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THE

LAST CHECK

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ANTINOMIANIS M.

SECTION I.

The best way of opposing the Doctrines of Christian Imperfection and a Death Purgatory, is to place the Doctrine of Christian Perfection in a proper Light-Christian Perfection is the Maturity of a Believer's Grace under the Gospel of Christ.—It is absurd to suppose that this Perfection is sinless, if it be measured by our Creator's Law of paradisiacal Innocence and Obedience.-Established Believers fulfil our Redeemer's evangelical Law of Liberty. Whilst they fulfil it, they do not transgress it, that is, (evangelically speaking.) they do not sin.

MOST of the controversies, which arise between men who fear God, spring from the hurry with which some of them find fault with what they have not yet examined, and speak evil of what they do not understand. Why does Mr. Hill, at the head of the Calvinists, attack the doctrine of Christian Perfection which we contend for? Is it because he and they are sworn enemies to righteousness, and zealous protectors of iniquity? Not at all. The grand reason, next to their Calvinian prejudice, is their inattention to the question, and to the arguments by which our sentiments are supported. Notwithstanding the manner in

which that gentleman has treated me and my friends in his controversial heats, I still entertain so good an opinion of him as to think, that if he understood our doctrine, he would no more pour contempt upon it, than upon the oracles of God. I shall, therefore, endeavour to rectify his ideas of the glorious Christian Liberty which we press after. If producing light is the best method of opposing darkness, setting the doctrine of Christian Perfection in a proper point of view, will be the best means of opposing the doctrines of Christian Imperfection, and of a Death-purgatory. Begin we then by taking a view of our Jerusalem and her perfection: And when we shall have marked her bulwarks,' and cleared the ground between her towers and Mr. Hill's battery, we shall march up to it, and see whether his arguments have the solidity of brass, or only the showy appearance of wooden artillery, painted and mounted like brazen ordnance.

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION! Why should the harmless phrase offend us?-Perfection! Why should that lovely word frighten us? Is it not common and plain ? Did not Cicero speak intelligibly, when he called accomplished philosophers, PERFECTOS philosophos ; and an EXCELLENT orator, PERFECTUM oratorem? Did Ovid expose his reputation when he said that "Chirou' perfected Achilles in music," or "taught him to play on the lute to perfection?" And does Mr. Hill think it wrong to observe, that fruit grown to maturity is in its perfection? We, whom that gentleman calls Perfectionists, use the word† Perfection exactly in the same sense; giving that name to the Maturity of Grace peculiar to established believers under their respective dispensations; aud if this be an error, we are led into it by the Sacred Writers, who use the word Perfection as well as we.

* Phillyrides puerum cithara perfecit Achillem.

+ The word perfection comes from the Latin perficio, to perfect, to finish, to accomplish; it exactly answers to the words on, and TEλELO, generally used in the Old and New Testament. Nor can their derivatives be more literally and exactly rendered than by perfect and perfection. If our translators render sometimes the word Dn by

The word predestinate occurs but four times in all the scriptures, and the word Predestination not once; and yet Mr. Hill would justly exclaim against us, if we shewed our wit by calling for " a little Foundry [or Tabernacle] eye-salve," to help us to see the word Predestination once in all the Bible. Not so the word Perfection: It occurs, with all its derivatives, as frequently as most words in the scriptures, and not seldom in the very same sense in which we take it. Nevertheless, we do not lay an undue stress upon the expression; and if we thought that our condescension would answer any good end, would entirely give up that harmless and significant word. But, if it is expedient to retain the unscriptural word Trinity, because it is a kind of watchword by which we frequently discover the secret opposers of the mysterious distinction of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the Divine Unity; how much more proper is it, not to renounce the scriptural word Perfection, by which the dispirited spies, who bring an evil report upon the good land of holiness, are often detected?--Add to this, that the following declaration of our Lord does not permit us to renounce either the word or the thing: Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father. Now the words of my motto, 'Be ye perfect,' &c., being Christ's own words, we dare no more be ashamed of them, than we dare desire him to be ashamed of us in the great day. Thus much for the word perfection.

Again: We give the name of "Christian Perfectiou❞

upright and sincere, or by sincerity and integrity, it is because they know that these expressions, like the original word, admit of a great latitude. Thus Columel calls wood that has no rotten part, and is perfectly sound, lignum sincerum; and Horace says, that a sweet cask, which has no bad smell of any sort, is, vas sincerum. Thus also Cicero calls purity of diction, which is perfectly free from faults against grammar, integritas sermonis: Plautus says, that a pure, undefiled virgin, is filia integra. And our translators call the perfectly pure milk of God's word, the sincere milk of the word. (1 Peter ii. 2.) If therefore the words sincerity and integrity are taken in their full latitude, they convey the fullest meaning of on, and Teλeloîîs, that is, perfection.

to that maturity of grace and holiness, which established adult believers attain to under the Christian dispensation: And thus, we distinguish that maturity of grace, both from the ripeness of grace, which belongs to the dispensation of the Jews below us; and from the ripeness of glory, which belongs to departed saints above Hence it appears, that by "Christian Perfection" we mean nothing but the cluster and maturity of the graces, which compose the Christian character in the church militant.

us.

In other words, Christian Perfection is a spiritual constellation made up of these gracious stars, Perfect Repentance, Perfect Faith, Perfect Humility, Perfect Meekness, Perfect Self-denial, Perfect Resignation, Perfect Hope, Perfect Charity for our visible enemies, as well as for our earthly relations.:-And, above all. Perfect Love for our invisible God, through the explicit knowledge of our Mediator Jesus Christ. And as this last star is always accompanied by all the others, as Jupiter is by his satellites, we frequently use, as St. John, the phrase 'perfect love,' instead of the word Perfection; understanding by it the pure love of God, shed abroad in the hearts of established believers by the Holy Ghost, which is abundantly given them under the fulness of the Christian dispensation.

Should Mr. Hill ask if the Christian Perfection, which we contend for, is a sinless perfection, we reply: Sin is the transgression of a divine law, and man may be considered either as being under the Anti-evangelical, Christless, remediless law of our Creator; or, as being under the evangelical, mediatorial, remedying law of our Redeemer: And the question must be answered according to the nature of these two laws.

With respect to the FIRST, that is, the Adamic, Christless law of innocence and Paradisiacal Perfection, we utterly renounce the doctrine of sinless perfection, for three reasons :-(1.) We are conceived and born in a state of sinful degeneracy, whereby that law is already virtually broken.-(2.) Our mental and bodily powers are so en eebled, that we cannot help actually

breaking that law in numberless instances, even after our full conversion.-And (3.) When once we have broken that law, it considers us as transgressors for ever: Nor can it any more pronounce us sinless, than the rigorous law which condemns a man to be hanged for murder, can absolve a murderer, let his repentance and faith be ever so perfect. Therefore, I repeat it, with respect to the Christless law of paradisiacal obedience, we entirely disclaim sinless perfection; and, improperly speaking, we say with Luther, " In every good work the just man sinneth;" that is, he more or less transgresses the law of paradisiacal innocence, by not thinking so deeply, not speaking so gracefully, not acting so properly, not obeying so vigorously, as he would do if he were still endued with original perfection, and Paradisiacal powers. Nor do we, in the same sense, scruple to say with Bishop Latimer, "He [Christ] saved us, not that we should be without sin; that no sin should be left in our hearts: No; he saved us not For all manner of imperfections remain in us, yea, in the best of us: So that, if God should enter into judgment with us, [according to the Christless law given to Adam before the fall,] we should be damned. For there neither is nor was any man born into this world, who could say, I am clean from sin [I fulfil the Adamic law of innocence] except Jesus Christ:"-And in that sense, we have all reason to pray with David, 'Cleanse thou me from my secret faults;' for 'if thou wilt mark what is done amiss, Lord, who may abide it?'-If thou wilt judge us according to the law of Paradisiacal Perfection, what man living shall be justified in thy sight? But Christ has so completely fulfilled our Creator's Paradisiacal law of innocence, which allows neither of repentance nor of renewed obedience, that we shall not be judged by that law; but by a law adapted to our present state and circumstances, a milder law, called the law of Christ,' i. e., the Mediator's law, which is, like himself, 'full of evangelical grace and truth.'

So.

To the many arguments, which I have advanced in

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