Does a well-meant mistake defile the conscience ?You inadvertently encourage idleness and drunkenuess, by kindly relieving an idle drunken beggar, who imposes upon your charity by plausible lies: Is this loving error a sin ?-A blundering apothecary sends you arsenic for alum; you use it as alum, and poison your child; but are you a murderer, if you give the fatal dose in love?-Suppose the tempter had secretly mixed some of the forbidden fruit, with other fruits that Eve had lawfully gathered for use; would she have sinned if she had inadvertently eaten of it, and given a share to her husband?-After humbly confessing and deploring her undesigned error, her secret fauit, her accidental offence, her involuntary trespass; would she not have been as innocent as ever?-I go farther still, and ask, May not a man who holds many right opinions, be a perfect lover of the world? And by a parity of reason, may not a man, who holds many wrong opinions, be a perfect lover of God? Have not some Calvinists died with their hearts over flowing with perfect love, and their heads full of the notion, that God set his everlasting, absolute hatred upon myriads of men before the foundation of the world?-Nay, is it not even possible, that a man, whose heart is renewed in love, should through mistaken humility, or through weakness of understanding, oppose the name of Christian Perfection, when he desires, and perhaps enjoys the thing?

Once more: Does not St. Paul's rule hold in spirituals as well as in temporals?: It is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.' Does our Lord actually require more of believers than they can actually do through his grace? And when they do it to the best of their power, does he not see some perfection in their works, insignificant as those works may be ?" Remove this immense heap of stones," says an indulgent father to his children; "and be diligent according to your strength." While the eldest, a strong man, removes rocks, the youngest, a little child, is as cheerfully busy as any of the rest in

carrying sands and pebbles. Now, may not his childlike obedience be as excellent in its degree, and, of consequence, as acceptable to his parent, as the manly obedience of his eldest brother?-Nay, though he does next to nothing, may not his endeavours, if they are more cordial, excite a smile of superior approbation of his loving Father, who looks at the disposition of the heart, more than at the appearance of the work? Had the believers of Sardis cordially laid out all their talents, would our Lord have complained that he did not find their works perfect before God?' (Rev. iii. 2.) And was it not according to this rule of perfection, that Christ testified, the poor widow, who had given but two mites, had nevertheless cast more into the treasury, than all the rich, though they had cast in much: Because, our Lord himself being Judge, she had given all that she had?' Now could she give, or did God require more than her all? And when she thus heartily gave her all, did she not do (evangelically speaking) a perfect work, according to her dispensation and circumstances?

We flatter ourselves, that if these scriptural observations, and rational queries, do not remove Mr. Hill's prejudice, they will at least make way for a more candid perusal of the following pages.

SECTION III.

Several Objections raised against our Doctrine are solved merely by considering the Nature of Christian Perfection. It is absurd to say that all our Christian Perfection is in the Person of Christ,

I REPEAT it, if our pious opponents decry the doctrine. of Christian Perfection, it is chiefly through misapprehension; it being as natural for pious men to recommend exalted piety, as for covetous persons to extol great riches. And this msiapprehension fre

quently springs from their inattention to the nature of Christian Perfection. To prove it, I need only oppose our definition of Christian perfection to the OBJECTIONS which are most commonly raised against our doctrine. 1. "Your doctrine of Perfection leads to pride." -Impossible! if Christian Perfection is "perfect humility."

IF. "It exalts believers; but it is only to the state of the vain glorious Pharisee."-Impossible! If our Perfection is perfect humility," it makes us sink deeper into the state of the humble, justitied Publican,

III. "It fills men with the conceit of their own excellence, and makes them say to a weak brother, Stand by, I am holier than thou:"-Impossible again! We do not preach Pharisaic, but Christian Perfection, which consists in “perfect poverty of spirit," aud in that "perfect charity," which vaunteth not itself, honours all men, and bears with the infirmities of the weak!' IV. "It sets repentance aside."-Impossible! for it is "perfect repentance."

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V. "It will make us slight Christ."More and more improbable! How can "perfect faith" in Christ, make us slight Christ? Could it be more absurd to say, that the perfect love of God will make us despise God?

VI. "It will supersede the use of mortification and watchfulness; for, if sin be dead, what need have we to mortify it, and to watch against it?"

This objection has some plausibility; I shall therefore answer it in various ways.-(1.) If Adam, in his state of Paradisiacal Perfection, needed perfect watchfulness and perfect mortification, how much more do we need them who find the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' planted, not only in the midst of our gardens, but in the midst of our houses, markets, and churches? (2.) When we are delivered from sin, are we delivered from peccability and temptation? When the inward man of sin is dead, is the devil dead? Is the corruption that is in the world destroyed? And have we not still our five senses, and our appetite, to keep with

all diligence,' as well as our hearts,' that the tempter may not enter into us, or that we may not enter into his temptations?-Lastly, Jesus Christ, as Son of Mary, was a perfect man: But how was he kept so to the end? Was it not by keeping his mouth with a bridle, while the ungodly were in his sight,' and by guarding all his senses with a perfect assiduity, that the wicked one might not touch them to his hurt? And if Christ our Head kept his human perfection, only through watchfulness, and constant self-denial; is it not absurd to suppose, that his perfect members can keep their perfection, without treading in his steps?

VII. Another objection probably stands in Mr. Hill's way: It runs thus: "Your doctrine of Perfection makes it needless for perfect Christians to say the Lord's Prayer For if God vouchsafes to keep us this day without sin,' we shall have no need to pray at night, that God would forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.' "

We answer :-(1) Though a perfect Christian does trespass voluntarily, and break the law of love, yet he daily breaks the law of Adamic Perfection, through the imperfection of his bodily and mental powers: And he has frequently a deeper sense of these involuntary trespasses, than many weak believers have of their voluntary breaches of the moral law.-(2.) Although a perfect Christian has a witness, that his sins are now forgiven in the court of his conscience, yet he knows the terrors of the Lord:' He hastens to meet the awful day of God: He waits for the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the character of a righteous Judge: He keeps an eye to the awful tribunal, before which he must soon be justified or condemned by his words :' He is conscious that his final justification is not yet come; and therefore he would think himself a monster of stupidity and pride, if, with an eye to his absolution in the great day, he scrupled saying to the end of his life: Forgive us our trespasses.'--(3.) He is surrounded with sinners, who daily trespass against him,' and whom he is daily bound to forgive;' and his praying

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that he may be forgiven now, and in the great day, 'as heforgives others,' reminds him that he may forfeit his pardon, and binds him more and more to the performance of the important duty of forgiving his enemies. And (4.) His charity is so ardent that it melts him, as it were, into the common mass of mankind. Bowing himself, therefore, under all the enormous load of all the wilful trespasses which his fellow-mortals, and particularly his relatives and his brethren, daily commit against God, he says, with a fervour that imperfect Christians seldom feel, Forgive us our trespasses, &c. we are heartily sorry for our misdoings [my own and those of my fellow-sinners ;] the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burthen of them is intolerable." Nor do we doubt, but, when the spirit of mourning leads a numerous assembly of supplicants into the vale of humiliation, the person who puts the shoulder of faith most readily to the common burden of sin, and heaves most powerfully in order to roll the enormous load into the Redeemer's grave, is the most perfect penitent-the most exact observer of the apostolical precept, Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ;' and, of consequence, we do not scruple to say, that such person is the most perfect Christian in the whole assembly.

If Mr. Hill consider these answers, we doubt not but he will confess that his opposition to Christian Perfection chiefly springs from his inattention to our definition of it, which I once more sum up in these comprehensive lines of Mr. Wesley:

O let me gain Perfection's height !

O let me into nothing fall!
(As less than nothing in thy sight,)
And feel that Christ is all in all !

VIII. Our opponents produce another plausible objection, which runs thus:-" It is plain from your account of Christian Perfection, that adult believers are free from sin; their hearts being purified by perfect faith, and filled with perfect love. Now sin is that which VOL. IV.

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