the 
 purposes of his infinite and special love. 
 
 And now let me ask you, reader, do you believe 
 with all your heart, that Christ is in reality such 
 a Saviour as he has here been represented ? Do 
 you give him full credit for having " loved you and 
 given himself for you," for the purpose of making 
 such full and special provisions for your entire ne- 
 cessities ? Do you believe that for you he tasted 
 the bitter cup of death ? In every special exigen- 
 cy of your being, can you look to him with the 
 full assurance that this particular exigency, with all 
 its peculiarities, was remembered and provided for 
 by him, when he was "wounded for your trans- 
 gressions, and bruised for your iniquities ? " Can 
 you reckon yourself among the number, who can 
 say, " We have known and believed the love that 
 the Father hath unto us ? " Do you believe that 
 Christ has provided redemption for you a re- 
 demption so perfectly and specifically adapted to 
 your particular case, that you can now go to him 
 and be cleansed from all that is impure and unholy, 
 and so transformed into his likeness that your 
 entire character shall hereafter present a pure re- 
 flection of his image. Do you believe that you 
 may bring to him your temper, your appetites, 
 
162 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 your propensities, your entire habits, and have 
 them all brought into sweet subjection to the will 
 of God ? Do you believe that in him there is a 
 special balm for every wound ; relief from every 
 care ; consolation for all affliction ; a remedy for 
 every ill ; and a full supply for every specific ne- 
 cessity of your entire existence ? Unless you be- 
 lieve all this, and your heart is all melted into love 
 and tenderness, under the influence of that belief, 
 you have yet to learn the breadth, and depth, and 
 length, and height of the love of Christ. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I. We may now understand the nature of what 
 may be called appropriating faith. It consists in 
 receiving Christ, and relying upon him as our 
 Saviour, in reference to all our particular necessi- 
 ties as individuals. As the creatures of God, as 
 sinners against his holy law, we have our particular 
 duties, spheres of action, temptations, trials, afflic- 
 tions and necessities. Now, when Christ is con- 
 templated as having provided a redemption for us, 
 specifically adapted to our special exigencies, and 
 is received as a Saviour to meet these exigencies, 
 then we exercise towards him appropriating faith. 
 Then we appropriate to ourselves the special re- 
 demption that he has provided for us. 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 163 
 
 II. Here I may be permitted to allude to a very 
 common mistake among Christians, in looking to 
 Christ as a Saviour. They appear to look to him 
 as a Saviour in general, without any reference to 
 their particular necessities. How seldom do we 
 meet with a Christian, for example, who carries to 
 Christ his temper, his appetites, his habits and 
 propensities of every kind, which lead him into 
 sin, to have them all corrected and subdued. 
 Where is the Christian, who is accustomed to go to 
 Christ, to be rendered by him all that he requires 
 him or her to be as a father, a mother, a child, a 
 brother, or sister, or in special reference to the 
 business transactions of life ? Now, until our faith 
 fastens upon Christ with reference to specific ob- 
 jects such as these, the power of his redemption 
 will never be experienced. From our sins Christ 
 does not and cannot save us, unless by faith we 
 thus appropriate the provisions of his redemption. 
 
 III. In the light of this subject we may also 
 learn what Christ requires and expects of us as 
 Christians. To present this part of the subject 
 distinctly before the reader's mind, I remark 
 
 1. That Christ designs and expects that our 
 religion shall be carried out and influence us alike 
 in all the scenes and transactions of life ; that we 
 shall eat, drink, dress, spend our time, talents and 
 
164 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 property, transact our business, and move in every 
 sphere in life, with exclusive reference to the same 
 identical objects for which we pray, worship God 
 on the Sabbath, warn sinners to flee from the 
 wrath come, or partake of the symbols of the 
 body and blood of our Lord. " Whether, there- 
 fore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 
 the glory of God." That you may do all this ; that 
 holiness to the Lord may be inscribed upon all 
 that you have and all that you are, full provision is 
 made in the redemption of Christ. Hence 
 
 2. He requires and expects that you will believe 
 that special grace to do all this is provided for you, 
 and that you will look to him to be rendered thus 
 "perfect and complete in all the will of God." 
 
 3. When you are called in providence to move 
 in any particular sphere, he requires and expects 
 that your first object will be, to understand clearly 
 the particular responsibilities, trials, temptations, 
 &c., incident to you in that particular sphere. 
 
 4. He requires and expects that you will believe 
 that he, as your Redeemer, has made full and 
 special provision for all your exigencies in that 
 particular sphere ; and that in the exercise of full 
 and implicit faith, you will look to him for grace to 
 meet those exigencies. 
 
 Such are some of the requirements and expecta- 
 tions of Christ from us as Christians. Here let me 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 165 
 
 add, that if we do not look to Christ to be saved by 
 him, in every sphere, and in respect to every trans- 
 action in life, our faith does not fix upon him at 
 all as a Saviour from sin. I would also add, that 
 if Christ does not save us by subduing our tem- 
 pers, controling our appetites and propensities, by 
 rendering us in our spheres as husbands and wives, 
 parents and children, in every sphere, and in all 
 the particular transactions of life, what he requires 
 us to be, he does not save us at all. The man 
 who expects to be a Christian in his closet and 
 upon the Sabbath, and a man of the world behind 
 his counter, in his shop, or on his farm, will find at 
 last that he has failed of the grace of God. 
 
 IV. We also learn the nature of unbelief, in its 
 most common form in the Church. It is with- 
 holding from Christ implicit confidence, as a Sa- 
 viour, who has provided special means to do it, 
 and is now able and willing to meet all our par- 
 ticular necessities as individuals. 
 
 V. We will now consider some of the most 
 common indications of unbelief. Among these, I 
 notice 
 
 1. The impression which individuals have, that 
 there are peculiar difficulties in their case. The 
 redemption of Christ appears fully adequate to the 
 
166 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 exigencies of every other individual but them- 
 selves. Did Christ, reader, in tasting death for 
 you, overlook the special peculiarities of your con- 
 dition ? Or had he, when he cried, " It is fin- 
 ished," failed to make full provision for those 
 peculiarities? Why, then, permit your unbelief 
 to put far from you all the endless provisions of 
 Christ's redemption ? If you withhold confidence 
 from Christ as an ever present Saviour, able and 
 willing to meet all the peculiarities of your condi- 
 tion, you do it at the peril, yes, to the certain loss 
 of your eternal interests. 
 
 2. I believe, says another, that Christ has pro- 
 vided full redemption for me, a redemption which 
 perfectly covers all my necessities ; but I cannot 
 exercise faith in Christ. Christ, then, has pur- 
 chased full and special redemption for you, but 
 proffered it to you upon conditions with which 
 you cannot comply. Why let unbelief thus fasten 
 a mill-stone about that deathless soul of yours ! 
 
 3. My heart, says another, is so hard and insen- 
 sible, that nothing in the universe will move or 
 melt it. Did Christ, in tasting death for you, 
 overlook that heart of stone in your bosom ; and 
 has he made no special provision to take it out of 
 your flesh, and give in its stead a heart of flesh? 
 Remember, that if you do not carry this very heart 
 to Christ, that he may take it from you, and if you 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 167 
 
 do not exercise special faith in him to do it, he 
 will be no Saviour to you in any sense whatever. 
 
 4. Another individual complains that his natural 
 temper is so ungovernable, and his habits of sin so 
 omnipotent in their influence over him, that it 
 appears to him that there can be no redemption 
 for him, at least in this life. If Christ has not 
 provided a special and adequate remedy for these 
 evils, and if your faith does not fasten upon that 
 particular remedy, then there is no salvation for 
 you. Christ will " save you from your sins," or 
 not at all. Why let that temper and those habits 
 drag you down to death, when Christ has made 
 full and special provision for their perfect subdual? 
 
 5. Another individual feels that he cannot be 
 preserved in his particular sphere. " How can a 
 person be kept perfectly free from sin, says one, in 
 the midst of the numberless temptations incident to 
 a residence in a great city." If this were so, I 
 would say, " Up, get ye out of this place." It is 
 better for thee to " enter into life," from the ob- 
 scurest and most barren spot on earth, than to 
 descend into the lake of fire, from the most splen- 
 did palace or city. But who is it that has prom- 
 ised that he will not " suffer you to be tempted 
 above that ye are able, but with the temptation 
 will make a way for your escape, that ye may be 
 able to bear it?" Who is the strongest, Chris- 
 
168 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 tian, " he that is in you," or he " that is in the 
 world ? " 
 
 "Do you believe," said a mother, "that I 
 can be preserved, in a state of perfect peace, 
 in the midst of all the cares and perplexities 
 of this great family ? " Christ, according to the 
 suggestions of unbelief in the mind of that indi- 
 vidual, had, in the special provisions of his grace for 
 her, overlooked the fact that she was to be the 
 mother of a large family, and had failed to provide 
 a special remedy for all the cares and perplexities 
 incident to her lot in that particular sphere. Sad 
 indeed was her condition, if that were really the 
 case. 
 
 6. It does not appear, says another, possible that 
 creatures sunk so low in sin as we are, should be 
 raised to a state of perfect purity. Did you acquire 
 that sentiment, brother, through a full and careful 
 inquiry into the nature and power of the grace of 
 Christ ? Did you learn it from a prayerful inves- 
 tigation of the extent of the provisions and prom- 
 ises of Christ's redemption, and of the power of 
 Christ himself as a Saviour ? Is that grace which 
 has the power to change a rebel into a friend, insuf- 
 ficient, if applied by Christ himself for the pur- 
 pose, to change partial into perfect love ? What 
 is there to appal us, however deep and settled our 
 habits of sin, if Christ has provided the means, 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 169 
 
 and has undertaken to accomplish a full redemption 
 from all iniquity* 
 
 7. If I could only see someone who had attain- 
 ed to a state of entire sanctification, then I would 
 believe the doctrine, It is^ very doubtful whether, 
 if such a case were actually presented to a person 
 in this state of mind, God would not have occasion 
 to say unto him, " I work a work in your day, 
 which ye will in no wise believe, though a man 
 declare it unto you." Or if he should believe it 
 for that reason, the fact itself would show that his 
 faith rests, as said in a former discourse, upon what 
 he sees, and not upon the Word of God. Which, 
 reader, have you taken, "as the only infallible 
 rule of faith and practice," the Word of God, or 
 the attainments of men ? 
 
 8. It does not appear to me, that by simply be- 
 lieving in Christ, says another, I could be saved 
 from all sin. In other words, the declaration of 
 Christ, " He that believeth in me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live," does not appear to be a 
 reality. Such an individual ought to learn another 
 fact, that he has as yet experienced but very 
 little of the power of faith in his own heart. 
 "Now the just shall live by faith." "We also 
 believe, and therefore speak." 
 
 VI. We may also learn the influence of unbe- 
 11 
 
170 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 lief. It annihilates wholly the saving influence of 
 the gospel upon the heart. It places the subject 
 in the same state of absolute hopelessness that he 
 would be in, had no salvation been provided. "If 
 ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your 
 sins." Whatever necessity presses upon us, that 
 necessity remains for ever unsupplied till faith 
 fastens upon the special redemption of Christ, as an 
 ever present and all powerful remedy. 
 
 VII. We may now understand the true remedy 
 for spiritual pride. I recollect having once heard 
 a preacher, in a public address, give this as the all 
 powerful corrective. " Let a person keep perpet- 
 ually before his mind the standard of absolute per- 
 fection required by the law of God, and let it be 
 his constant aim to ascend to a full discharge of 
 every duty required of him. Now if, while he is 
 ascending from one degree to another toward the 
 point of perfect holiness, he looks down and re- 
 flects upon the attainments he has already made, he 
 will be lifted up with pride. If, on the other hand, 
 in his perpetual ascent, he keeps his eye steadily 
 fixed upon the point above him, he will be kept 
 perpetually humbled in view of constant short 
 comings." The remedy was received by the au- 
 dience with unbounded applause. This reflection, 
 however, forced itself upon my mind, that if the 
 
SPECIAL KEDEMPTION. 171 
 
 speaker was in the same state of mind in which 
 Christians generally are, he was not a little ele- 
 vated in his estimation of himself by the beautiful 
 remedy which he had proposed for spiritual pride. 
 And what a thought is this ; that a Christian must 
 not obey the commands, " Search your own 
 hearts," " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in 
 the faith ; prove your own selves," lest, if he should 
 find that he had attained to any real holiness, he 
 would be lifted with pride, and not exclaim, with 
 adoring gratitude, " By the grace of God I am 
 what I am." 
 
 VIII. Now the apostle has proposed a very dif- 
 ferent remedy for spiritual pride from the one under 
 consideration, which is the one commonly proposed. 
 " Where is boasting, then ? It is excluded. By 
 what law ? Of works ? Nay ; but by the law of 
 faith." Suppose that an individual becomes fully 
 conscious that, in consequence of his own reckless 
 folly, he has involved himself in infinite guilt and 
 hopeless bondage under sin, that Christ, of his 
 self moved goodness and mercy, has made full 
 provision to meet all his necessities as a sinner; that 
 by implicit faith in Christ, he enjoys full redemp- 
 tion from the power and consequences of sin, and 
 that the moment his faith loses its hold of Christ, 
 he falls into the same hopeless guilt and bondage 
 as before. When the man finds himself rising in 
 
172 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 spiritual attainments, under the influence of such a 
 principle, to whom \vill he spontaneously ascribe 
 all the glory of his salvation. " To him that loved 
 us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." 
 The fact that Christians generally cannot conceive 
 themselves to have ascended in spiritual attain- 
 ment, at all above the common level, without 
 pride ol heart, is to my mind full demonstration of 
 the fact, that they yet need to be taught what are 
 the " first principles " of holy living. " The 
 righteousness which is of faith" excludes all boast- 
 ing of every kind. 
 
 IX. You learn, Christian, to what to attribute 
 every act of sin, and all your care, and trouble, 
 and perplexity, about the " many things " of this 
 life. All these, together with every wrong feel- 
 ing which arises in your mind, have their origin in 
 one source exclusively unbelief; a want of con- 
 fidence in that special redemption of Christ, w r hich, 
 but for unbelief, would meet every possible exigen- 
 cy of our whole existence. 
 
 X. We see, also, how it is that most Christians 
 lose the presence of Christ under the pressure of 
 business, when on a journey, or when brought into 
 any scenes to which they have not before been ac- 
 customed. In such circumstances, they do not look 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 173 
 
 to Christ, for the special grace which he has pro- 
 vided, to meet such exigencies. O that Christians 
 would take this promise with them every where. 
 "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be." " Then 
 would their peace be like a river, and their right- 
 eousness as the waves of the sea." 
 
 XL We also understand the secret of always 
 having a heart melted with love and tenderness. 
 It consists in a full sense of our own infinite guilt 
 and vileness, of the boundless love of Christ, in 
 making such full and perfect provision for our 
 entire necessities, and as being ever present in 
 our hearts, to confer upon us the full benefits of 
 this eternal redemption. " Behold what manner 
 of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
 we should be called the children of God ! " Such 
 a thought, when it once takes full possession of 
 the mind, has omnipotent power to melt the heart, 
 and cause its purest, sweetest, and best affections 
 to roll for ever around one " blissful centre." 
 
 XII. We now understand the reason why the 
 Lord Jesus Christ declared "the kingdom to be 
 like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three 
 measures of meal, till the whole were leavened." 
 The thought here presented, in its application to 
 Christians, is this : When the kingdom of heaven 
 
174 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 is once set up in the heart of an individual, it will 
 lead directly on to an entire subjection of all the 
 powers and principles of his being to its divine 
 control. The reason is this. For our entire re- 
 demption from sin, into a state of perfect moral 
 purity, the gospel has made full provision. For 
 every sinful habit and propensity, for every incen- 
 tive to sin, it presents a specific and all-powerful 
 remedy, through faith in Christ. Who that hates 
 sin, and loves holiness supremely, will remain 
 under the power of the former, and destitute of the 
 fulness of the latter, under such circumstances ? 
 
 XIII. We see also the reason of Christ's de- 
 claration ; "And this is life eternal, that they 
 might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ, whom thou hast sent." Suppose, Chris- 
 tian, that you could apprehend the excellence and 
 love of Christ, as fully as your capacities will 
 permit ; suppose you could apprehend the fulness of 
 his special love to you, and to every other individ- 
 ual of our race ; that you could apprehend him as 
 ever present with you, to meet your entire necessi- 
 ties in time and eternity ; suppose you could ap- 
 prehend him in all his relations to you, as your 
 God, and Saviour, and you could be fully assured, 
 that, through his love, every attribute of the God- 
 head stands pledged for your present and eternal 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 175 
 
 well-being ; to know Christ in this manner, and to 
 have all the powers of your being moving perpet- 
 ually under the influence of his infinite love, this 
 would indeed be life eternal. To be in this state 
 is* your high and blessed privilege. To pre- 
 sent this love to you in all its fulness, God has 
 given you his Holy Spirit. If you will look to 
 that spirit to be " strengthened with might in the 
 inner man," for this specific object, "that the love 
 of Christ may dwell richly in your heart by faith," 
 you will then be able to " comprehend, with all the 
 saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, 
 and height, and to know the love of Christ, which 
 passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all 
 the fulness of God." 
 
 XIV. Finally, we may, in the light of this dis- 
 course, understand the secret of the pre-eminent 
 piety of Paul and of primitive Christians. It is 
 all explained in one single expression of the sacred 
 writer. " Looking unto Jesus, the author and fin- 
 isher of our faith." At all times, and under all 
 circumstances, they "knew nothing -but Jesus 
 Christ, and him crucified." They literally "count- 
 ed all things but loss, for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord." He 
 was their " wisdom," their " righteousness," their 
 *' sanctificadon," and " redemption." He was 
 
176 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 their consolation in every affliction. He was their 
 perfect pattern, their sole leader and guide. He 
 was their certain victory, in every conflict with the 
 " world, the flesh, and the devil." He was their 
 joy, their hope, their inheritance, their shield, and 
 their " exceeding great reward." He was their 
 "bright and morning star," the magnet of their 
 souls, which held all the powers of their being in a 
 blissful fixedness to one changeless centre. 
 
 Now, Christian, if you will believe it, Christ 
 will be to you all that he was to them. " He is 
 the same yesterday, to-day and for ever," and you 
 may share as fully as they did, in the infinite ful- 
 ness of the love and grace of Christ. If, however, 
 you would enjoy this full redemption, all the pow- 
 ers of your being must be brought under the per- 
 petual influence of this one principle, " Looking to 
 Jesus." Do your sins rise up before you, and fill 
 you with apprehensions of coming retributions, 
 " look to Jesus." Do you desire to be wholly 
 freed from the power of sin, and to have your 
 entire character presented to God, "without spot 
 or wrinkle, or any such thing," " look to Jesus." 
 Are you burdened with care, or do the storms of 
 affliction gather around you, " look to Jesus." 
 Is your temper unsubdued, do your appetites and 
 propensities rebel, and call for unhallowed gratifica- 
 tion, " look to Jesus." Do temptations beset you, 
 
SPECIAL REDEMPTION. 177 
 
 from within or around you, " look to Jesus." Do 
 you need wisdom and grace for any exigency what- 
 ever, " look to Jesus. Whatever your condition 
 or necessities may be, hear his gracious voice 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
 upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls." 
 
 " Jesus, we come at thy command, 
 With faith, and hope, and humble zeal ; 
 Resign our spirits to thy hand, 
 To mould, and guide us at thy will." 
 
DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES, 
 
 " Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious 
 promises ; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine 
 nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
 through lust.' ? 2 Pet. i. 4. 
 
 In the verse preceding, we are informed, that 
 God, in giving us a revelation of Jesus Christ, has 
 furnished us with a knowledge of every thing which 
 " pertains to life and godliness." In the text, we 
 are informed, that in the same revelation he has 
 given unto us " exceeding great and precious 
 promises ; " that these promises are conferred upon 
 us for this purpose, that through them, or by em- 
 bracing them by faith, we may become " partakers 
 of the divine nature," and escape the " corruption 
 that is in the world through lust." A promise is 
 a pledge of good. In every promise of divine 
 grace, Christ discloses to us the good which he 
 stands pledged to confer upon us, on condition 
 that we look to him by faith, for the blessing pre- 
 sented in the promise. Now the success of all our 
 
180 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 
 
 efforts after holiness, depends upon the use we 
 make of the promises. I propose, therefore, in 
 the following discourse, to illustrate the following 
 propositions. 
 
 I. I will present to the contemplation of the 
 reader, some of the " exceeding great and precious 
 promises " of divine grace. 
 
 II. Show what is implied in our becoming 
 ^partakers of the divine nature, having escaped 
 the corruptions that are in the world through 
 lust." 
 
 III. Show the manner in which the promises 
 must be used, in order that we may obtain ,the 
 good which they present to us. 
 
 I. I am to present to the contemplation of the 
 reader, some of the exceeding great and precious 
 promises of divine grace. As much that I should 
 otherwise say upon this part of our subject, has 
 been anticipated in preceding discourses, my re- 
 marks under this head will be very brief. In 
 presenting the reader with a slight view of these 
 " exceeding great and precious promises," I would 
 remark in general, that Christ has pledged to us 
 an eternal exemption from all that would be to us, 
 on the whole, a real evil, and the possession of 
 every thing, in time and eternity, the possession of 
 which would be to us a real blessing. " Not a hair 
 
PROMISES; 181 
 
 of your head shall perish." "And nothing shall 
 by any means hurt you." " No good thing will 
 be withhold from them that walk uprightly." 
 These promises belong alike to all Christians in all 
 ages and circumstances. For their fulfilment, they 
 are required, with full and humble confidence, to 
 cast themselves upon the power and faithfulness 
 of Christ. But to be more particular, I remark 
 
 1. That Christ has promised to all who will 
 believe in him, an eternal exemption from all the 
 condemnation which they deserve, on account ef 
 their sins, and which actually will fall upon the 
 wicked. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
 them, and they follow me ; And I give unto them 
 eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither 
 shall any pluck them out of my hand." "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my words, 
 and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlast- 
 ing life, and shall not come into condemnation ; 
 but is passed from death unto life." " There is 
 therefore now no condemnation to them that are 
 in Christ Jesus." 
 
 2. A sure title to all the blessedness enjoyed by 
 the pure spirits around the throne of God. " Ye 
 are come," "to an innumerable company of 
 angels, and to the general assembly and church of 
 the first born, which are written in heaven." "I 
 give unto them eternal life, and they shall never 
 
182 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 perish." " Who shall separate us from the love of 
 God?" 
 
 3. Entire freedom from all sin, and the transform- 
 ation of our entire character into a likeness to his 
 own. " I," says Christ, " will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all 
 your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse 
 you." "And thou shalt call his name JESUS : for 
 he shall save his people from their sins." " But 
 we all with open face beholding as in a glass the 
 glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of 
 the Lord." This is held before us as a promise. 
 Such a change Christ stands pledged to produce 
 in us, if we will believe in him. 
 
 4. He promises to subdue our lusts and propen- 
 sities, to guard us against all temptation to sin from 
 within or around us, and to give us a full and per- 
 fect victory over " the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil." " If Christ be in you, the body is dead 
 because of sin." " Walk in the spirit and ye shall 
 not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." " If any man be 
 in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are 
 passed away; behold all things have become new." 
 " This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
 even our faith." " Fear not, I have overcome the 
 world." " He is able to succor them that are 
 tempted." " Who will not suffer you to be 
 
PROMISES. 183 
 
 tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the 
 temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be 
 able to bear it." 
 
 5. Consolation in every affliction. " The 
 spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the 
 Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to 
 the meek ; He hath sent me to bind up the broken- 
 hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the 
 opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to 
 comfort all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that 
 mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for 
 ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of 
 praise for the spirit of heaviness." " Come unto 
 me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest." 
 
 6. The constant fruition of the divine presence 
 and love, and all the blessedness which he himself 
 enjoys, as far as our capacities will permit. " We 
 will come and make our abode with him." " I 
 will dwell in them, and walk in them." " Peace I 
 leave with you, my peace," i. e. the peace which I 
 enjoy, " I give unto you." " That they might have 
 my joy fulfilled in themselves." " The peace of 
 God which passeth all understanding shall keep 
 your heart and mind through Christ Jesus." 
 
 7. The privilege of going to God, at all times 
 and under all circumstances, in prayer, with the 
 use of Christ's name, and with the certain pledge 
 
184 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 that whatsoever we thus ask, that will be a good to 
 us, shall be granted. " If ye abide in me, and my 
 words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and 
 it shall be done unto you." " If ye shall ask any 
 thing in my name, I will do it." "Ask and it 
 shall be given you, that your joy may be full." 
 
 8. The constant presence and illumination of the 
 Holy Spirit. " He shall abide with you for ever." 
 " He shall lead you into all truth." " He shall 
 take of mine and show them unto you." 
 
 9. Not merely grace to make us holy and keep 
 us from all sin, but an infinite reward for every 
 expression of love that he shall receive from us, 
 and every act of obedience that we shall render to 
 him. "And every one that hath forsaken houses, 
 or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or 
 wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, 
 shall receive a hundred fold, and shall inherit ever- 
 lasting life. And 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." Such 
 is the infinite and incomprehensible love and grace 
 of Christ. By his grace we are rendered holy, 
 and are then to be rewarded infinitely for being 
 what the grace of Christ has rendered us. 
 
 10. Great success in our efforts to advance his 
 cause. " He that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
 
PROMISES. 185 
 
 same bringeth forth much fruit." " Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the 
 works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works 
 than these shall he do; because I go to my Father." 
 Christ has not only promised to render us thus 
 successful, but to bestow an infinite and eternal 
 reward upon us for all that we accomplish for him. 
 " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament, and they that turn many to right- 
 eousness, as the stars for ever and ever.' ' 
 
 1 1. Christ promises to us a peaceful death, and 
 a glorious immortal'.ty. " Mark the perfect man, 
 and behold the upright ; for the end of that man 
 is peace." " I will come again and receive you 
 to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." 
 " We know that when he shall appear, we shall be 
 like him ; for we shall see him as he is." "And 
 there shall be no more curse : but the throne of 
 God, and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his ser- 
 vants shall serve him ; And they shall see his face ; 
 and his name shall be in their foreheads." 
 
 Such are the promises of Christ to his people. 
 And, reader, are not these promises " exceeding 
 great and precious?" To you they all belong; 
 and Christ invites you to come to him, and receive 
 your purchased and promised inheritance. We 
 will now inquire 
 12 
 
186 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 II. What is implied in our being "made par- 
 takers of the divine nature, having escaped the 
 corruption that is in the world through lust." This 
 implies two things. 
 
 1. That we become entirely emancipated from 
 the power of sin. No person, not thus emanci- 
 pated, but still, in any degree, under the power of 
 sin, could be said to have " escaped the corrup- 
 tion that is in the world through lust." 
 
 2. It implies that we, to the full extent of our 
 powers, be rendered partakers of the holiness and 
 blessedness of God. This is the only sense in 
 which any intelligent being can be a partaker of 
 the divine nature. " But he," says the apostle, "for 
 our profit, that we might be partakers of his holi- 
 ness." To be partakers of the divine holiness, 
 and consequently of the divine blessedness, is of 
 course the same thing as to be rendered partakers 
 of the divine nature. 
 
 That we might thus escape the corruptions that 
 are in the world, and be " made partakers of the 
 divine nature," is the declared object for which 
 the " exceeding great and precious promises" were 
 given. When we come to Christ by faith for 
 a fulfilment of these promises, his power stands 
 pledged to fulfil in us the glorious object for which 
 they were given. 
 
PROMISES. 187 
 
 Suppose, reader, that you were introduced with- 
 in the veil of eternity, and were permitted to look 
 down into the gulf of death, until you should 
 fully apprehend the infinite wretchedness of a lost 
 spirit, as he wanders on through ceaseless ages, 
 amid the gloom and despair of the eternal sepul- 
 chre : suppose you were then permitted to raise 
 your vision to those infinite heights of purity and 
 blessedness to which redeemed spirits in heaven 
 will ascend, as eternity rolls on its endless years. 
 While these depths of gloom and heights of bliss 
 were distinctly before your mind, suppose Christ 
 should pledge himself to you, that he would free 
 you from all exposure to the former, and give you a 
 sure title to the full possession of the latter. What 
 an " exceeding great and precious promise " that 
 would be ! Such is the promise of Christ now 
 before you. " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and for- 
 get not all his benefits." I am now 
 
 III. To show the manner in which we are to 
 us e the promises, in order that we may obtain the 
 good which they present to us. As the design of 
 the promises is to free us from the " corruptions 
 that are in the world," and render us " partakers 
 of the divine nature," they are addressed and 
 adapted to every possible condition in which we 
 may be placed, and as a remedy for every evil, 
 
188 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 natural and moral, in which we may be involved. 
 They descend to the sinner in the lowest depths 
 of guilt and depravity, for the purpose of lifting 
 him out of the " horrible pit and miry clay," and 
 rendering him a partaker of the " divine nature." 
 They meet the Christian in a state of partial holi- 
 ness, for the purpose of raising him to a state of 
 " perfect love," and then of carrying him upward 
 and onward, from glory to glory, through time and 
 eternity. Now, to use the promises so as to be- 
 come possessed of the blessings which they proffer 
 to us, four things are necessary 1. That we 
 know our need. 2. That we apprehend the par- 
 ticular promise of Christ, which was designed to 
 meet that particular necessity. 3. That we repose 
 full confidence in Christ's ability and faithfulness to 
 fulfil the promise which he has spread before us. 
 4. That we cast our whole being upon him for the 
 specific purpose of securing a fulfilment of the 
 particular promise before us. For example, the 
 sinner is brought to feel himself to be in a lost 
 condition. Here he is met with the declaration of 
 Christ, " I came to seek and to save that which 
 was lost ; " together with the promises, " Look to 
 rne and be ye saved." " Whosoever cometh to 
 me, I will in no wise cast out." Let the sinner 
 cast himself at once upon Christ, for the definite 
 purpose of securing a fulfilment of those specific 
 
PROMISES. 189 
 
 promises. Are you in darkness, reader, go direct- 
 ly to Christ for the fulfilment of the promise, 
 " I will lead the blind by a way which they know 
 not." Is your heart hard and unfeeling, go to Christ 
 with the definite promise, " I will take the heart 
 of stone out of your flesh, and will give you a 
 heart of flesh," and cast yourself upon his faith- 
 fulness for the fulfilment of that promise. Are 
 your appetites, or your propensities, the " occasion 
 of stumbling " to you ; carry these particular ob- 
 jects to Christ, and plead the definite promises, 
 " If Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of 
 sin," and " If any man be in Christ he is a new 
 creature ; old things have passed away ; behold, 
 all things have become new." Do temptations 
 beset you, go to Christ with the promise, " Who 
 will not suffer you to be tempted above that you 
 are able ; but will with the temptation make a way 
 for your escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 3 
 Are you about to enter into new and untried scenes 
 or spheres of action, go to Christ with the specific 
 promises, " Lo, I am with you always," and 
 "My grace is sufficient for thee." Are you 
 " hungering and thirsting after righteousness," this 
 promise you may now plead with Christ, " they 
 shall be filled." Does the water of life begin to 
 flow in your heart, this promise now rises before 
 you, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that 
 
190 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water 
 that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life." In short, 
 whatever your condition or state of mind may be, 
 remember that there you are addressed by your 
 Saviour, with some specific promise, perfectly 
 adapted to your peculiar case. Your life depends 
 upon your casting yourself at once upon the faith- 
 fulness of Christ for a fulfilment of that promise. 
 In so using the " exceeding great and precious 
 promises," you may with absolute certainty be 
 rendered a " partaker of the divine nature, having 
 escaped the corruption that is in the world through 
 lust." 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I. We will notice the great truth, of which we 
 need to have a full and distinct apprehension, in 
 order that all the promises may rise before our 
 minds as living realities. It is the infinite love of 
 God in the gift of Christ for our redemption. In 
 Christ, " all the promises are yea and Amen." 
 " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him 
 up for us all, how shall he not with him, freely 
 give us all things." For the want of such an 
 apprehension of the love of Christ, the promises 
 
PROMISES. 191 
 
 are, to the great mass of the Church, almost as a 
 " dead letter." 
 
 JI. We notice one of the first lessons which 
 should be taught to the young convert. He should 
 first of all use the promises as a sovereign remedy 
 to every ill that may press upon him. Let his eye 
 be directed to these ; let him become accustomed 
 to apply to them in every possible exigency, and 
 he will ascend upwards upon them, as upon Jacob's 
 ladder, from glory to glory, to eternal heights of 
 purity and blessedness. 
 
 III. We see how it is that the peace of the 
 young convert is very commonly destroyed, and 
 his growth in grace prevented, by the instructions 
 which he receives from older Christians. When 
 the convert, alarmed at the discovery of inward 
 corruptions and of the numerous occasions of 
 stumbling, in himself, arising from his temper, his 
 appetites, his habits of sin, as well as the hardness 
 of his heart, comes for counsel to those who ought 
 to be able to point him at once to the remedy, and 
 thus lead him to the " fountain of living waters, 5 ' 
 there is commonly a direct attempt to comfort him 
 in his present state. He is told that such discov- 
 eries of the inward corruption are the highest evi- 
 dence of our conversion, that he must not be 
 
192 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 alarmed, when he " finds the Canaanite in the 
 land," that these fears will never be dislodged 
 from his bosom till his dying day, and that Christ 
 will very soon teach him the " plague of his own 
 heart," by letting him slide down from the warmth 
 and blessedness of his first love, into the valley of 
 spiritual death, misnamed the valley of humiliation. 
 Well might the convert reply to such guides, 
 " Miserable comforters are ye all." If, now, he 
 will turn from all such directions to the " exceeding 
 great and precious promises " of Christ, and with 
 humble confidence cast himself upon his faithful- 
 ness, then shall his " righteousness go forth as 
 brightness, and his salvation as a lamp that burn- 
 eth." Then shall he prove by blessed experience 
 the truth of the promise, " Even the youths shall 
 faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
 utterly fall, But they that wait on the Lord shall 
 renew their strength ; they shall mount up on 
 wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ; 
 they shall walk and not faint." 
 
 IV. We may understand the object which the 
 Christian should have in view, in searching his own 
 heart. It should be the same as the physician has 
 in examining the symptoms of his patient, i. e. 
 to determine the nature of the disease, for the 
 purpose of applying the appropriate remedy. So 
 
PROMISES. 193 
 
 the Christian should examine himself to determine 
 what he is, and what he needs, for the purpose of 
 looking away to some definite promise as the re- 
 medy to that necessity. How profitable seasons of 
 fasting and prayer would be, if spent in this man- 
 ner with the Physician of souls. The want of this 
 definite object is the great reason, I suppose, why 
 such seasons are so generally almost profitless to 
 Christians. 
 
 V. We see why it is, that Christians apply to 
 Christ for sanctification, &c., almost without suc- 
 cess. Their object is commonly general and un- 
 defined, and nothing specific is presented. Let an 
 individual, on the other hand, who finds his tem- 
 per, his appetites, his propensities, or worldly 
 pursuits, the occasion of falling, take one or 
 more of these definite objects to Christ, and cast 
 himself, in view of some definite promise, upon 
 his faithfulness, to have that particular cause of sin 
 removed ; let him thus bring all his powers and 
 propensities to Christ, and how soon would all 
 his faculties and susceptibilities be so sweetly and 
 perfectly subjected to the will of God, that all oc- 
 casion of stumbling will be taken away. In all 
 instances, reader, when you go to Christ with 
 some definite object, resting also upon some defi- 
 nite promise, you are sure to be heard. 
 
194 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 VI. We see how it is that Satan often destroys 
 the confidence of Christians in the promises, in 
 their application to themselves. It is by directing 
 their attention to some promise that is not applica- 
 ble to their present state, and pressing them to 
 attempt to believe in that. Said one, I often 
 thought of the promise, "Blessed are they that 
 mourn ; for they shall be comforted ; " and be- 
 cause I was not in the state upon which that prom- 
 ise was conditioned, I thought there was no other 
 promise in the Bible that belonged to me, or upon 
 which I could lay hold. Before that individual 
 could mourn, it was necessary for her to " look on 
 him whom she had pierced." Quite another prom- 
 ise belonged to her in the state referred to, to wit : 
 " Look to me and be ye saved." By casting her- 
 self upon this, she would soon have been brought 
 into a state to which the promise first referred to 
 was addressed. As long as Satan can keep the 
 mind from the promises addressed to our particular 
 state, and fixed upon others inapplicable, he will 
 hold us, in spite of ourselves, in unbelief. 
 
 VII. We see why it is that to most professors 
 the thought of being entirely sanctified in this life, 
 appears so chimerical. Their minds have ranged, 
 in the darkness of unbelief, amid their own wrong 
 doings and short comings ; and not upon the bound- 
 
PROMISES. 195 
 
 less provisions, and " exceeding great and precious 
 promises " of divine grace, till they have appre- 
 hended the riches of the glory of Christ's inherit- 
 ance in the saints. If Christ has made provision 
 for our entire holiness, and has promised, on the 
 condition of simple faith in his word, that he will 
 himself sanctify us wholly, and preserve our whole 
 spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto his 
 coming and kingdom, how reasonable to expect 
 that his power shall effect what his love has pro- 
 vided and his truth has promised. 
 
 VIII. We see why it appears to most persons 
 so impossible to exercise that faith which would 
 result in a state of entire sanctification. They do 
 not believe that provision is made in the gospel for 
 the attainment of that state, or that Christ has 
 promised it to us, on condition of our faith in him 
 for that blessing. If Christ has made such provi- 
 sions, and given such promises, it would be difficult, 
 if not impossible, to account for the existence of 
 that faith in an individual which induces partial 
 and not perfect holiness, when he has those pro- 
 visions and promises distinctly before his mind. 
 
 IX. In what sense all Christians are expected 
 and required to be witnesses for Christ. They 
 are expected and required so to trust Christ in 
 
196 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 respect to the fulfilment of all bis promises, that 
 they can say from blessed experience, that in all 
 those promises Christ is a faithful and true witness. 
 Take the following promise as an example: 
 " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose 
 mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in 
 thee." Now we are expected and required to 
 " stay ourselves upon God " in such a manner, that 
 we can affirm from experience, that the effect of 
 trusting in God is all that it is affirmed to be. So 
 of every other promise in the Bible. If we can- 
 not thus testify for God, we are found to be false 
 witnesses for him. It is in giving such testimony 
 that we are chiefly to glorify Christ, and benefit 
 our fellow men. How melancholy is the fact, that 
 most professors, instead of being able to speak for 
 Christ, as his faithful and true witnesses, can only 
 give an opinion, that if they should embrace the 
 promises, they would find them true, which is no 
 more than the impenitent can say, and of course is 
 no testimony at all. 
 
 X. We see that if, as is commonly supposed, 
 God has so arranged the dispensations of his provi- 
 dence and grace that no one will attain to a state 
 of entire sanctification in this life, he has made 
 such arrangements that he shall never have a wit- 
 ness on earth that can bear full testimony to the 
 
PROMISES, 197 
 
 truth of his promises. Many of these promises 
 are, as we have seen in a former discourse, condi- 
 tioned on the existence of this state in the subject. 
 How infinitely absurd is the supposition that God 
 has made definite arrangements, by which he is 
 never to have a witness on earth, who can bear 
 full testimony for him ! " Ye are my witnesses, 
 saith the Lord." See to it, Christian, that you, 
 by availing yourself of proffered grace, become 
 perfectly qualified to bear full testimony for God. 
 How reasonable is the supposition that God should 
 make full provision for the perfect qualification, 
 i. e. sanctification of his own witnesses. How 
 perfectly unreasonable the opposite supposition ! 
 
 XI. We may also perceive the perfect absurdity 
 of the supposition, that if a Christian were entirely 
 sanctified, he would not be permitted longer to live 
 on earth ; but would be taken directly to heaven. 
 In other words, if an individual were fully qualified 
 to bear testimony for Christ, he would riot allow 
 him to testify at all ! 
 
 XII. We perceive the infinite obligation resting 
 upon us, to be entirely free from care and perplex- 
 ity, and to be always, and under all circumstances, 
 in a state of perfect peace and blessedness. We 
 have only to rest down upon the "exceeding 
 
198 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 great and precious promises," and every care, 
 every perplexity, and every burden, is necessarily 
 rolled from our minds. We are led into the " ban- 
 queting house " of the Redeemer, " where his 
 banner over us is love." We are conducted forth 
 "into the green pastures, and beside the still 
 waters." We range along the banks of the river 
 of life, and our peace and blessedness will be like 
 the broad, and deep, and crystal flow of that river. 
 Reader, what is the character of your religion ? 
 Is it a life-giving and a peace-giving religion ? 
 Your body, you say, is the " temple of the Holy 
 Spirit." What are the fruits of the spirit that 
 actually dwells in that temple. Are they " love, 
 joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance." " If any man 
 have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
 
 XIII. In the light of this subject, we are also led 
 to contemplate and adore the infinite love of God 
 to us. This love is manifested in the bestowment 
 upon creatures, infinite in guilt and vileness, the 
 highest blessing that infinite wisdom could con- 
 ceive, that infinite love could desire, and infinite 
 power confer the eternal possession of the " di- 
 vine nature," the holiness and blessedness of 
 God. Reader, dwell upon this thought. In it 
 
PROMISES. 199 
 
 learn to comprehend your own privileges, and the 
 boundless love of God. For the bestowment of 
 this blessing full provision is made in the gospel. 
 For its full accomplishment in you, the Son of 
 God is " standing at the door, and the spirit of 
 grace is now in your heart. If you will open the 
 door, the Son of God will enter in and confer this 
 blessed inheritance upon you. 
 
 XIV. Finally, we perceive the infinite obliga- 
 tion that rests upon us, not to remain under the 
 power of any sin ; but to have our temper, our 
 appetites, our propensities, habits, and all the 
 powers and susceptibilities of our being, subdued 
 and brought into sweet and perfect subjection to 
 the will of Christ, so that there shall be " none 
 occasion of stumbling in us." For the accom- 
 plishment of this, full provision is made in the 
 gospel of the grace of God, and we have only to 
 cast ourselves upon Christ for the fulfilment of 
 the " exceeding great and precious promises " 
 which he has given us, and all this blessedness is 
 ours. It is your blissful privilege, reader, in the 
 use of these promises, to be made a " partaker of 
 the divine nature, having escaped the corruption 
 that is in the world through lust." Remember 
 what God has said ; " Now the just shall live by 
 
 tfliyiRSXTY 
 
 
 
 
200 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 faith : but if any man draw back, my soul shall 
 have no pleasure in him." " See that ye refuse 
 not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not 
 who refused him that spake on earth, much more 
 shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that 
 speaketh from heaven." 
 
DISCOURSE VII I. 
 
 THE DIVINE TEACHER. 
 
 " Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the 
 Lord is, there is liberty. JBut we all, with open face be- 
 holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 
 into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the 
 Spiritof the Lord." 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18. 
 
 In the verses preceding, the apostle speaks of 
 the veil that was over the mind of the Jew, in the 
 reading of the Scriptures, and which prevented his 
 understanding their true import. In the text he 
 speaks of the privileges which Christians enjoy 
 through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 
 i. e. there is a full and direct aspect of truth, and a 
 full experience of its renovating power. " But we 
 all, with open face beholding as in a glass the 
 glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
 of the Lord." Every real Christian can call to 
 mind seasons when he had such views of truth as 
 are here referred to, views which melted his 
 whole soul into love and tenderness, and brought 
 13 
 
202 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 all the powers of his being into sweet subjection to 
 the will of God. Could these visions be rendered 
 perpetual in the mind of the Christian, his heart 
 would never wax cold or unfeeling; nor would 
 there ever be any rival to Christ in his heart, to 
 dispute with him the empire of the soul. In the 
 absence of such views, darkness enters and spreads 
 itself over the mind, arid temptations to sin have a 
 sovereign power. Now to impart these visions of 
 truth, to render them perpetual, and thus preserve 
 the mind under the uninterrupted influence of the 
 love of Christ, and give to that love the highest 
 possible efficacy over the heart, is the appropriate 
 office of the Holy Spirit. This is the part which 
 he now acts in the plan of redemption. Christ is 
 of God made unto us " wisdom, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption." The office 
 of the Holy Spirit is to present Christ to our 
 minds in such a manner that all these objects shall 
 be fully accomplished in us. 
 
 The attention of the reader is now invited to a 
 few general observations designed to illustrate the 
 office of the Holy Spirit, in the work of redemp- 
 tion, as above presented. To accomplish this 
 object, I remark 
 
 I. That whatever the Holy Spirit accomplishes 
 In the work under consideration, he accomplishes 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER, 203 
 
 by the presentation of truth to the rnind, and the 
 truth presented does not respect himself, but Jesus 
 Christ. " The sword of the Spirit is the word of 
 God." " Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth 
 is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he 
 shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he 
 shall hear, that shall he speak ; and he will shew 
 you things to come. He shall glorify me : for he 
 shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 
 The Holy Spirit sustains to Christ the same rela- 
 tion that a teacher does to the particular science 
 which he teaches. His object is, not to present 
 himself to the pupil, but the science. So the 
 Spirit shows not himself, but Christ, to our minds. . 
 We feel and recognize the presence of the Spirit, 
 only as Christ is presented to our minds, and thus 
 the " love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
 the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." 
 
 II. In thus accomplishing the work of redemp- 
 tion, the Holy Spirit sustains to Christians and 
 sinners, entirely different relations. To the latter 
 he sustains the exclusive relation of a reprover of 
 sin, his object being conviction, for the purpose of 
 leading the sinner, humbled and penitent, to Christ. 
 "And when he is come, he will reprove the world 
 of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." 
 
 To the Christian, on the other hand, the Chris- 
 
204 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 tian, I mean, in a state of love and obedience to 
 God, he sustains the relation of a teacher, a com- 
 forter, an indwelling light, in which the glory and 
 love of Christ are continually reflected upon the 
 eye of the mind. " He shall take of mine, and 
 shall show it unto you." " He shall testify of me." 
 "But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
 whom the Father will send in my name, he shall 
 teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
 " He dvvelleth in you, and shall be in you." 
 
 III. The Holy Spirit, in the relation last des- 
 cribed, is given to Christians after they believe in 
 Christ, and in consequence of their faith in him. 
 Acts ii. 38 : " Then Peter said unto them, Re- 
 pent and be baptized, every one of you, in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, 
 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
 Eph. i. 13 : " In whom also, after that ye believed, 
 ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." 
 Prov. i. 23 : " Turn you at my reproof; behold, 
 I will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make 
 known my words unto you." As these passages 
 respect all Christians alike, they refer, not to his 
 miraculous gifts, but to common influences, as an 
 indwelling light in the hearts of God's people. 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 205 
 
 IV. The design of God in the gift of his Spirit, 
 is, that he be to Christians, not as a " stranger 
 or a sojourner, that turneth aside to tarry but for a 
 night," but as the perpetual light of their souls, 
 of whose illumination they are never to be desti- 
 tute. Johnxiv. 15 17: " If ye love me, keep my 
 commandments ; and I will pray the Father, and 
 he shall give you another comforter, that he may 
 abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth; 
 whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth 
 him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him ; 
 for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." 
 Hence, it is said of Christians, that their "bodies 
 are the temples of the Holy Ghost," and that 
 they themselves are " the temples of the living 
 God." As the visible manifestation of the divine 
 glory never departed from the Holy of Holies in 
 the ancient temple, so God designs that the light 
 of his Spirit shall never depart from the more 
 sacred temple of the heart, and nothing but sin 
 can quench his divine illuminations there. To 
 enjoy these perpetual divine illuminations, Christian, 
 to have those full and unceasing visions of the glory 
 of Christ, by which you may be able to " compre- 
 hend the breadth, and depth, and length, and 
 height, and to know the love of Christ, which 
 passeth knowledge," is your high privilege and 
 most sacred duty. 
 
206 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 V. We will now consider the state of those 
 who thus enjoy the perpetual illumination of the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 I. They have all those full, and direct, and 
 perpetual visions of the love of Christ, which are 
 necessary to their highest purity and blessedness. 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 
 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass 
 the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
 of the Lord." " He that is spiritual," i. e. taught 
 of the Spirit, "judgeth all things," has a distinct 
 perception of all truth, which it concerns him to 
 understand. " He shall guide you into all truth." 
 
 2. All the wisdom that is necessary, that they, 
 as the servants of Christ, may in eveiy sphere and 
 condition in life, glorify him in the. most effect- 
 ual manner. This is implied in the promise, "He 
 shall lead you into all truth." It is also included 
 in the promise, " If any man lack wisdom, let him 
 ask of God, who giveth unto all men liberally and 
 upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." 
 
 3. They have such views of Christ as impart 
 to them full and unfailing consolation in every 
 affliction. In special reference to this part of his 
 office, he is called the " Comforter." 
 
 4. Such a full and perpetual fruition of the 
 presence and love of Christ as constitutes the 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 207 
 
 richest foretaste of future blessedness. The gift 
 of the Spirit, for this reason, is called the " ear- 
 nest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the 
 purchased possession." 
 
 5. The Spirit is given to such, as heaven's sig- 
 net, as God's seal to their title to the eternal in- 
 heritance which Christ has purchased for them. 
 " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye 
 are sealed unto the day of redemption." " Ye 
 are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." 
 
 Such are your privileges, Christian, in the gift 
 of the Holy Spirit. All truth is perfectly known 
 to him. " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, 
 the deep things of God." Every truth that you 
 need to understand, he is able to present to your 
 mind, in such a manner, that from it you shall re- 
 ceive the highest possible influence. He is equally 
 able to present those truths and those aspects of 
 truth which are perfectly adapted to your necessi- 
 ties in every condition in life. To you he is given 
 as the last and richest gift of your God and Saviour, 
 to be in you as a perpetually indwelling light, 
 through which you are to be " filled with all the ful- 
 ness of God." Christ has promised that " whosoever 
 belie veth in him shall not walk in darkness ; but shall 
 have the light of life." By availing yourself of the 
 illumination of the Holy Spirit, this promise may be 
 fully accomplished in your own blessed expe- 
 
208 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 rience. Remember this, also, that without this 
 divine illumination, you will and you must walk in 
 darkness. Those life-giving aspects of truth pre- 
 sented to mind by the Spirit, you can obtain from 
 no other source whatever. " Even so, the things 
 of God, knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." 
 "The natural man," the man that trusts to his own 
 wisdom, without the aid of divine illumination, 
 " receive th not the things of the Spirit of God : 
 for they are foolishness unto him ; neither CAN HE 
 KNOW THEM, because they are spiritually dis- 
 cerned." 
 
 VI. We will now consider the conditions on 
 which we can enjoy the perpetual illumination of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 1. His perpetual presence and illumination must 
 be sought by prayer and " faith on the Son of 
 God." " How much more shall your Father 
 which is in heaven, give the Holy Spirit to them 
 that ask him ? " 
 
 2. Your motives in seeking his 'illumination 
 must be identical with those of the Spirit as your 
 teacher. His exclusive office is, to " take of the 
 things of Christ and show them unto you," to im- 
 part to you that knowledge which is necessary to 
 your highest holiness, blessedness, and usefulness, 
 as a Christian. When you ask of God for the 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 209 
 
 indwelling light of his Holy Spirit, ask it for this 
 exclusive purpose, that you may know Christ, and 
 fully experience the renovating power of his love 
 upon your heart, that you may " know the things 
 which are freely given you of God, and understand, 
 as the servants of Christ, all the responsibilities 
 devolved upon you, in every relation and condition 
 in life. 
 
 3. Seek the illumination of the Holy Spirit, 
 with a full consciousness and acknowledgment of 
 your own blindness and ignorance, and entire de- 
 pendence upon his teaching. " Except ye be 
 converted and become as little children, ye shall in 
 no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." " If 
 any man would be wise among you, let him be- 
 come a fool, that he may be wise ; " that is, let 
 him acknowledge his total darkness and ignorance 
 in himself, and seek for divine illumination as the 
 only source of true wisdom. 
 
 4. Seek the illumination of the Spirit in the 
 diligent use of all appropriate means, the study 
 of the Scriptures, attendance upon the instruc- 
 tions and ordinances of God's house, and in social 
 converse and prayer with such as are themselves 
 spiritually taught. In the use of such means, with 
 such a Spirit and object, your cup will be always 
 full. It will overflow for ever. 
 
210 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I. In the light of this discourse, a few important 
 passages of Scripture admit of a ready explanation. 
 For example, Luke x. 21, " In that hour Jesus 
 rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, 
 Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these 
 things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed 
 them unto babes ; even so, Father, for so it seemed 
 good in thy sight." "The wise and prudent " 
 are those who proudly depend upon their own 
 wisdom, and are regarded as wise by the world 
 around them. " Babes" are such as acknowledge 
 their blindness and ignorance, and look to Christ 
 for divine illumination. How appropriate the joy 
 and gratitude of Christ, that the former were 
 left in darkness, and the latter divinely illu- 
 mined. John ix. 41, "Jesus said unto them, If 
 ye were blind, ye should have no sin : " that is, if 
 you would acknowledge your blindness, and come 
 to me for divine illumination, your sins would be 
 wholly removed from you ; but now ye say, " We 
 see ; therefore your sin remaineth," that is, you 
 deny your ignorance and dependence upon me ; 
 therefore, your character remains unchanged, and 
 your sins rest upon you. 1 Cor. ii. 9, "But, as it 
 is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 211 
 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him." 
 This passage is very commonly considered as appli- 
 cable only to the condition of saints in heaven. 
 The context shows, however, that it is applied 
 exclusively to the condition of Christians on earth. 
 "But God hath revealed them unto us by his 
 Spirit." Such are your privileges now, Christian, 
 through the love of Christ reflected upon your 
 heart by the Holy Spirit which is given unto you. 
 
 II. We see how it is, that the " Spirit beareth 
 witness with our Spirit, that W 7 e are the children of 
 God." When, for example, the Christian asks for 
 wisdom from above, or for divine illumination in 
 respect to any question of truth or duty, and re- 
 ceives from the Spirit an answer to his request. In 
 that answer, the Spirit of God bears witness with 
 his spirit that he is a child of God. Such is the tes- 
 timony that he is perpetually bearing in the heart of 
 all who are humble and contrite in spirit and tremble 
 at God's word. Reader, do you know what it is 
 to have the witness of the Spirit in your own 
 heart ? 
 
 III. We are also fully prepared to answer the 
 question, In what consists the grand secret of holy 
 living ? It is an indwelling Christ, whose image 
 is perpetually reflected upon the eye of the mind, 
 
212 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Reader, 
 is your piety of such a character as this ? 
 
 IV. In what sense only is the Holy Spirit a 
 sanctifier. " Christ is of God made unto us" 
 wisdom and righteousness, and sanctifijation, and 
 redemption." The Spirit sanctifies by presenting 
 Christ to the mind in such a manner that we are 
 transformed into his image. The common error 
 of Christians in respect to this subject, seems to be 
 this, looking away from Christ to the Holy Spirit 
 for sanctification, instead of looking for the Spirit 
 to render Christ their sanctification. 
 
 V. For not having Christ perpetually dwelling 
 in your heart, reader, as your wisdom, righteous- 
 ness, sanctification and redemption, you are without 
 excuse. For this special purpose the Holy Spirit 
 is given to you. In his light it is your blessed 
 privilege perpetually to walk. u How much more 
 shall your Father which is in heaven give the 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? " "Ask and it 
 shall be given you." " For every one that asketh 
 receiveth." 
 
 VI. We see, in the light of this subject, the 
 true ground of the expectation, that in our efforts 
 after holiness, we may attain to a state of entire 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 213 
 
 consecration to Christ. " Work out your own sal- 
 vation with fear and trembling: For it is God 
 which w r orketh in you both to will and to do of 
 his own good pleasure." Our hope of attaining 
 to this state, rests not at all upon a view of our own 
 natural powers as moral agents, but upon the pro- 
 visions of divine grace for our " redemption from 
 all iniquity," and our " perfect completeness in all 
 the \vill of God," together with the divine aid that 
 is promised to succeed all sincere efforts made in 
 simple faith in Christ, for the attainment of that 
 state. In the redemption of Christ, as we have 
 seen in former discourses, full provision is made 
 for the entire sanctification of every believer. The 
 Holy Spirit is given for the express purpose of so 
 presenting the Lord Jesus Christ to our minds, that 
 we may experience in our hearts the full power of 
 his redemption. The Spirit, it should be remem- 
 bered, has a perfect understanding of all truth per- 
 taining to our salvation. He has at all times, 
 direct access to our hearts, and is perfectly able 
 to present the image of Christ to our minds in such 
 a manner, that it shall exert upon us the highest 
 possible transforming power. He is always in us, 
 a perpetually indwelling light, whose highest il- 
 luminations we can always enjoy, by opening our 
 hearts with simple faith and prayer to receive it. 
 With such provisions and such a helper, to what 
 
214 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 state ought we to expect to attain? Who is 
 strongest, Christian, let me put the question again, 
 " he that is in you, or he that is in the world ?" 
 Which has the greatest power, the Spirit of the 
 living God, together with an indwelling Christ, or 
 your fleshly lusts and propensities ? Shall the fol- 
 lowers of Christ proclaim the fact, that the Spirit 
 and grace of Christ are less strong in their hearts, 
 than the "world, the flesh, and the devil?" that 
 that grace which changed an enemy into a friend, 
 is not adequate to render that friend " perfect and 
 complete in all the will of God ?" " Tell it not 
 in Gath ! Publish it not in the streets of Askelon ! 
 lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph !" 
 
 VII. We are now prepared, in the light of this, 
 and of the preceding discourses, to understand the 
 great and fundamental errors of the Perfectionists, 
 a sect which rose some years ago in the State of 
 New York, and subsequently spread to a small ex- 
 tent over various parts of the country. The fol- 
 lowing are some of the tenets of this sect. They 
 maintained, I. That in the gospel there is a total 
 abrogation of the moral law as a rule of action, 
 and that Christians are for ever freed from all obli- 
 gation to God or any other being. 2. That by 
 one act of faith, the Christian is brought into such 
 a state, that it is absolutely impossible that he 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 215 
 
 should ever afterwards commit sin. 3. That the 
 Spirit now communicates truth to Christians by di- 
 rect revelation, and hence the study of the Scrip- 
 tures, the ministry of reconciliation, prayer, the 
 Sabbath, and all the ordinances, and the church 
 itself, they wholly dispensed with, 4. For the 
 teachings of the Spirit, they substituted impress- 
 ions and impulses, maintaining that every existing 
 desire or impulse is produced by the direct agency 
 of the Spirit, and therefore to be gratified. Hence, 
 5. Many of them maintained the abrogation of 
 marriage, even, and became die advocates of gross 
 licentiousness from principle, and all this under the 
 profession of absolute perfection in holiness. The 
 reader will at once perceive, that no system could 
 possibly be devised, which placed the subject more 
 perfectly under the power of the great enemy, than 
 this. The sect, containing in itself the principle 
 of disunion and disorganization, very soon burst 
 asunder, and now lies in scattered fragments in 
 various parts of the country. Its entire history 
 has been the perfect opposite of that union which 
 Christ prayed might exist among believers, and 
 which perfect love must and will produce. In the 
 rise and subsequent disorganization of the sect, 
 however, the great enemy has gained one impor- 
 tant object. Whenever the true doctrine of holi- 
 ness is urged upon Christians, and Christ held up 
 
216 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 as a sanctifying Saviour, he can raise the cry of 
 Perfectionism, and thus prevent many from receiv- 
 ing the substance, because a few have grasped a 
 shadow. If in this attempt, reader, you permit 
 him to gain an advantage over you, if because 
 others have turned the grace of God into lascivi- 
 ousness, you will reject that grace itself, you fool- 
 ishly jeopardize your immortal interests. 
 
 VIII. The reader will now clearly perceive, 
 that the sentiments maintained in these discourses, 
 have no alliance whatever with Perfectionism. 
 The two systems, in their essential features and 
 elements, are the direct opposites of each other. 
 An individual holding the sentiments here main- 
 tained, cannot become a Perfectionist, without a 
 full and total renunciation of all the principles 
 which he previously held. This every one will 
 perceive who candidly examines the two systems. 
 
 IX. There is one error of the Perfectionists, 
 into which Christians not unfrequently fall, against 
 which, I wish, in a special manner, to guard the 
 reader. It is this : considering impulses and 
 impressions', as the teachings of the Spirit. An 
 individual has upon his mind an undefined im- 
 pression, that he ought, for example, to speak in 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 217 
 
 meeting, or to pursue some particular course of con- 
 duct. In following that impression, he conceives 
 himself to be following the leadings of the Spirit. 
 In refusing to follow it, he supposes himself to 
 grieve or quench the Spirit. Now the principle 
 that I maintain is this, that such impressions 
 are of no authority whatever. The man who is 
 led by the Spirit, is filled, not with impressions and 
 impulses, but with light. He will always be able 
 to give such reasons for his conduct as will com- 
 mend themselves to his own, and the conscience of 
 every other man. Suppose, reader, that you 
 should come to me, for instruction or advice in 
 respect to any question of truth or duty, what you 
 would expect of me, would be, that I should present 
 such considerations to your mind, as would enable 
 you to from an intelligent judgment in respect to 
 the question before you. Much more should you 
 expect the same thing, when you pray for divine 
 teaching. Remember that it is when and only 
 when you are led by such considerations, that you 
 are led by the Spirit of God. The individual who 
 turns away from the Spirit, as a teacher and guide, 
 and gives himself up to the control of impulses and 
 impressions, regarding these as the teachings of the 
 Spirit, will very soon find himself in the "snare of 
 the devil." 
 
 14 
 
218 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 X. We may also understand, in the light of this 
 discourse, the nature of spiritual mindedness. It 
 is a mind, all of whose powers and susceptibilities 
 are under the sweet, and perpetual, and all-per- 
 vading influence of the " things of the Spirit," 
 the truths revealed and presented by the Spirit* 
 All such persons are " led by the Spirit of God/' 
 and "they are the sons of God." 
 
 XL You may now, reader, answer the question, 
 whether you are really spiritually minded or not. 
 Do you, in your own experience, reap the blissful 
 fruits of the Spirit? "The fruit of the Spirit," 
 remember, " is in all goodness, and righteousness, 
 and truth." Again, " The fruit of the Spirit is 
 love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such 
 there is no law." Is this the character of your reli- 
 gion? Is this the fruit of the Spirit ihat dwells 
 in you ? " If any man have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, he is none of his," and of the Spirit of 
 Christ, these are the appropriate and invariable 
 fruits. 
 
 XII. We see when and how it is that Chris- 
 tians "quench" and "grieve the Holy Spirit of 
 God, whereby they are sealed unto the day of 
 redemption." It is when they turn away from the 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 219 
 
 glory and love of Christ, upon which the Spirit is 
 endeavoring to fix their supreme affection and re- 
 gard, and give their hearts to other and inferior 
 objects. When you do this, reader, you not only 
 grieve the Holy Spirit of God ; but you put out 
 the light of your own soul. 
 
 XIII. Finally. We are now prepared to look 
 once more at the question, whether the great doc- 
 trine maintained in thes.e discourses, accords with 
 the mind of the Spirit by whose inspiration the 
 Scriptures were written. Here permit me to pre- 
 sent a few considerations bearing upon this ques- 
 tion, in addition to those already presented, and 
 which naturally suggest themselves from the train 
 of thought which we have pursued. 
 
 1. The first that I notice is a fact which can 
 hardly have failed to have impressed the mind of 
 the attentive reader of these discourses. It is r 
 this. Whenever I have had occasion to give a 
 full and definite expression of my sentiments upon 
 this subject, no phraseology conceivable, has been 
 found to be so perfectly adapted to that object, as 
 the simple, unadorned, and most frequent phraseol- 
 ogy of the Holy Spirit, as found in the sacred 
 Scriptures. Can it be, reader, as asked in a for- 
 mer discourse, that the Holy Spirit has dictated a 
 phraseology so perfectly adapted to convey one 
 
220 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 sentiment, and only one, when His design was to 
 convey precisely the opposite sentiment ? 
 
 2. It was just as easy for Christ to have made 
 such provisions, and to have given the Holy Spirit 
 to Christians in such measures, as to render their 
 perfect as partial holiness practicable. Of what 
 conceivable use can sin be as an element of Chris- 
 tian character, that Christ should have left it, as an 
 inseparable element of that character ? 
 
 3. That Christ should have made provision for 
 the entire sanctification of believers, and given his 
 Spirit in such measure to them as to render that 
 state attainable, best accords with his infinite love, 
 and the absolute perfection of all his other attri- 
 butes and works. Why should he leave this, the 
 last and greatest of all his works, thus imperfect? 
 
 4. This view of the subject best accords with the 
 relation w r hich Christians sustain to Christ, and 
 the world around them. They are Christ's wit- 
 nesses, to testify to the world from their own 
 experience, to the truth of the " exceeding great 
 and precious promises " of divine grace ; promises, 
 many of which are, as we have seen, conditioned 
 upon a state of entire consecration to Christ. 
 How infinitely absurd, as shown in a former dis- 
 course, is the supposition that Christ has so 
 arranged the dispensations of his grace and Spirit, 
 that he should never have a witness upon earth, 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 221 
 
 who could bear full testimony to the truth of his 
 promises. Christians are also constituted of Christ, 
 " the light of the world," by reflecting upon it his 
 image. " God, who commanded the light to shine 
 out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to 
 give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
 God in the face of Jesus Christ." Who can 
 believe that Christ has definitely arranged the 
 dispensations of his grace and Spirit, so that his 
 own image, as reflected through the character of 
 his own people, shall always be presented to the 
 world in a deep and dark eclipse? Again, Chris- 
 tians are Christ's representatives, his ambassadors, 
 laborers together with God, in the great work of 
 saving lost men. Who can conceive a greater 
 absurdity than this, that God has so arranged his 
 dispensations toward his people, that all who are 
 co-operating with him in this work, shall be but 
 partially devoted to the duties of their sacred call- 
 ing. Once more, Christians are the " members of 
 Christ's body, of his flesh, and of his bones." 
 Reader, can you believe that Christ has made no 
 provision, but that the members of his own body 
 shall be in a state of disease and moral death? 
 Dare you cast such an imputation upon the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 5. This doctrine leads the soul directly to Christ 
 as a certain remedy for sin, and for all temptations 
 
222 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 to sin, and tends to induce the most vigorous 
 efforts after pure and perfect holiness. The oppo- 
 site doctrine tends directly to weaken confidence 
 in Christ as a Saviour from sin, and to paralyze 
 efforts after holiness. 
 
 6. This doctrine meets perfectly a changeless 
 demand of our being, a state of perfect moral 
 rectitude, and tends to inspire the mind with life 
 and peace. The opposite doctrine fails to meet 
 that demand, and thereby covers the mind, that is 
 hungering and thirsting after righteousness, with 
 thick gloorn. What can be more gloomy to such 
 a mind than the thought that he is to be perpetually 
 wounding his Saviour in the house of his friends ? 
 
 7. Finally, this doctrine has all the internal 
 evidence in its favor, that the Bible itself, or any 
 doctrine of the Bible, that can be named, has. 
 What higher internal evidence can be adduced, in 
 favor of any doctrine, than this, that it tends 
 directly to moral virtue, and meets fully the 
 changeless laws of our being ; while the tendency 
 of the contrary doctrine is precisely the opposite 
 in both the respects above named ? Say the opposers 
 of this doctrine, If it is untrue, its tendency must 
 be bad. The same might, with equal propriety be 
 said of the Bible, and of every doctrine of the 
 Bible. When we speak of the tendency of a 
 doctrine, we then look away from the question 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 
 
 whether it is true or false, to what is intrinsic in 
 the doctrine itself. When we try the doctrine 
 under consideration by this principle, we find it to 
 have all the evidence in its favor, that any divine 
 truth can have. 
 
 No, reader ; in embracing this doctrine, we have 
 not " followed cunningly devised fables." We 
 have followed the plainest teachings of the Spirit 
 and word of God. In taking our stand upon this 
 doctrine, we are standing upon the " foundation of 
 the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself 
 being the chief corner stone." In looking with 
 humble faith to " the very God of peace," that he 
 may " sanctify us wholly, and preserve our whole 
 spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto the com- 
 ing of our Lord Jesus Christ," we only look to 
 him for a fulfilment of one of his own " exceeding 
 great and precious promises." 
 
 Reader, " believest thou this ? " And will you 
 now come to Christ, to have this promise in all its 
 fulness accomplished in your own blessed expe- 
 rience ? " Now the just shall live by faith ; but if 
 any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleas- 
 ure in him." " Wherefore, seeing we are com- 
 passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth 
 so easily beset us, and let us run with patience, the 
 
224 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the 
 author and finisher of our faith ; who, for the joy 
 that was set before him, endured the cross, de- 
 spising the shame, and is set down at the right 
 hand of the throne of God." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In drawing my remarks to a close, I w r ill, in 
 conformity with the desires of my own mind, and 
 the suggestions of some brethren , in whose judg- 
 ment I place much confidence, give the reader a 
 short account of the manner in which I was led, by 
 the Spirit of God, as I believe, to adopt the senti- 
 ments maintained in these discourses. In regard 
 to my early experience as a Christian, I would 
 say, that that experience had two prominent char- 
 acteristics, a desire, inexpressibly strong, to be freed 
 from all sin in every form, and to be entirely con- 
 secrated to the love and service of God, in all the 
 powers and susceptibilities of my being. Nor can 
 any one conceive the gloom and horror that cov- 
 ered my mind, when older Christians assured me, 
 and as I supposed with truth, that that was a state 
 to which I should never, in this life, attain ; that 
 my lusts would not be perfectly subdued or sub- 
 jected to the will of Christ, and that one of the 
 brightest evidences of my con version and growth in 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 225 
 
 grace,, was new discoveries of the deep and fixed 
 corruptions of rny heart corruptions from which I 
 was never to be cleansed till death should deliver 
 me from my bondage. Notwithstanding all the 
 impediments thrown in the way of my progress in 
 holiness, I continued to press forward for a succes- 
 sion of years, till I could say, in the language of 
 another, " I do know that I love holiness for holi- 
 ness' sake." 
 
 In this state, 1 commenced my studies as a 
 student in college. Here I fell, and fell, by not 
 aiming singly at the " prize of the high calling," 
 but at the prize of college honors, t subsequently 
 entered a theological seminary, with the hope of 
 there rinding myself in such an atmosphere, that 
 my first love would be revived. In this expect- 
 ation, I grieve to say, I was most sadly disap- 
 pointed. I found the piety of my brethren appar- 
 ently as low as my own. I here say it with sorrow 
 of heart, that my mind does not recur to a single 
 individual connected with the " school of the pro- 
 phets," when I was there, who appeared to me to 
 enjoy daily communion and peace with God. 
 
 After completing my course under such circum- 
 stances, I entered the ministry, proud of rny intel- 
 lectual attainments, and armed, as I supposed, 
 at every point, with the weapons of theological 
 warfare, but with the soul of piety chilled and 
 
226 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 expiring within me. Blessed be God, the remem- 
 brance of what I had been remained, and constantly 
 aroused me to a consciousness of what I was. I 
 looked into myself, and over the Church, and was 
 shocked at what I felt and what I saw. Two 
 facts in the aspect of the Church and the ministry, 
 struck my mind with gloomy interest. Scarcely 
 an individual, within the circle of my knowledge, 
 seemed to know the gospel as a sanctifying or 
 peace-giving gospel. In illustration of this re- 
 mark, let me state a fact which I met with in the 
 year 1831 or 1832. I then met a company of my 
 ministerial brethren, who had come together from 
 one of the most favored portions of the country. 
 They sat down together, and gave to each other 
 an undisguised disclosure of the state of their 
 hearts, and they all, with one exception, and the 
 experience of that individual I did not hear, ac- 
 knowledged that they had not daily communion 
 and peace with God. Over these facts they 
 wept, but neither knew how to direct the others 
 out of the thick and impenetrable gloom which 
 covered them, and I was in the same ignorance 
 as my brethren. 
 
 I state these facts as a fair example of the state 
 of the churches, and of the ministry, as far as my 
 observation has extended, and that has been very 
 extensive. I here affirm, that the great mass of 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 227 
 
 Christians do not know the gospel, in their daily 
 experience, as a life-giving and peace-giving gospel. 
 When my mind became fully conscious of this 
 fact, I was led to compare my own,^and the expe- 
 rience of the Church around me, with that of the 
 apostles and primitive Christians, and with the 
 " path of the just," as portrayed in the sacred 
 Scriptures. I found the two in direct contrast 
 with each other. Here the great inquiry arose in 
 my mind, What is the grand secret of holy living? 
 How shall I attain to that perpetual fulness and 
 peace in Christ, which, for example, Paul enjoyed. 
 Till this secret was fully disclosed to my mind, I 
 felt that I was, and must be disqualified, in one 
 fundamental respect, to " feed the flock of God." 
 While the gospel was not life and peace to me, 
 how could 1 present it in such a manner that it 
 would be life and peace to others. I must myself 
 be led by the Great Shepherd, into the " green 
 pastures, and beside the still waters," before I 
 could lead the flock of God into the same blissful 
 regions. For years, this one inquiry pressed upon 
 my thoughts, and often, as I have looked over a 
 company of inquiring sinners, have I said within 
 myself, I would gladly take my place among those 
 inquirers, if any individual would show me how to 
 come into possession of the "riches of the glory of 
 Christ's inheritance in the saints." But clouds 
 
228 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 and darkness covered my mind in respect to this, 
 the most momentous of all subjects. 
 
 In this state of mind, I became connected with 
 the Institution at Oberlin, and continued to press 
 my inquiries with increasing interest upon this one 
 subject, till the fall of 1836. At that time, during 
 a series of religious meetings held in the Institution, 
 a large number of the members of the Church 
 arose and informed us that they were fully con- 
 vinced that they had been deceived in respect to 
 their character as Christians, and that they were 
 now without hope, and appeared as inquirers, to 
 know " what they should do to be saved." At 
 the same time, the great mass of the remainder 
 disclosed to us the cheerless bondage in which 
 they had long been groaning, and asked us if we 
 could tell them how to obtain deliverance. I 
 now felt myself, as one of the "leaders of the 
 flock of God," pressed with the great inquiry 
 above referred to, with greater interest than ever 
 before. I set rny heart, by prayer and supplication 
 to God, to find the light after which I had been so 
 long seeking. 
 
 In this state I visited one of rny associates in the 
 Institution, and disclosed to him the burden which 
 had weighed down my mind for so many years. I 
 asked him, if he could tell me the secret of the pi- 
 ety of Paul, and tell me the reason of the strange 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 229 
 
 contrast between the apostle's experience and my 
 own. In laboring for the salvation of men, 1 ob- 
 served, that my feelings often remained unmoved 
 and unaffected, while Paul was constantly " con- 
 strained" by the love of Christ. Our conver- 
 sation then turned upon the passage, " The love 
 of Christ constraineth us," &c. While thus em- 
 ployed, my heart leaped up in ecstacy inde- 
 scribable, with the exclamation, "I have found it." 
 I have now, by the grace of God, discovered the 
 secret after which I have been searching these 
 many years. I understood the secret of the piety 
 of Paul, and knew how to attain to that blissful state 
 myself. Paul's piety all arose from one source 
 exclusively, a sympathy with the heart of Christ 
 in his love for lost man. To attain to that state 
 myself, I had only to acquaint myself with the 
 love of Christ, and yield my whole being up to its 
 sweet control. 
 
 Immediately after this, I came before the 
 church and disclosed to them what 1 then saw to 
 be the grand defect in my ministry. 1. Christ 
 had been but as one chapter in my system of 
 theology, when he should have been the sun and 
 centre of the system. 2. When I thought of my 
 guilt and need of justi6cation, I had looked to 
 Christ exclusively, as I ought to have done. 
 For sanctification, on the other hand, to overcome 
 
230 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 the "world, the flesh, and the devil," I had de- 
 pended mainly upon my own resolutions. Here 
 was the grand mistake, and the source of all my 
 bondage under sin. I ought to have looked to 
 Christ for sanctification as much as for justification, 
 and for the same reason. The great object of my 
 being now was, to know Christ, and in knowing 
 him to be changed into his image. Here was the 
 " victory which overcometh the world." Here 
 was the "death of the body of sin." Here was 
 " redemption from all iniquity," into the " glorious 
 liberty of the children of God." At this time, the 
 appropriate office of the Holy Spirit presented 
 itself to my mind with a distinctness arid interest 
 never understood nor felt before. To know 
 Christ was the life of the soul. To "take of the 
 things of Christ and show them unto us," to 
 open our hearts to understand the Scriptures, to 
 strengthen us with might in the inner man, that 
 we might comprehend the " breadth and depth, 
 and length and height, and know the love of 
 Christ which passeth knowledge," and thus be 
 "filled with all the fulness of God," is the ap- 
 propriate office of the Spirit. The highway of ho- 
 liness was now for the first time rendered perfectly 
 distinct to my mind. The discovery of it was to my 
 mind as " life from the dead." The disclosure of 
 this path had the same effect upon others, who 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 231 
 
 had been, like myself, " weary, tost with tempest 
 and not comforted." As my supreme attention 
 was thus fixed upon Christ, as it became the great 
 object of my being to know him, and be trans- 
 formed into his likeness, and as I was perpetually 
 seeking that divine illumination by which I might 
 apprehend him, an era occurred in my experience, 
 which I have no doubt will ever be One of the 
 most memorable in my entire past existence. In 
 a moment of deep and solemn thought, the veil 
 seemed to be lifted, and I had a vision of the in- 
 finite glory and love of Christ, as manifested in the 
 mysteries of redemption. I will not attempt to 
 describe the effect of that vision upon my rnind. 
 All that I would say is, that in view of it, my 
 heart melted and flowed out like water. The 
 heart of stone was taken away, and a heart of love 
 and tenderness assumed its place. From that 
 time I have desired to " know nothing but Jesus 
 Christ and him crucified." I have literally " es- 
 teemed all things but loss for the excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," and the 
 knowledge of Christ has been eternal life begun 
 in my heart. 
 
 Now when the Lord Jesus Christ was thus 
 held up among us by myself and others, a brother 
 in the ministry arose in one of our meetings 
 and remarked, that there was one question to 
 which he desired that a definite answer might be 
 
232 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 given. It is this, "When we look to Christ for 
 sanctification, what degree of sanctification may 
 we expect from him ? May we look to him to 
 be sanctified wholly, or not?" I do not recollect 
 that I was ever so shocked and confounded at any 
 question before or since. I felt, for the moment, 
 that the work of Christ among us would be 
 marred, and the mass of minds around us rush into 
 Perfectionism. Still the question was before us ; 
 and to it we were bound, as pupils of the Holy 
 Spirit, to give a Scriptural answer. We did not 
 attempt to give a definite answer to it during that 
 time. With that question before us, brother 
 Finney and myself came to New York, and spent 
 most of the winter together, in prayer and the 
 study of the Bible. The great inquiry with us 
 was, what degree of holiness may we ourselves 
 expect from Christ, when we exercise faith in 
 him, and in what light shall we present him to 
 others, as a Saviour from sin. We looked, for ex- 
 ample, at such passages as this, passages of which 
 the Bible is full, "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. Faith- 
 ful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." 
 We looked at such passages, I say, and asked our- 
 selves this question, Suppose an honest inquirer 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 233 
 
 after holiness, comes to us, and asks of us, What 
 degree of holiness is here promised to the believer? 
 May I expect, in view of this prayer and prom- 
 ise, that God will sanctify me wholly, and preserve 
 me in that state, till the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ? What answer shall we give him ? Shall 
 we tell him that merely partial and not perfect 
 holiness is here promised, and that the former and 
 not the latter he is here authorized to expect ? After 
 looking prayerfully at the testimony of Scripture in 
 respect to the provisions and promises of divine 
 grace, we were constrained to admit, that but one 
 answer to the above question could be given from 
 the Bible ; and the greatest wonder with me is, 
 that I have been so long a " master of Israel, and 
 have never before known these things." Since 
 that time we have never ceased to proclaim the 
 redemption of Christ as a full redemption. Nor 
 do we expect to cease proclaiming it as a full and 
 finished redemption, till Christ shall call us home. 
 For myself, I am willing to proclaim it to the 
 world, that I now look to the very God of peace 
 to sanctify me wholly, and preserve rny whole 
 spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto the coin- 
 ing of our Lord Jesus Christ. I put up this prayer 
 with the expectation that the very things prayed 
 for will be granted. Reader, is that confidence 
 15 
 
234 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 misplaced ? In expecting that blessing, am I 
 leaning upon a broken reed, or upon the broad 
 promise of God ? 
 
 There is one circumstance connected with my 
 recent experience, to which I desire to turn the 
 special attention of the reader. I would here say, 
 that I have for ever given up all idea of resisting 
 temptation, subduing any lust, appetite or propen- 
 sity, or of acceptably performing any service for 
 Christ, by the mere force of my own resolutions. 
 If my propensities, which lead to sin, are crucified, 
 I know that it must be done by an indwelling 
 Christ. If I overcome the world, this is to be the 
 victory, " even our faith." If the great enemy 
 is to be overcome, it is to be done " by the blood 
 of the Lamb." 
 
 Believing, as I now do, that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ has provided special grace for 
 the entire sanctification of every individual, for 
 the subjection of all his propensities, for a perfect 
 victory over every temptation and incentive to sin, 
 and for rendering us, in every sphere and condition 
 in life, all that he requires us to be ; the first in- 
 quiry with me is, In what particular respects do 1 
 need the grace of Christ ? What is there, for 
 example, in my temper that needs correcting? 
 Wherein am I in bondage to appetite, or to any of 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 235 
 
 my propensities? What are the particular res- 
 ponsibilities, temptations, &c., incident to each 
 particular sphere and condition in life in which the 
 providence of God has called me to act ? What is 
 the temper that I ought, then, to manifest, so that 
 I may every where, and under all circumstances 
 reflect the image of Christ? 
 
 Thus having discovered my special neces- 
 sity, in any one of the particulars above re-* 
 ferred to, my next object is, to take some 
 promise applicable to the particular exigency 
 before me, and go directly to Christ for the 
 supply of that particular necessity. By having 
 the eye of faith perpetually fixed upon Christ 
 in this manner, by always looking to him for 
 special grace in every special exigency, yes, for 
 " grace to help in every time of need," how easy 
 it is to realize in our own blessed experience the 
 truth of all the " exceeding great and precious 
 promises" of divine grace. How easy it is to have 
 the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
 " keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. " 
 " Our peace is then as a river, and our righteous- 
 ness as the waves of the sea." The mind seems 
 to be borne upward and onward, as upon an ocean 
 of light, peace, and blessedness, which knows no 
 bounds. 
 
836 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 
 
 " O glorious change ! 'tis all of grace, 
 
 By bleeding love bestowed 
 On outcasts of our fallen race, 
 
 To bring them home to God ; 
 Infinite grace to vileness given, 
 The sons of earth made heirs of heaven." 
 
 And now, reader, " my heart's desire and 
 prayer to God " for you, is, that you may know 
 this full redemption. If you will cease from all 
 efforts of your own, and bring your sins, and sor- 
 rows, and cares, and propensities which lead into 
 sin, to Christ, and cast them all upon him, if with 
 implicit faith, you will hang your whole being upon 
 him, and make it the great object of life to know 
 him, for the purpose of receiving and reflecting his 
 image, you will find that all the " exceeding great 
 and precious promises " of his word, are, in your 
 own blissful experience, a living reality. The 
 waters that Christ shall give you, " shall be in 
 you a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life." You shall have a perpetual and joyful 
 victory over the " world, the flesh, and the devil." 
 Every where, and under all circumstances, your 
 peace in Christ shall be as a "river, and your right- 
 eousness as the waves of the sea." " O taste and 
 see that the Lord is good." " There is no want to 
 them that fear him." And, reader, when your 
 cup is once filled with the love of Christ, you will 
 
THE DIVINE TEACHER. 
 
 237 
 
 then say with truth, " The half has not been told 
 me." " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love 
 
 "'-" 
 
 it " 
 
 THE END. 
 
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