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tion, the Promise of the Father. All things are possible with him; persevere therefore in seeking, and determine to find no rest in your spirit, till you know and feel, that you are thus born again from above, and God's Spirit witnesses with your spirits, that you are the children of God,"

What immediately follows is a demonstration that, at that time, Mr. Whitefield was no enemy to christian perfection, and thought that some had actually attained it or else nothing would have been more trißing than his concluding address to perfect christians. Take his own words, and remember that when he preached them, by the ardour of his zeal and the devotedness of his heart, he shewed himself a young man in Christ, able to trample under foot the most alluring baits of the flesh and of the world.

"Fourthly and lastly, [says he] I address myself to those, who have received the Holy Ghost in all its sanctifying graces, and are almost ripe for glory. Hail, happy saints: For your heaven is begun upon earth. You have already received the first fruits of the Spirit, and are patiently waiting till that blessed change come, when your harvest shall be complete. I see and admire you, though alas! at so great a distance from you. Your life, I know, is hid with Christ in God. You have comforts, you have meat to eat, which a sinful, carnal world, &c. knows nothing of. Christ's yoke is now become easy to you, and his burden light you have passed through the pangs of the New-Birth, and now rejoice that Christ Jesus is formed in your hearts. You know what it is to dwell in Christ, and Christ in you. Like Jacob's ladder, although your bodies are on earth, yet your souls and hearts are in heaven; and by your faith and constant recollection, like the blessed angels you do always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven. I need not then exhort you to press forward, &c. Rather I will exhort you in patience to possess your souls: yet a little while, and Jesus Christ will deliver you from the burden of the flesh, and an abundant entrance shall be administered unto you into the eternal joy, &c. of his heavenly kingdom." I have met with few descriptions of the perfect christian that please me better. I make but one objection to it. Mr. Whitefield

• At that time Mr, Whitefield was in orders, and had received the Spirit of Adoption. As a proof of it I appeal. (1) To the account of his conversion at Oxford before he was Ordained and (2) To these his own words," I can say, to the honour of rich, free, distinguishing grace, that I received the Spirit of Adoption before I had conversed with one man, or read a single book on the doctrine of free justification by the impu ted righteousness of Jesus Christ."-That is, before he had had any opportunity of being drawn from the simplicity of the scripture-gospel, into the Calvinian refinements. See his Works, Vol. IV. page 45.-Now, those christians, who leave babes and young men in Christ "at so great a distance from them," are the very persons whom we call Fathers in Christ, or perfect christians.

thought, that the believers, who "by constant recollection, like the blessed angels, always be hold the face of their Father," are so advanced in grace that they, "need not he exhorted to press forward." This is carrying the doctrine of perfection higher than Mr. Wesley ever did. For my part, were 1 to preach to a congregation of such "happy saints," I would not scruple taking this text, So run that ye may [eternally] obtain: nor would I forget to set before them the example of the perfect apostle, who said, This one thing I do, leaving the things that are behind and reaching forth, &c. I press towards the mark, &c. Had I been in Mr. Whitefield's case, I own, I would either have refused to join the imperfectionists, or I would have recanted my address to perfect christians.

So strong is the scriptural tide in favour of our doctrine, that it sometimes caries away the Rev. Mr. Romaine, himself. Nor can I confirm the wavering reader in his belief of the possibility of obtaining the glorious liberty which we contend for, better than by transcribing a fine exhortation of that great Minister, to what we call Christian Perfection, and what he calls, The Walk of Faith.

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"The new Covenant runs thus; I will put, says God, my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,' &c. The Lord here engages to take away the stony heart, and to give an heart of flesh, upon which he will write the ten commandments, &c. The love of God will open the contracted heart, enlarge the selfish, warm the cold, and bring liberality out of the covetous. the Holy Spirit teaches brotherly love, he overcomes all opposition to it, &c. he writes upon their hearts the two great commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets. The love of God, says the apostle to the Romans, is shed abroad in hearts by the Holy Ghost;' and to the Thessalonians, Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.' Thus he engages the soul to the holy Law, and inclines the inner man to love obedience. It ceases to be a yoke and a burden. How easy it is to do what one loves? If you dearly love any person, what a pleasure it is to serve him? What will not love put you upon doing or suffering, to oblige him? Let love rule in the heart to God and to man, his law will then become delightful, and obedience to it will be pleasantness. The soul will run; yea, inspired by love it will mount up with wings as eagles, in the way of God's commandments. Happy are the people that are in such a case.'-[Now such a case is what we call, The state of christian perfection, to the obtaining of which, Mr. Romaine excites his own soul by the following excellent exhortation.]

"This is the very tenor of the Covenant of Grace, which the Almighty Spirit has under

taken to fulfil." [If we mix faith with the promises, as Mr. Romaine himself will soon intimate] "And he cannot fail in his office. It is his crown and glory to make good his covenant-engagements. O trust him then, and put honour upon his faithfulness," [that is, if I mistake not, make good your own covenant-engagements.]" He has promised, to guide thee with his counsel, and to strengthen thee with his might, &c. What is within thee, or without thee to oppose thy walking in love with him, he will incline thee to resist, and he will enable thee to overcome. O what mayest thou not expect from such a divine friend, who is to abide with thee on purpose to keep thy heart right with God." [Query when the heart is kept full of indwelling sin, it is kept right with God?] "What cannot he do? what will he not do for thee? Such as is the love of the Father and of the Son, such is the love of the Holy Ghost; the same free, perfect, everlasting love. Read his promises of it. Meditate on them. Pray to him for increasing faith to mix with them; that he" [not sin]" dwelling in the temple of thy heart, thou mayest have fellowship there with the Father and with the Son. Whatever in tlice is pardoned through the Son's atonement, pray the holy Spirit to subdue, that it may not interrupt communion with thy God. And whatever grace is to be received out of the fulness of Jesus, in order to keep up, and to promote that communion, intreat the holy Spirit to give it thee with growing strength. But pray in faith, nothing wavering. So shall the love of God rule in thy heart. And then thou shalt be like the Sun, when it goeth forth in its might, shining clearer and clearer to the perfect day. O may thy course be like his, as free, as regular, and as comunicative of good, that thy daily petition may be answered, and that the will of thy Father may be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Walk of Faith. Vol. I, p. 227, &c. I do not produce this excellent quotation to insinuate, that the Rev. Mr. Romaine, is a perfectionist, but only to edify the reader, and to show, that the good, mistaken men, who are most prejudiced against our doctrine see it sometimes so true, and so excellent, that, forgetting their pleas for indwelling sin, they intimate that our daily petition may be answered; and that the will of our Father may be done on earth as it is in heaven; an expression this, which includes the height and depth of all christian perfection.

SECTION X

St. John is for christian perfection, and not for a death purgatory. 1 John i 8, &c. is explained agreeably to St. John's design, the context, and the vein of holy doctrine, which runs through the rest of the epistle. The Scripture declares that we are built

upon the foundation of the Apostles; Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone: and St. Paul being deservedly considered as the chief of the Apostles, and of consequence as the chief stone of the foundation, on which [next to the corner-stone] our holy religion is built; who can wonder at the pains which our opponents take, to represent this important part of our foundation as carnal, wretch» ed, and sold under sin? Does not every body see, that such a foundation becomes the Antinomian structure which is raised upon it? And is it not incumbent upon the opposers of Antiromianism, to uncover that wretched foundation by removing the heaps of dirt, in which St. Paul's spirituality is daily buried; and by this means, to rescue the holy apostle whom our adversaries endeavour to sell under sin as a carnal wretch? This rescue has been attempted in the four last Sections. If I have succeeded in this charitable attempt, I may proceed to vindicate the Holiness of St. John, who is the last apostle that Mr. Hill calls to the help of indwelling-sin, christian imperfection, and a death-purgatory.

Before 1 show how the loving apostle is pressed into a service, which is so contrary to his experience and to his doctrine of perfect love, I shall make a preliminary remark.— To take a Scripture out of the context, and to make it speak a language contrary to the obvious design of the sacred writer, is the way of butchering the body of Scriptural divinity. This conduct injures truth, as much as the Galatians would have injured themselves, if they had literally pulled their eyes out, and given them to St. Paul: an edifying passage thus displaced, may become as loathsome to a moral mind; as a good eyetorn out of its bleeding orb in a good face, is odious to a tender heart.

Among the passages which have been thus treated, none has suffered more violence than this: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," 1 John i. 8. That's enough for me." [says a hasty imperfectionist :] "St. John clearly pleads for the indwelling of sin in us during the term of life, and he is so set against those who profess deliverance from sin, and christian perfection in this life, that he does not scruple to represent them as liars, and selfdeceivers."

Our opponents suppose, that this argument is unanswerable. But to convince them that they are mistaken, we need only prove, that the sense which they so confidently give to the words of St. John is contrary (1) To his design (2) To the context; and (3) To the pure and strict doctrine, which he enforces in the rest of the epistle.

I. With respect to St. John's design, it evidently was to confirm believers, who, were in danger of being deceived by antinomian and

anti-christian seducers. When he wrote this epistle, the church began to be corrupted by men, who, under pretence of knowing the mysteries of the gospel better than the apostles, imposed upon the simple, Jewish fables, heathenish dreams, or vain, philosophic speculations; insinuating that their doctrinal peculiarities were the very marrow of the gospel. Many such arose at the time of the reformation, who introduced stoical dreams into protestantism, and whom Bishop Latimer, and others, steadily opposed under the name of Gospellers.

The doctrines of all these Gospellers centered in making Christ, indirectly at least, the minister of sin and in representing the preachers of practical, self-denying christi anity, as persons unacquainted with christian liberty. It does not indeed appear that the Gnosticks, or Knowing ones, [for so the an, cient Gospellers were called carried matters so far as openly to say, that believers might be God's dear children in the very commission of adultery and murder, or while they worshipped Milcom and Ashtaroth; but it is certain that they could already reconcile the verbal denial of Christ, fornication and idolatrous feasting, with true faith; directly or indirectly teaching and seducing Christ's servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols, Rev. ii. 20. At these Antinomians St. Peter, St. James and St. Jude levelled their epistles. St. Paul strongly cautioned Timothy, Titus, and the Ephesians against them. (See Ephes. iv. 14-v. 6.) And St. John wrote his first epistle to warn the believers who had not yet been seduced into their error a dreadful, though pleasing error this, which, by degrees, led some to deny Christ's law, and then his very name, hence the triumph of the spirit of antichrist. Now as these men insinuated, that believers could be righteous without doing righteousness; and as they supposed, that Christ's righteousness, or our own know ledge and faith, would supply the want of internal sanctification and external obedience; St. John maintains against them the necessity of that practical godliness which consists in not committing sin, in not transgressing the law in keeping the commandments, and in walking as Christ walked nay, he asserts that Christ's blood, through the faith which is our victory, purifies from all sin, and cleanses from all unrighteousness. To make him therefore plead for the necessary continuance of indwelling sin, or heart unrighteousness, till we go into a death-purgatory, is evidently to make him defeat his own design.

II. To be more convinced of it, we need only read the controverted text in connexion with the context; illustrating both by some notes in brackets.St. John opens his commission thus. [1st. Epistle, chap. i, 5,

6,7.] "This is the message which we have received of him, [Christ] and declare unto you, that God is light, [bright, transcendent purity] and in him is no darkness [no impurity] at all. If we [believers] say, that we have fellowship with him [that we are united to him by an actually living faith,] and walk in darkness, [in impurity, or sin,] we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, [if we live up to our christian light and do righteousness,] we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." [-For, “let no man deceive you : he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he, [Christ,] is righteous;

and in him is no sin," 1 John iii. 5, 7] So far we see no plea, either for sin, or for the Calvinian purgatory.

Should Mr. Hill reply, that, "When St. John says, The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin, the apostle does not mean all indwelling sin; because this is a sin, from which death alone can cleanse us." We demand a proof, and in the mean time we answer, that St. John, in the above-quoted passages, says, that he who does righteousness in the full sense of the word, is righteous, as Christ is righteous; observing, that in him (Christ) is no sin. So certain then, as there is no indwelling sin in Christ, there is no indwelling sin in a believer, who does righte ousness in the full sense of the word; for he is made perfect in love, and is cleansed from all sin. -Nor was St. John himself ashamed to profess this glorious liberty: for he said, Our love is made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he [Christ] is [perfect in love, and of consequence without sin :] so are we in this world, 1 John iv. 17. And the whole context shows, that the beloved apostle spake these great words of a likeness to Christ with respect to the perfect love, which fulfils the law, abolishes tormenting fear, and enables the believer to stand with boldness in the day of judgment, as being forgiven, and conformed to the image of God's Son.

If Mr. Hill urges, that "The blood of Christ powerfully applied by the Spirit, cleanses us indeed from the guilt, but not from the filthiness of sin; blood having a reference to justification and pardon, but not to sanctification and holiness:" We reply, that this argument is not only contrary to the preceding answer, but to the text, the context, and other plain scriptures.-(1) To the text, where our being cleansed from all sin is evidently suspended on our humble and faithful walk: "If ye walk in the light, as he is in the light, the blood of Christ cleanses us," &c. Now every novice in gospel-grace knows, that true Protestants do not suspend a sinner's justification on his walking in the light as God is in the light.-(2) It is contrary

to the contex for in the next verse but one, where St. John evidently distinguishes forgiveness and holiness, he peculiarly applies the word cleansing to the latter of these blessings, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, [by taking away our guilt:] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," [by taking away all the filth of indwelling sin.]-And (3) It is contrary to other places of Scripture, where Christ's blood is represented as having a reference to purification, as well as to forgiveness. God himself says, "Wash ye; make you clean; put away the evil of your doings; cease to do evil; learn to do well." The washing and cleansing here spoken of have undoubtedly a reference to the removal of the filth, as well as of the guilt of sin. Accordingly we read, that all those who "stand before the throne, have both washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." That is, They are justified by, and sanctified with his blood. Hence our church prays "that we may so eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed [i. e. made clean also] through his most precious blood." To rob Christ's blood of its sanctifying power, and to confine its efficacy to the atonement, is therefore an Antinomian mistake, by which our opponents greatly injure the Saviour, whom they pretend to exalt.

Should Mr. Hill assert, that, "When St. John says, If we walk in the light, &c. the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, the loving apostle's meaning is not, that the blood of Christ radically cleanses us; but only that it begins and carries on a cleansing from all sin, which cleansing will be completed in a death purgatory: We answer: (1) This assertion leaves Mr. Hill's doctrine open to all the above-mentioned difficulties.-(2) It overthrows the doctrine of the Protestants, who have always maintained, that nothing is absolutely necessary to eternal salvation, and of consequence to our perfect cleansing, but an obedient, sted fast faith, apprehending the full virtue of Christ's purifying blood, ac cording to Acts xv. 9. "God giving them the Holy Ghost, put no difference between them and us, purifying their hearts by faith :" --not by death.-(3) It is contrary to matter of fact; Enoch and Elijah having been translated into heaven, and therefore having been perfectly purified even in body, without going into the Calvinian purgatory.—But (4) What displeases us most in the evasive argument which I answer, is, that it pours the greatest contempt on Christ's blood, and puts the greatest cheat on weak believers, who sincerely want to be now made perfect in love, that they may now worthily magnify God's holy name.

An illustration will prove it. I suppose that Christ is now in England, doing as

to

many wonderful cures as he formerly did in Judea. My benevolent opponent runs the Salop Infirmary, and tells all the patients there, that the great Physician, the Son of God, has once more visited the earth; that he again heals all manner of sickness and diseases among the people, and cleanses from the most inveterate leprosy by a touch or a word. All the patients believe Mr. Hill; some hop to this wonderful Saviour, and others are carried to his footstool. They touch and rctouch him: he strokes them round again and again but not one of them is cured. The wounds of some are indeed skinned over for a time: but, it soon appears, that they still fester at the bottom, and that a painful core remains unextracted in every sore. The poor creatures complain to Mr. Hill," Did you not, Sir, assure us upon your honour, as a christian gentleman, that Christ heals all manner of diseases, and cleanses from all kinds of leprosies ?"-True, says Mr. Hill; but you must know, that these words do not mean, that he radically cures any disease, or cleanses from any leprosy: they only signify, that he begins to cure every disease, and continues to cleanse from all leprosies: but notwithstanding all his cures begun and continued, nobody is cured before death. So, my friends, you must bear your festering sores as well as you can, till death comes radically to cleanse and cure you from them all.-Instead of crying, Sweet grace! rich grace! and of clapping Mr. Hill for his evangelical message, the disappointed patients desire him to take them back to the Infirmary, saying, we have there a chance for a cure before death: but your great physician pronounces us incurable, unless death comes to the help of his art; and we think that any surgeon could do as much, if he did not do more. [See Section XII. Arg. 20.]

If Mr. Hill says, that I beat the air, and that the text which he quotes in his "Creed for Perfectionists," to shew that it is impossible to be cleansed from all sin before death, is not 1 John i. 7, but the next verse; I reply, that if St. John asserts in the 7th verse; that Christ's blood, powerfully applied by the spirit of faith cleanses us from all sin, that inspired writer cannot be so exceedingly inconsistent, as to contradict himself in the very next verse.

Should the reader ask: "What then can be St John's meaning in that verse, where he declares, that, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us?' How can these words agree with the doctrine of a perfect cleansing from all sin?"

We answer, that, St. John having given his first stroke to the Antinomian believers of his day, strikes by the bye a blow at Pharisaic professors. There were in St. John's

time, as there are in our own, numbers of men, who had never been properly convinced of sin, and who boasted, [as Paul once did.] that touching the righteousness of the law, they were blameless; they served God-they did their duty-they gave alms-they never did any body any harm-they thanked God, that they were not as other men ; but especially, that they were not like those mourners in Sion, who were no doubt very wicked, since they made so much ado about God's mercy, and a powerful application of the Redeemer's allcleansing blood. How proper then was it for St. John to inform his readers, that these whole hearted christians, these perfect phariwere no better than liars and self-deceivers; and that true christian righteousness is always attended by a genuine conviction of our native depravity, and by an humble acknowledgement of our actual transgressions.

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This being premised; it appears, that the text so dear to, and so mistaken by our oppoDents, has this fair, scriptural meaning: If we [followers of him, who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance] say we have no sin, [no native depravity from our first parents, and no actual sin, at least no such sin as deserves God's wrath; fancying we need not secure a particular application of Christ's atoning and purifying blood] we deceive ourselves, and the truth [of repentance and faith] is not in us."

That these words are levelled at the monstrous error of self-conceited, and self-perfected Pharisees, and not at the glorious liberty of the children of God, appears to us indu bitable from the following reasons:- -(1) The immediately-preceding verse strongly asserts this liberty.-(2) The verse immediately following secures it also, and cuts down the doctrine of our opponents; the apostle's meaning being evidently this :-" Though I write to you, that if we say, we are originally free from sin, and never did any harm, we deceive ourselves; yet, mistake me not I do not mean that we need continue under the guilt, or in the moral infection of any sin, original or actual: for if we penitently and believingly confess both, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," whether it be native or self-contracted, internal or external. Therefore if we have attained the glorious liberty of God's children, we need not, through voluntary humility, say, that we do nothing but sin. It will be sufficient, when we are cleansed from all unrighteousness, still to be deeply humbled for our present infirmites, and for our past sins; confessing both with godly sorrow and filial shame. For if we should say, we have not sinned," [note; St. John does not write, If we should say, we do not sin,] "we make him a liar, and the truth is not in us ; common sense

dictating, that if we have not sinned, we speak an untrath, when we profess that Christ has forgiven our sins." This appears to us the true meaning of 1 John i. 8. when it is fairly considered in the light of the context.

III. We humbly hope, that Mr. Hill himself will be of our sentiment, if he compares the verse in debate with the pure and strict doctrine, which St. John enforces throughout this epistle. In the second chapter he says, "We know that we know him, if we keep his commandments, &c. Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. He that abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked, &c. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light [where the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin] and there is none occasion of stumbling in him."

The same doctrine runs also through the next chapter. "Every one that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he (Christ) is pure." Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, &c. and ye know, that he was manifested to take away our sins [i. e. to destroy them root and branch] and in him is no sin." "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth, does not [properly] see him, neither know him :" "He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he [Christ] is righteous. He that committeth sin, [i. e. as appears by the context, he that transgresseth the law,] is of the devil: for the devil sinneth from the beginneth for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Whosoever is born of God, [Whosoever is made partaker of God's holiness, according to the perfection of the christian dispensation] doth not commit sin, [i. e. does not transgress the law ;] for his seed [the ingrafted word, made quick and powerful by the indwelling Spirit] remaineth in him, and [morally speaking] he cannot sin, because he is [thus] born of God.-For if ye know that he is righteous; ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him, and that he that doth not righteousness, he that committeth sin, or transgresseth the law, is, so far, of the devil; for the devil trangresseth the law, i. e. sinneth from the beginning.-In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.f Whosoever does not righteousness, [i. e. whosoever sinneth, taking the word in its evangelical meaning,] is not of God, 1 John iii. 10, 11.-ii. 29.

If Mr. Hill cries out, "Shocking! Who are those men that do not sin?" I reply, All those whom St. John speaks of, a few verses

This doctrine of St. John is perfectly agreeable to that of our Lord, who said, that Judas had a devil, because he gave place to the love of money; and who called Peter himself Satan, when he savoured the things of men in opposition to the things of God.

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