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was not yet glorified: but now, that he is ascended up on high to receive that unspeakable gift for men in its fulness-now that the promise of the Father is fullled to all who plead it aright; we are culpable, if we rest satisfied with the inferior manifestations of the Spirit, which belong to the baptism of John, or to infant-christianity; and we act in an unchristian like manner, if we ridicule the kingdom of the Holy Ghost, and speak evil of perfect Christianity.

To return a perfect Gentile sees God in his works and providences; but, wanting a more particular manifestation of his existence and goodness, he sighs, Oh were shall I find him? A perfect Jew ardently expects his coming as Messiah, and Emmanuel, or God with us; and he groans, "O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down!" -a perfect disciple of John believes, that the Messiah is come in the flesh, and prays, "O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, restore the kingdom to a waiting Israelite baptize me with the Holy Ghost: fill me with the Spirit."-And perfect Christians can witness from blessed experience, that he, who was manifest in the flesh, is come in the Spirit's power to establish within them his gracious kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

In this blessed kingdom St. Paul lived, when he said, "Let us, as many as are perfect, be thus minded." Nevertheless, though he was not only a perfect Christian, but also able to "preach wisdom among them that were perfect," he justly acknowledges himself imperfect in knowledge, in comparison of perfectly glorified saints. "We know but in part, says he, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away for now we see through a glass darkly," but when we shall drop these dark vails of flesh and blood, and be clothed with celestial, incorruptible bodies, we shall be capable of beholding God without dying aud then 66 we shall see him face to face," 1 Cor. xiii. 9, &c. For though "we are now the sons of God, it does not yet appear what weshall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," 1 John iii. 2.

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It is of this final perfection of the saints in the day of the resurrection, that the Apostle writes to the Hebrews, where he says, "These all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise," which relates to the full perfection of the just; "God having provided some better thing for us [Christians] that they [the Jew. ish saints] without us should not be made perfect," i. e. that we should all be perfected in glory together." For we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall

sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible] and we," who shall have died, or shall then be found living in a state of initial perfection "shall be changed," Heb. xi. 39.

1 Cor. xv. 51.

Nor does it follow from thence, that all glorified saints shall be equally perfect. I cannot but embrace here the reasonable sentiment of Dr. Watts. "The worship of hea ven, (says that judicious divine) and the joy that attends it, may be exceedingly different in degrees, according to the different capacity of spirits; and vet all may be perfect, and free from sinful defects. Does not the sparrow praise its Maker upon the ridge of a cottage, chirping in its native perfection? And yet the lark advances, in her flight and song, as far above the sparrow, as the clouds are above the house-top. Surely superior joys and glories must belong to superior powers and services.-The word perfection does not always imply equality. If all the souls in heaven were of one mould, and make, and inclination; yet there may be different sizes of capacity even in the same genus, and a different degree of preparation for the same delights; therefore though all the spirits of the just were uniform in their natures and pleasures, and all perfect; yet one spirit may possess more happiness and glory than another, because it is more capacious of intellectual blessings and better prepared for them. So when vessels of various size are thrown into the same ocean, there will be a great difference in the quantity of the liquid which they receive; though all might be full to the brim, and all made of the richest metal." [Watts on the Happiness of separate Spirits.]

For

Having thus proved both by Reason and Scripture, that there are various sorts and degrees of perfection: and that a man may be perfect according to the dispensation of divine grace he is under upon earth, though he is not yet perfect according to the dispensation of divine glory, which will take place, when our mortal bodies shall know the power of Christ's resurrection : having proved this, I say, nothing is easier than to reconcile St. Paul with himself, when he speaks in the same chapter of his being perfect, and of his not yet being perfect. when he says, "Let us, as many as are perfect, be thus minded," he speaks of Christian perfection, that is of the maturity of grace and holiness, which men still burdened with corruptible flesh and blood arrive at under the full dispensation of the gospel of Christ. But when he says, "Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect,” &c. he speaks of his perfection as a candidate for a crown of martyrdom on earth, and for a crown of glory in heaven. Just as if he bad said, Though I am dead to sin, and perfected

in love though I live not, but Christ liveth in me; yet I am not satisfied with my present perfection: I want to be perfected like Christ. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and [then] to enter into his glory?" Luke xxiv. 26. I want, in short, to be perfected in sufferings as well as in love. I cannot, I will not rest, till I end my race of pain and shame; and know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings on the ignominious tree. I am filled with a noble ambition of dying a martyr for him; being persuaded that this perfection of sufferings will ripen me for my heavenly perfection,-the perfection to which I shall be raised at the resurrection of the just. That this was the Apostle's meaning when he denied his being already made perfect, will, I hope, appear indubitable to those who consider the context. The words which immediately precede St. Paul's observation, that he had not yet attained, express a pathetic wish of sharing both in Christ's exaltation by a glorious resurrection, and in his humiliation by perfect sufferings. "That I may know him, says he, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his [painful, ignominious] death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead," which is the full perfection of the human nature; and secure a part in the first resurrection of the just, in which martyrs will be peculiarly interested; witness this plain Scripture, "I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, &c. and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years; but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection," Rev. XX. 4. &c.

But, I repeat it, although St. Paul disclaimed his having yet attained a perfection of shame and glory, he nevertheless professed his having attained a perfection of Christian faith working by love. This is evident from the words that follow the controverted text: "This one thing I do, &c. I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," [which is my complete glorification in heaven.] "Let us therefore as many as are perfect [in faith and love] be thus minded."-Let us press after our per fection of sufferings here, and of glory hereafter a bodily perfection this, which the Apostle describes thus at the end of the chapter: "We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself," Phil, iii. 21. Hence it appears, if we are not strangely mistaken, that it is not less absurd to oppose our doctrine of

Christian perfection from Phil. iii. than to oppose the divinity of Christ from the first chapter of St. John's Gospel.

I shall conclude these remarks upon the various sorts of perfection, by an observation, which may help Mr. Hill to understand how St. Paul could be perfect in love, when he professed that he was not perfect either in glory, knowledge, or sufferings.

Had not our Lord been perfect in love from a child, he would have broken the two great commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets. But in him was no sin : therefore he was perfect in love, though his love admitted of an increase, as well as his wisdom and knowledge; just as a perfect bud admits of growth into a perfect blossom, and, such a blossom into a perfect fruit. Hence it is, that as our Lord's perfect love grew, he increased in favour with God and man; an additional degree of approbation being due to him from all rationals, upon every display of his growing perfection, Luke i. 52. But though our Lord was always perfect in love, yet, it is certain that he was not always perfect in sufferings, much less in glory: for he was not perfected in sufferings, till after he had expired between the two thieves nor was he perfected in glory, before he took his place at the right hand of God. This is evidently the Apostle's doctrine, where he says, "It became him by whom are all things, to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings," Heb. ii. 10. And again, chap. v. 8. "Though he was a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect [in sufferings and in glory] he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." Mr. Hill must then allow, that St. Paul's imperfection, with respect to sufferings and glory, was no obstacle to the perfection of his love; or he must assert, that Christ was sinfully imperfect in love, so long as he continued imperfect in sufferings and glory: a supposition this which is too horrible to be admitted by a merely nominal Christian, much more by Mr. Hill.

SECTION VII.

St. Paul was not lustful, carnal, and sold under sin. The true meaning of Gal. v. 17, and of Rom. vii. 14. &c. is opened consistently with the context, the Design of the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Romans, and the privileges of the Christians, and the doctrine of perfection.

IT is easier to raise dust than to answer an argument. I expect therefore, that our opponents, instead of solidly answering the contents of the preceding section, will assert that St. Paul was an avowed enemy to deliverance from lust and evil tempers before

whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you." The dawn of day is not more different from the meridian light, than the imperfect state described in this verse, is different from the perfect state described in the following lines, which are descriptive of the adult Christian ; "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 the faith of the Son of God," Gal. ii. 20.

death, and of consequence a strong opposer 2. Upon Gal. iv. 19, "My little children, of of the doctrine of Christian perfection. And to support their assertion they will probably quote the following text: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would," Gal. v. 17. For they conclude from these words, that, so long as we dwell in bodies of corruptible flesh, we cannot help breaking the law of liberty (at least from time to time) by sinful internal lusts. As this objection passes among them for unanswerable, it may not be amiss to give it a four-fold answer.

1. St. Paul wrote these words to the curnal, fallen Galatians. To them he said. So that ye cannot do the things that ye would :" and there was a good reason, why they could not do what they had but a weak desire to do They were bewitched by the flesh, and by carnal teachers, who led them from the power of the Spirit to the weakness of the letter; yea, to the letter of Judaism too. But did he not speak of himself to the Philippians in a very different strain? Did he not declare, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me?"-And can. not every believer who steadily walks in the Spirit say the same thing? Who does not see the flaw of this argument? The disobedient, fallen, bewitched believers of Galatia, of whom St. Paul stood in doubt, could not but fulfil the lusts of the flesh, when they were led by the flesh. Neither hot nor cold, like the Laodiceans, they could neither be perfect Christians nor perfect worldlings, because they fully sided neither with the Spirit nor with the flesh or to use the Apostle's words, "they could not do the things that they would," through the opposition which the flesh made against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; neither of these principles being yet fully victorious in their halting, distracted hearts. Therefore must this be also the miserable case of all obedidient, faithful, established believers through all ages, all the world over? What has this Antinomian conclusion to do with the scriptural premises? When I assert that all those who have put out their knees cannot run a race swiftly, do I so much as intimate that no man can be a swift racer ?

2. It is as unscriptural to judge of the power and liberty of established believers, by the power and liberty of the Galatians; as it is unreasonable to judge of the liberty of a free nation, by the servitude of a halfenslaved people; or of the strength of a vigorous child, by the weakness of a halfformed embryo. I found this remark, 1. Upon Gal. v. 1, where the Apostle indirectly reproves his Judaizing, wrangling converts, for being fallen from the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and for being entangled again with the yoke of bondage: and

3. The sense which is commonly fixed upon the text produced by our opponents, is entirely overturned by the context: read the preceding verse, and you will find a glorious, though conditional, promise of the liberty which we plead for: "This I say, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the [sinful] lust of the flesh;" that is, far from harbouring either outward or inward sin, ye shall, with myself, and as many as are perfect, steadily keep your body under, and be in every thing spiritually minded, which is life and peace.

4. We should properly distinguish between the lawful and the sinful lusts or desires of the flesh. To desire to eat, to drink, to sleep, to marry, to rest, to shun pain at proper times and in a proper manner, is no sin: such lusts or desires are not contrary to the law of liberty. Our Lord himself properly indulged most of these harmless propensities of the flesh, without ceasing to be the immaculate Lamb of God. Hence it is, that our Church requires us in our baptism to renounce only "the sinful lusts of the flesh;" giving us a tacit leave lawfully to indulge its lawful appetites. I should be glad, for example, to recruit my strength by one hour's sleep, or by an ounce of food; as well as by a good night's rest, or a good meal; but the flesh harmlessly lusteth against the Spirit; so that in these, and in a thousand of such instances, "I cannot do the things that I would." But do I commit sin when I use my body according to its nature? Nay, if I were as strongly solicited unlawfully to indulge the lawful appetites of my flesh, as Christ was to turn stones into bread when he felt keen hunger in the wilderness, and if I as strongly resisted the temptation; would not such a temptation increase the glory of my victory, rather than the number of my sins? Is it right in our opponents to avail themselves of the vague, unfixed meaning of the words flesh and lust, to make the simple believe, that, so long as we have human flesh about us, and bodily lusts or appetites within us, our hearts must necessarily remain pregnant with sinful lusts, and we shall have innumerable lusts (as says an Imperfectionist whom I shall soon mention) swarming around our heart ?" Does not this doctrine put a worm at the root of Christian liberty, while it nourishes Anti

nomian freedom;-a freedom to sin, even to adultery and murder, without ceasing to be sinless and perfect in Christ?

5. Two lines after St. Paul's supposed plea for the necessary continuance of indwellingsin in believers, the Apostle begins a long enumeration of the works of the flesh, of which, says he, I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they [the fallen believers] who do such things, or admit in their hearts such lusts as hatred, variance, strife, or envying, "shall not inherit the kingdom of God:" whereas, they that are Christ's they [that are led by the Spirit of God for in St. Paul's account only such are Christ's i. e. properly belong to Christ's spiritual dispensation. See Rom. viii. 9.-14.] "have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts," Gal. v. 24. Now these spiritual believers can do all things through Christ and accordingly the Apostle observes, that far from bearing the fruit of the flesh, they bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance.-The whole cluster of inherent graces which makes up Christian perfection; and then he observes, that "The law is not against such (because they fulfil it :) For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," See Gal. v. 14,-23.

6. The sense which the Imperfectionists give to Gal. v. 17. is not only flatly contrary to the rest of the chapter, but to the end and design of all the epistle. What the Apostle has chiefly in view through the whole, is to reprove the Galatians for their carnality in following Judaizing teachers, and in bearing the fruits of the flesh, envy, variance, &c. insomuch that they were ready to bite and devour one another. Now, if when be had sharply reproved them, as persons who ended in the flesh, after having begun in the spirit, he had written Gal. v. 17. in the sense of our opponents; he would fairly have excused these bewitched men, ab. solutely defeated his reproof, and absurdly furnished them with an excellent plea to continue in their bad course of life. For if they could not fulfil the law of Christ, but must remain carnal and sold under indwelling-sin, had they not a right to answer the Apostle thus If neither we, whom thou callest bewitched Galatians, nor any spiritual believer can possibly do the things that we should and would do, because the flesh sinfully and unavoidably lusteth against the Spirit; why dost thou blame us for our carnality? Why dost thou take us to task rather than other believ

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and would do, because the flesh, which we cannot possibly part with before death, lus. teth against the Spirit? And is not absolute necessity the best excuse in the world?

We

7. Should Mr. Hill ask: What is then the genuine meaning of Galat ans, v. 17? reply that when we consider that verse in the light of the context, we do not doubt but the sense of it is fairly expressed in the following lines, "The flesh and the Spirit are two contrary principles." They that are in, or walk after the flesh, cannot please God." And ve are undoubtedly in the flesh, and walk after the flesh, while ye bite and devour one another. "This I say then, walk in the Spirit; be led by the Spirit; and ye shall not full the lasts of the flesh," as ye now do. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," and prevails in all carnal people; "and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh," and prevails in all spiritual people; and these two, far from nestling together, as Antinomian teachers make you believe, are contrary to each other. They are irreconcileable enemies: so that, as obedient, spiritual believers, while they are led by the Spirit, cannot do what they would do, if they were led by the flesh ye, bewitched, carnal disobedient Galatians, who are led by the flesh, cannot do what ye would do, if ye were led by the Spirit, and what ye have still some desire to do, so far as ye have not yet absolutely quenched the Spirit. Would ye then return to your liberty, return to your duty: change your guide: forsake the carnal mind: let Christ be formed in you: be led by the Spirit: so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ; and it shall no more condemn you, than the law of Moses binds you. For if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the curse of the law: ye are equally free from the bondage of the Mosaic law, and from the condemnation of the law of Christ." Gal. v. 16, 17, 18.

8. Should Mr. Hill say, "That by the flesh he understands not only the body, but also the natural desires, appetites, and aversions, which are necessarily excited in the soul, in consequence of its intimate union with the body: and that the body of sin nust needs live and die with the body which our spirit inhabits; because so long as we continue in the body, we are unavoidably tried by a variety of situations, passions, inclinations, aversions, and infirmities, which burden us, hinder us from doing and suffering all we could wish to do and to suffer, and occasion our doing or feeling what we should be glad in some respects not to do or feel."

I answer: it is excessively wrong to conclude, that all these burdens, infirmities, appetites, passions, and aversions, are those sinful workings of our corrupt nature, which are sometimes called the flesh.-You cannot continue a whole day in deep prostration of body and soul, nor perhaps one hour upon your knees: your stomach involuntarily rises

at the sight of some food which other persons esteem delicious: your strength fails in out ward works: your spirits are exhausted; you faint or sleep, when others are active and toil you need the spiritual and bodily cordials which others can administer: perhaps also you are afflicted with disagreeable sensations in the outward man, through the natural, necessary play of the various springs which belong to flesh and blood: your just grief vents itself in tears; your zeal for God is attended with a proper anger at sin: nay, misapplying what the Apostle says of the carnal man under the law, you may declare with great truth, the extensive good I would I do not; and the accidental evil I would not, that I do; 1 would convert every sinner, relieve every distressed object, and daily visit every sick bed in the kingdom, but I cannot do it. I would never try the patience of my friends, never stir up the envy of my rivals, never excite the malice of my enemies; but I cannot help doing this undesigned evil, as often as I strongly exert myself in the discharge of my duty.

Pharisees, the scorn of Herod, the fears of Pilate,-the rage of the Jewish mob? And when he prayed, that the bitter cup might pass from him if it were possible: did he not manifest a resigned desire to escape pain and shame? If every such desire is indwelling sin, or the flesh sinfully lusting against the Spirit, did he not go through the sinful conflict, as well as those whom we call perfect men in Christ? And consequently did he not fall at once from mediatorial, Adamic, and Christian perfection; indwelling sin being equally inconsistent with all these perfections ?-What true believer does not shudder at the bare supposition? And if our sinless Lord felt the weakness of the flesh harmlessly lusting against the willingness of the Spirit, according to his own doctrine, "The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak," is it not evident that the conflict we speak of (if the Spirit maintains its superior, victorious lusting against the flesh, and by that means steadily keeps the flesh in its proper place) is it not evident, I say, that this conflict is no more inconsistent with Christian perfection, than suffering, agonizing, fainting, crying, and dying, which were the lot of our sinless, perfect Saviour to the last?

If you say, “All these things or most of them, are quite inconsistent with the perfection you contend for." I ask: Upon this footing, was not our Lord himself imperfect? If I am not greatly mistaken, the precedDid his bodily strength never fail in agon- ing remarks prove: 1. That when our oppoizing prayer, or intense labour? Did his ani- nents pretend to demonstrate the necessary mal spirits always move with the same indwelling of sin in all believers from Gal, v. sprightliness? Do we not read of his sleep 17, they wretchedly tear the text from the ing in the ship, when his disciples wrestled context, to make it speak a language which with a tempestuous sea? Did he not fulfil St. Paul abhors:-2. That this text fairly the precept, "Be ye angry and sin not?" taken together with the context, and the deHad he not the troublesome sensations of sign of that whole epistle, is a proof, that grief at Lazarus's grave,-of hunger in the obedient, spiritual believers, can do what the wilderness,-of weariness at Jacob's well, bewitched Galatians could not do: that is, and of thirst upon the cross? If he was they can "crucify the flesh with all its affecmade "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and tions and lusts," and walk as perfect Christempted in all things as we are;" is it not tians, who utterly destroy the whole body of highly probable, that he was not an utter sin, and fulfil the law of Christ.-And 3. stranger to the other natural appetites, and That to produce Gal. v. against the doctrine uneasy sensations which are incident to flesh of Christian perfection, is full as absurd as and blood? Is it a sin to feel them? Is it to quote the Sermon upon the Mount in denot rather a virtue totally to deny them, or fence of Antinomian delusions.-I have dwelt not to gratify them out of the line of duty, or so long upon this head, because I have before not indulge them in an excessive manner me An Essay on Galatians v. 17, lately pub. that line? Again did not his holy flesh tes- lished by an ingenious divine, who takes it tify a natural, innocent abhorrence, to suffer for granted, that the Apostle contends in this ing? Did not his sacred body faint in the verse for the necessary indwelling of sin. garden? Were not his spirits so depressed, that he stood in need of the strengthening assistance of an angel? Did he do all the good he would? To suppose that he wished not the conversion of his friends and brethren, is to suppose him totally devoid of natural affection: But were they all converted? Did you never read, "Neither did his brethren believe in him and his friends went out to lay hold on him for they said, He is beside himself?" To conclude: did He not accidentally stir up the evil he would not, when he gave occasion to the envy of the

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Mr. Hill will probably say, "That he does not rest the doctrine of Christian imperfection so much upon the experience of the fallen Galatians, as upon that of St. Paul himself, who, in Romans vii. frankly acknowledges, that he was still a wretched, carnal man, sold under sin, and serving with the flesh the law of sin. Whence it follows, that it is high presumption in modern believers to as

The arguments by which the doctrine of the necessary indwelling of sin in all believers till death, is supported in that Essay, will be considered in Section XIV.

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