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Entire
Sanctification ABOUT ADAM CLARKE Adam Clarke's treatise on entire sanctification follows "Adam Clarke: Holiness Saint And Scholar." If you know little about Adam Clarke beyond the fact that he authored "Clarke's Commentary," you might enjoy reading the following sketch about him before reading his treatise on entire sanctification. ADAM CLARKE: HOLINESS SAINT AND SCHOLAR
The name of Adam Clarke is
synonymous with biblical scholarship and rightly so. His
Commentary and Critical Notes on the entire Bible was completed
in 1826 and it represented more than 30 years of intense
research and writing. Other scholars have written commentaries
on the whole Bible, but Clarke's is a thesaurus of biblical,
oriental, philosophical, and classical learning unequaled by any
other. When it is recalled that all this work was done while
Clarke was a busy, itinerant Wesleyan preacher who never had an
hour's secretarial help in his life, it, together with all his
other publications, indicates a prodigious literary achievement.
Clarke was a Wesleyan scholar
and an ardent, convinced expositor of scriptural holiness. No
appreciation of the holiness heritage can ignore Adam Clarke.
Following the Wesley brothers and John Fletcher, Clarke's is the
next name in that illustrious line of holiness preachers and
scholars from John Wesley to the present. It is altogether
fitting that we should highlight Adam Clarke's contribution to
the theology of scriptural holiness. Before looking at his
teaching in some detail, a brief sketch of his life and work is
necessary.
Adam Clarke was born in the
county of Londonderry, North Ireland, in 1760 and was converted
in 1779 through hearing a Methodist preacher. Three years later
he left home to attend Wesley's school in Kingswood, Bristol,
England. Five weeks later he was appointed to his first
preaching circuit and for the next 50 years he was a self-taught
Wesleyan preacher who, among other academic accomplishments,
made himself master of at least 10 languages, ancient and
modern.
He served on 24 Methodist
circuits in England and Ireland, worked for 3 years in the
Channel Islands, was three times president of the English
Methodist Conference and four times president of the Irish
Methodist Conference. He devoted hundreds of working hours to
the newly founded British and Foreign Bible Society and 10 years
of painstaking editing and collating of state papers. This
latter work was a colossal undertaking. It required the most
exact examination, deciphering, and classification of British
State Papers from 1131 to 1666. The research was carried on in
14 different locations, including the Tower of London, London's
Westminster Archives, and Cambridge University Library. In 1808
the University of Aberdeen conferred on Adam Clarke the honorary
degree of LL.D., the university's highest academic honor.
As well as his Commentary,
Clarke's publications ran to 22 volumes, including his Memorials
of the Wesley Family, Reflections on the Being and Attributes of
God, The Manners of the Ancient Israelites, 4 volumes of
sermons, 3 volumes of miscellanea titled Detached Pieces, a
volume on Christian Missions, A Concise View of the Succession
of Sacred Literature, and A Bibliographical Dictionary. Clarke's
literary output was phenomenal when it is recalled that he was a
full-time itinerant preacher.
A glance at the record of the
24 Methodist circuits he served between 1782 and 1832 shows that
his longest domicile in one place was four years, yet his moving
from place to place approximately every two years does not seem
to have interfered with his reading, writing, and publication.
He was elected a member of six of the most learned societies of
his day, including the Antiquarian Society, the Royal Asiatic
Society, and the Royal Irish Academy. In spite of all the
distinctions given to him, Clarke remained a loyal Wesleyan
preacher and a devout, humble believer. Learning I love,"
he once wrote, "learned men I prize; with the company of
the great and the good I am often delighted. But infinitely
above all these and all other possible enjoyments, I glory in
Christ--in me living and reigning and fitting me for His
heaven."
Clarke was a preacher of rare
power and gifts and, particularly in his latter years, he
preached to crowded churches. To his pulpit ministry he brought
all the warmth of his Celtic upbringing and all the vast
resources of his encyclopaedic learning. Essentially a textual
preacher, he made little formal preparation before he entered
the pulpit--a method that we lesser mortals should not emulate!
"I cannot make a sermon before I go into the pulpit,"
he confessed to his friend, Robert Carr Brackenbury,
"therefore, I am obliged to hang upon the arm and the
wisdom of the Lord. I read a great deal, write very little, but
strive to study." "I ... strive to study"--that
was the secret of Clarke's success both as a preacher and a
writer.
A veritable Briareus in his
many accomplishments, he explored every available avenue of
knowledge, especially the linguistic, the scientific, and the
historical. Advising a young Methodist preacher about his
studies, Clarke averred: "A Methodist preacher should know
everything. Partial knowledge on any branch of science or
business is better than total ignorance.... The old adage of
'Too many irons in the fire' contains an abominable lie. You
cannot have too many--poker, tongs, and all, keep them all
going." It was advice he followed himself before giving it
to others. Visiting Liverpool in the north of England in 1832,
he contracted the deadly Asiatic cholera and died from it at his
London home on August 26.
Adam Clarke was a
holiness preacher and scholar. He was enthusiastically committed
to Methodist doctrine and experience and particularly to
Wesley's understanding of Christian perfection. In a sermon
preached from Phil. 1:27-28 titled "Apostolic
Preacher," he explained Christian holiness:
"The whole design of God
was to restore man to his image, and raise him from the ruins of
his fall; in a word, to make him perfect; to blot out all his
sins, purify his soul, and fill him with all holiness, so that
no unholy temper, evil desire, or impure affection or passion
shall either lodge or have any being within him. This and this
only is true religion, or Christian perfection; and a less
salvation than this would be dishonourable to the sacrifice of
Christ and the operation of the Holy Ghost.... Call it by what
name we please, it must imply the pardon of all transgression
and the removal of the whole body of sin and death.... This,
then, is what I plead for, pray for, and heartily recommend to
all true believers, under the name of Christian
perfection."
Preaching on Eph. 3:14-21
Clarke interpreted the phrase "filled with all the fulness
of God" as descriptive of the experience of full salvation.
"To be filled with God is a great thing, to be filled with
the fulness of God is still greater; to be filled with all the
fulness of God is greatest of all. It is . . . to have the heart
emptied of, and cleansed from, all sin and defilement, and
filled with humility meekness, gentleness, goodness . . . and
love to Go and man."
Clarke knew that some
Christians were opposed to the Wesleyan doctrine of entire
sanctification because they think no man can be fully saved from
sin in this life.... They hold out death as the complete deliver
from all corruption and the final destroyer of sin as if were
revealed in every page of the Bible! Whereas there is not one
passage in the sacred volume that says any such thing! Were this
true, then death, far from being the last enemy, would be the
last and best friend, and the greatest of all deliverers.... It
is the blood of Jesus alone that cleanseth from all
unrighteousness."
Another familiar argument
against Christian perfection was the assertion that indwelling
sin humbles believers and keeps them penitent. Clarke replied:
"Pride is of the essence of sin . . . and the root whence
all moral obliquity flows. How then can pride humble us? . . .
The heart from which it [pride] is cast out has the humility,
meekness and gentleness of Christ implanted in its stead."
To the further argument that a
Christian is surely humbled by the sense of indwelling sin,
Clarke replied: "I grant that they who see and feel and
deplore their indwelling sin, are humbled. But is it the sin
that humbles? No. It is the grace of God that shows and condemns
the sin that humbles us.... We are never humbled under a sense
of indwelling sin till the Spirit of God drags it to the light
and shows us not only its horrid deformity, but its hostility to
God; and He manifests it that He may take it away."
Preaching some 30 years after
Wesley died, Clarke saw this glorious doctrine exemplified by a
host of professing Methodists. Replying to the objection that
this teaching produced self-righteousness in its professors,
Clarke testified: "No person that acts so has ever received
this grace. He is either a hypocrite or a self-deceiver. Those
who have received it . . . love God with all their heart, they
love even their enemies.... In the splendor of God's holiness
they feel themselves absorbed.... It has been no small mercy to
me that in the course of my religious life, I have met with many
persons who professed that the blood of Christ had saved them
from all sin, and whose profession was maintained by an
immaculate life; but I never knew one of them that was not of
the spirit above described. They were men of the strongest
faith, the purest love, the holiest affections, the most
obedient lives and the most useful in society."
Adam Clarke wrote and preached
and exegeted the doctrine of entire sanctification with all his
command of scripture, linguistic expertise, and wide theological
reading, but there is one characteristic of his presentation
that deserves more attention. He not only believed it was a
scriptural doctrine and that it was theologically sound--he
enforced it and explained it and defended it with all the
passion of an evangelist. Whenever he touched the subject, he
had as his dominant concern not only that Christians would
believe it and be persuaded of its veracity, but that they might
personally claim the experience, enter into it, live it, enjoy
it, and testify to it.
"If men would but spend as
much time in fervently calling upon God (i.e. to fully sanctify
them) as they spend in decrying this doctrine, what a glorious
state of the church should we soon witness! . . . This moment we
may be emptied of sin, filled with holiness and become truly
happy.... The perfection of the gospel system is not that it
makes allowance for sin, but that it makes an atonement for it,
not that it tolerates sin, but that it destroys it.... Let all
those who retain the apostolic doctrine . . . press every
believer to go on to perfection, and expect to be saved, while
here below, into the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of
Jesus.... Art thou weary of that carnal mind which is enmity to
God? Canst thou be happy whilst thou art unholy? Arise, then,
and be baptized with a greater effusion of the Holy Ghost....
Reader, it is the birthright of every child of God to be
cleansed from all sin, to keep himself unspotted from the world,
and so to live as never more to offend his Maker. All things are
possible to him that believeth, because all things are possible
to the infinitely meritorious blood and energetic Spirit of the
Lord Jesus."
It is surely not out of place
to note that the doctrine that Adam Clarke advocated so
fervently found rich expression in his own life. Henry Moore,
close confidant of both John Wesley and Adam Clarke, said of the
latter: "Our Connection, I believe, never knew a more
blameless life than that of Dr. Clarke.''
In view of Clarke's clear and
enthusiastic exposition of Christian perfection, it is not a
little surprising that the most serious criticism of his
teaching has come from the "holiness movement." Clarke
emphasized almost exclusively the instantaneous phase of
sanctification and quite neglected the growth phase. "In no
part of the scriptures are we directed to seek holiness gradatim.
We are to come to God as well for an instantaneous and complete
purification from all sin as for an instantaneous pardon.
Neither the gradatim pardon or the seriatim purification exists
in the Bible."
Clarke's teaching is further
described as throwing "off center" John Wesley's
"theological balance." But this criticism is quite
misleading. It quotes only one brief passage from the chapter
titled "Entire Sanctification" in Samuel Dunn's
anthology of Clarke's teaching, titled Christian Theology. That
chapter is a compilation from a number of Clarke's writings on
Christian holiness, and the full text of the originals needs to
be studied before such a sweeping judgment is made on three
sentences. In the given extract Clarke is speaking exclusively
of entering into the blessing, a grace as instantaneous as
justification. Wesley taught this identical truth and to say
that Clarke's reiteration of it jeopardized the Wesleyan
"theological balance" is quite wide of the mark. And
why not quote the very next sentence from Clarke? "It is
when the soul is purified from all sin that it can properly grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.'' And
why ignore an earlier passage? "He who continues to
believe, love and obey will grow in grace and continually
increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The life of a
Christian is a growth.''
Clarke's teaching on entire
sanctification is thoroughly Wesleyan; in fact Clarke more
nearly follows John Wesley here than any of his contemporary,
and later, Methodist theologians--John Fletcher, Richard Watson,
W. B. Pope, etc.. Clarke argues, as Wesley did, that in a moment
the believer's heart may be cleansed from all sin and filled
with God's fullness. Following this crisis of grace there is
continuous growth in the entirely sanctified life. This is what
authentic Wesleyanism has always taught. Those who want to
criticize Clarke here really must go back to the original full
text of his writings rather than passing premature judgment on
isolated extracts. Far from throwing Wesley's teaching "off
center," Clarke reinforced, reemphasized, and revitalized
Wesley's "grand depositum"--and for that reason, and
others, Adam Clarke inspires holiness preachers today.
Source: "The Preacher's
Magazine," by Herbert McGonigle Professor of Church
History, British Isles Nazarene College, Manchester, England
ENTIRE
SANCTIFICATION The word "sanctify"
has two meanings. 1. It signifies to consecrate, to separate
from earth and common use, and to devote or dedicate to God and
his service. 2. It signifies to make holy or pure.
Many talk much, and indeed
well, of what Christ has done for us: but how little is spoken
of what he is to do in us! and yet all that he has done for us
is in reference to what he is to do in us. He was incarnated,
suffered, died, and rose again from the dead; ascended to
heaven, and there appears in the presence of God for us. These
were all saving, atoning, and mediating acts for us; that he
might reconcile us to God; that he might blot out our sin; that
he might purge our consciences from dead works; that he might
bind the strong man armed --take away the armor in which he
trusted,, wash the polluted heart, destroy every foul and
abominable desire, all tormenting and unholy tempers; that he
might make the heart his throne, fill the soul with his light,
power, and life; and, in a word, "destroy the works of the
devil." These are done in us; without which we cannot be
saved unto eternal lie. But these acts done in us are consequent
on the acts done for us: for had he not been incarnated,
suffered, and died in our stead, we could not receive either
pardon or holiness; and did he not cleanse and purify our
hearts, we could not enter into the place where all is purity:
for the beatific vision is given to them only who are purified
from all unrighteousness: for it is written, "Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Nothing is
purified by death;--nothing in the grave; nothing in heaven. The
living stones of the temple, like those of that at Jerusalem,
are hewn, squared, and cut here, in the church militant, to
prepare them to enter into the composition of the church
triumphant.
This perfection is the
restoration of man to the state of holiness from which he fell,
by creating him anew in Christ Jesus, and restoring to him that
image and likeness of God which he has lost. A higher meaning
than this it cannot have; a lower meaning it must not have. God
made man in that degree of perfection which was pleasing to his
own infinite wisdom and goodness. Sin defaced this divine image;
Jesus came to restore it. Sin must have no triumph; and the
Redeemer of mankind must have his glory. But if man be not
perfectly saved from all sin, sin does triumph, and Satan exult,
because they have done a mischief that Christ either cannot or
will not remove. To say he cannot, would be shocking blasphemy
against the infinite power and dignity of the great Creator; to
say he will not, would be equally such against the infinite
benevolence and holiness of his nature. All sin, whether in
power, guilt, or defilement is the work of the devil; and he,
Jesus, came to destroy the work of the devil; and as all
unrighteousness is sin, so his blood cleanseth from all sin,
because it cleanseth from all unrighteousness.
Many stagger at the term
perfection in Christianity; because they think that what is
implied in it is inconsistent with a state of probation, and
savors of pride and presumption: but we must take good heed how
we stagger at any word of God; and much more how we deny or
fritter away the meaning of any of His sayings, lest he reprove
us, and we be found liars before him. But it may be that the
term is rejected because it is not understood. Let us examine
its import.
The word
"perfection," in reference to any person or thing
signifies that such person or thing is complete or finished;
that it has nothing redundant, and is in nothing defective. And
hence that observation of a learned civilian is at once both
correct and illustrative, namely, "We count those things
perfect which want nothing requisite for the end whereto they
were instituted." And to be perfect often signifies
"to be blameless, clear, irreproachable;" and
according to the above definition of Hooker, a man may be said
to be perfect who answers the end for which God made him; and as
God requires every man to love him with all his heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself; then he is a
perfect man that does so; he answers the end for which God made
him; and this is more evident from the nature of that love which
fills his heart: for as love is the principle of obedience, so
he that loves his God with all his powers, will obey him with
all his powers; and he who loves his neighbor as himself will
not only do no injury to him, but, on the contrary, labor to
promote his best interests. Why the doctrine which enjoins such
a state of perfection as this, should be dreaded, ridiculed, or
despised, is a most strange thing; and the opposition to it can
only be from that carnal mind that is enmity to God; "That
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
And had I no other proof that man is fallen from God, his
opposition to Christian holiness would be to me sufficient.
The whole design of God was to
restore man to his image, and raise him from the ruins of his
fall; in a word, to make him perfect; to blot out all his sins,
purify his soul, and fill him with holiness; so that no unholy
temper, evil desire, or impure affection or passion shall either
lodge or have any being within him; this and this only is true
religion or Christian perfection; and a less salvation than this
would be dishonorable to the sacrifice of Christ, and the
operation of the Holy Ghost; and would be as unworthy of the
appellation of Christianity," as it would be of that of
"holiness or perfection." They who ridicule this are
scoffers at the word of God; many of them totally irreligious
men, sitting in the seat of the scornful. They who deny it, deny
the whole scope and design of divine revelation and the mission
of Jesus Christ. And they who preach the opposite doctrine are
either speculative Antinomians, or pleaders for Baal.
When St. Paul says he
"warns every man, and teaches every man in all wisdom, that
he may present every man PERFECT in Christ Jesus," he must
mean something. What then is this something? It must mean
"that holiness without which none shall see the Lord."
Call it by what name we please, it must imply the pardon of all
transgression, and the removal of the whole body of sin and
death; for this must take place before we can be like him, and
see him as he is, in the effulgence of his own glory. This
fitness, then, to appear before God, and thorough preparation
for eternal glory, is what I plead for, pray for, and heartily
recommend to all true believer, under the name of Christian
perfection. Had I a better name, one more energetic, one with a
greater plenitude of meaning, one more worthy of the efficacy of
the blood that bought our peace, and cleanseth from all
unrighteousness, I would gladly adopt and use it. Even the word
"perfection" has, in some relations, so many
qualifications and abatements that cannot comport with that full
and glorious salvation recommended in the gospel, and bought and
sealed by the blood of the cross, that I would gladly lay it by,
and employ a word more positive and unequivocal in its meaning,
and more worthy of the merit of the infinite atonement of
Christ, and of the energy of his almighty Spirit; but there is
none in our language; which I deplore as an inconvenience and a
loss.
Why then are there so many,
even among sincere and godly ministers and people, who are so
much opposed to the term, and so much alarmed at the profession?
I answer, Because they think no man can be fully saved from sin
in this life. I ask, where is this in unequivocal words, written
in the New Testament? Where, in that book is it intimated that
sin is not wholly destroyed till death takes place, and the soul
and the body are separated? Nowhere. In the popish baseless
doctrine of purgatory, this doctrine, not with more rational
consequences, is held: this doctrine allows that, so inveterate
is sin, it cannot be wholly destroyed even in death; and that a
penal fire, in a middle state between heaven and hell, is
necessary to atone for that which the blood of Christ had not
cancelled; and to purge from that which the energy of the
almighty Spirit had not cleansed before death.
Even papists could not see that
a moral evil was detained in the soul through its physical
connection with the body; and that it required the dissolution
of this physical connection before the moral contagion could be
removed. Protestants, who profess, and most certainly possess, a
better faith, are they alone that maintain the deathbed
purgatory; and how positively do they hold out death as the
complete deliverer from all corruption, and the final destroyer
of sin, as if it were revealed in every page of the Bible!
Whereas, there is not one passage in the sacred volume that says
any such thing. Were this true, then death, far from being the
last enemy, would be the last and best friend, and the greatest
of all deliverers: for if the last remains of all the indwelling
sin of all believers is to be destroyed by death, (and a fearful
mass this will make,) then death, that removes it, must be the
highest benefactor of mankind. The truth is, he is neither the
cause nor the means of its destruction. It is the blood of Jesus
alone that cleanseth from all unrighteousness.
It is supposed that indwelling
sin is useful even to true believers, because it humbles them
and keeps them low in their own estimation. A little examination
will show that this is contrary to the fact. It is generally, if
not universally allowed that pride is of the essence of sin, if
not its very essence; and the root whence all moral obliquity
flows. How then can pride humble us? Is not this absurd? Where
is there a sincere Christian, be his creed what it may, that
does not deplore his proud, rebellious, and unsubdued heart and
will, as the cause of all his wretchedness; the thing that mars
his best sacrifices, and prevents his communion with God? How
often do such people say or sing, both in their public and
private devotions,--
"But pride, that busy sin, Were there no pride, there
would be no sin; and the heart from which it is cast out has the
humility, meekness, and gentleness of Christ implanted in its
stead.
But still it is alleged, as an
indubitable fact, that "a man is humbled under a sense of
indwelling sin." I grant that they who see and feel, and
deplore their indwelling sin, are humbled: but is it the sin
that humbles? No. It is the grace of God, that shows and
condemns the sin that humbles us. Neither the devil nor his work
will ever show themselves. Pride works frequently under a dense
mask, and will often assume the garb of humility. How true is
that saying, and of how many is it the language!
"Proud I am my wants to
see, And to conceal his working,
even Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light! It
appears then that we attribute this boasted humiliation to a
wrong cause. We never are humbled under a sense of indwelling
sin till the Spirit of God drags it to the light, and shows us,
not only its horrid deformity, but its hostility to God; and he
manifests it, that he may take it away: but a false opinion
causes men to hug the monster, and to contemplate their chains
with complacency!
It has been objected to this
perfection, this perfect work of God in the soul, that "the
greater sense we have of our own sinfulness, the more will
Christ be exalted in the eye of the soul: for, if the thing were
possible that a man might be cleansed from all sin in this life,
he would feel no need of a Saviour; Christ would be undervalued
by him as no longer needing his saving power." This
objection mistakes the whole state of the case. How is Christ
exalted in the view of the soul? How is it that he becomes
precious to us? Is it not from a sense of what he has done for
us, and what he has done in us? Did any man ever love God till
he had felt that God loved him? Do we not "love him because
he first loved us?" Is it the name JESUS that is precious
to us? or JESUS the Saviour saving us from our sins? Is all our
confidence placed in him because of some one saving act? or,
because of his continual operation as the Saviour? Can any
effect subsist without its cause? Must not the cause continue to
operate in order to maintain the effect? Do we value a good
cause more for the instantaneous production of a good and
important effect, than we do for its continual energy, exerted
to maintain that good and important effect? All these questions
can be answered by a child. What is it that cleanseth the soul
and destroys sin? Is it not the mighty power of the grace of
God? What is it that keeps the soul clean? Is it not the same
power dwelling in us? No more can an effect subsist without its
cause, than a sanctified soul abide in holiness without the
indwelling Sanctifier. When Christ casts out the strong-armed
man, he takes away that armor in which he trusted, he spoils his
goods, he cleanses and enters into the house, so that the heart
becomes the habitation of God through the Spirit. Can then a man
undervalue that Christ who not only blotted out his iniquity,
but cleansed his soul from all sin; and whose presence and
inward mighty working constitute all his holiness and all his
happiness? Impossible! Jesus was never so highly valued, so
intensely loved, so affectionately obeyed, as now. The great
Saviour has not his highest glory from his atoning and redeeming
acts, but from the manifestation of his saving power.
"But the persons who
profess to have been made thus perfect are proud and
supercilious, and their whole conduct says to their neighbor,
'Stand by, I am holier than thou.' " No person that acts so
has ever received this grace. He is either a hypocrite or a
self-deceiver. Those who have received it are full of meekness,
gentleness, and long-suffering: they love God with all their
hearts--they love even their enemies; love the whole human
family, and are servants of all. They know they have nothing but
what they have received. In the splendor of God's holiness they
feel themselves absorbed. They have neither light, power, love,
nor happiness, but from their indwelling Saviour. Their
holiness, though it fills the soul, yet is only a drop from the
infinite ocean. The flame of their love, though it penetrate
their whole being, is only a spark from the incomprehensible Sun
of righteousness. In a spirit and in a way which none but
themselves can fully comprehend and feel, they can say or
sing,--
"I loathe myself when God
I see, It has been no small mercy to
me, that, in the course of my religious life, I have met with
many persons who professed that the blood of Christ had saved
them from all sin, and whose profession was maintained by an
immaculate life; but I never knew one of them that was not of
the spirit above described. They were men of the strongest
faith, the purest love, the holiest affections, the most
obedient lives, and the most useful in society. I have seen such
walking with God for many years: and as I had the privilege of
observing their walk in life, so have I been privileged with
their testimony at death, when their sun appeared to grow
broader and brighter at its setting; and, though they came
through great tribulation, they found that their robes were
washed and made white through the blood of the Lamb. They fully
witnessed the grand effects which in this life flow from
justification, adoption, and sanctification; namely, assurance
of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost,
increase of grace, and perseverance in the same to the end of
their lives. O God! let my death be like that of these righteous
I and let my end be like theirs! Amen.
It is scarcely worth mentioning
another objection that has been started by the ignorant, the
worthless, and the wicked. "The people that profess this,
leave Christ out of the question; they either think that they
have purified their own hearts, or that they have gained their
pretended perfection by their own merits." Nothing can be
more false than this calumny. I know that people well in whose
creed the doctrine of "salvation from all sin in this life
" is a prominent article. But that people hold most
conscientiously that all our salvation, from the first dawn of
light in the soul to its entry into the kingdom of glory, is all
by and through Christ. He alone convinces the soul of sin,
justifies the ungodly, sanctifies the unholy, preserves in this
state of salvation, and brings to everlasting blessedness. No
soul ever was or can be saved but through his agony and bloody
sweat, his cross and passion, his death and burial, his glorious
resurrection and ascension, and continued intercession at the
right hand of God.
If men would but spend as much
time in fervently calling upon God to cleanse by the blood that
which He has not cleansed, as they spend in decrying this
doctrine, what a glorious state of the church should we soon
witness! Instead of compounding with iniquity, and tormenting
their minds to find out with how little grace they may be saved,
they would renounce the devil and all his works, and be
determined never to rest till they had found that He had bruised
him under their feet, and that the blood of Christ had cleansed
them from all unrighteousness. Why is it that men will not try
how far God will save them? nor leave off praying and believing
for more and more, till they find that God has held his hand?
When they find that their agonizing faith and prayer receive no
farther answer, then, and not till then, they may conclude that
God will be no farther gracious, and that He will not save to
the uttermost them who come to him through Christ Jesus.
But it is farther objected,
that even St. Paul himself denies this doctrine of perfection,
disclaiming it in reference to himself: "Not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow
after," Phil. iii. 12. This place is mistaken: the apostle
is not speaking of his restoration to the image of God; but to
completing his ministerial course, and receiving the crown of
martyrdom; as I have fully shown on my notes on this place, and
to which I must beg to refer the reader. There is another point
that has been produced, at least indirectly, in the form of an
objection to this doctrine: "Where are those adult, those
perfect Christians? We know none such; but we have heard that
some persons professing those extraordinary degrees of holiness
have become scandalous in their lives."
When a question of this kind is
asked by one who fears God, and earnestly desires his salvation,
and only wishes to have full evidence that the thing is
attainable, that he may shake himself from the dust and arise
and go out, and possess the good land--it deserves to be
seriously answered. To such I would say, There may be several,
even in the circle of your own religious acquaintance, whose
evil tempers and unholy affections God has destroyed; and having
filled them with is own holiness, they are enabled to love Him
with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their
neighbor as themselves. But such make no public professions:
their conduct, their spirit, the whole tenor of their life, is
their testimony. Again: there may be none such among your
religious acquaintance, because they do not know their
privilege, or they unfortunately sit under a ministry where the
doctrine is decried; and in such congregations and churches
holiness never abounds; men are too apt to be slothful, and
unfaithful to the grace they have received; they need not their
minister's exhortations to beware of looking for or expecting a
heart purified from all unrighteousness; striving or agonizing
to "enter in at the strait gate" is not pleasant work
to flesh and blood; and they are glad to have anything to
countenance their spiritual indolence; and such ministers have
always a powerful coadjutor; the father of lies, and the spirit
of error will work in the unrenewed heart, filling it with
darkness, and prejudice, and unbelief. No wonder, then, that in
such places, and under such a ministry there is no man that can
be "presented perfect in Christ Jesus." But wherever
the trumpet gives a certain sound, and the people go forth to
battle, headed by the Captain of their salvation, there the foe
is routed, and the genuine believers brought into the liberty of
the children of God.
As to some having professed to
have received this salvation, and afterward become scandalous in
their lives (though in all my long ministerial labors, and
extensive religious acquaintance, I never found but one
example), I would just observe that they might possibly have
been deceived; thought they had what they had not; or they might
have become unfaithful to that grace and lost it; and this is
possible through the whole range of a state of probation. There
have been angels who kept not their first estate; and we all
know, to our cost, that he who was the head and fountain of the
whole human family, who was made in the image and likeness of
God, sinned against God, and fell from that state. And so may
any of his descendants fall from any degree of the grace of God
while in their state of probation; and any man and every man
must fall, whenever he or they cease to watch unto prayer, and
cease to be "workers together with God." Faith must
ever be kept in lively exercise, working by love; and that love
is only safe when found exerting its energies in the path of
obedience. An objection of this kind against the doctrine of
Christian perfection will apply as forcibly against the whole
revelation of God as it can do against one of the doctrines;
because that revelation brings the account of the defection of
angels and of the fall of man. The truth is, no doctrine of God
stands upon the knowledge experience, faithfulness, or
unfaithfulness of man; it stands on the veracity of God who gave
it. If there were not a man to be found who was justified freely
through the redemption that is by Jesus; yet the doctrine of
"justification by faith" is true; for it is a doctrine
that stands on the truth of God. And suppose not one could be
found in all the churches of Christ whose heart was purified
from all unrighteousness, and who loved God and man with all his
regenerated powers, yet the doctrine of Christian perfection
would still be true; for Christ was manifested that he might
destroy the works of the devil; and his blood cleanseth from all
unrighteousness. And suppose every man be a liar, God is true.
It is not the profession of a
doctrine that establishes its truth; it is the truth of God,
from which it has proceeded. Man's experience may illustrate it;
but it is God's truth that confirms it.
In all cases of this nature, we
must forever cease from man, implicitly credit God's testimony,
and look to him in and through whom all the promises of God are
yea and amen.
To be filled with God is a
great thing; to be filled with the fulness of God is still
greater; to be filled with all the fulness of God is greatest of
all. This utterly bewilders the sense and confounds the
understanding, by leading at once to consider the immensity of
God, the infinitude of His attributes, and the absolute
perfection of each! But there must be a sense in which even this
wonderful petition was understood by the apostle, and may be
comprehended by us. Most people, in quoting these words,
endeavor to correct or explain the apostle by adding the word
communicable. But this is as idle as it is useless and
impertinent. Reason surely tells us that St. Paul would not pray
that they should be filled with what could not be communicated.
The apostle certainly meant what he said, and would be
understood in his own meaning; and we may soon see what this
meaning is.
By the "fulness of
God," we are to understand all the gifts and graces which
he has promised to bestow on man in order to his full salvation
here, and his being fully prepared for the enjoyment of glory
hereafter. To be filled with all the fulness of God is to have
the heart emptied of and cleansed from all sin and defilement,
and filled with humility, meekness, gentleness, goodness,
justice, holiness, mercy, and truth, and love to God and man.
And that this implies a thorough emptying of the soul of every
thing that is not of God, and leads not to him, is evident from
this, that what God fills, neither sin nor Satan can fill, nor
in any wise occupy; for, if a vessel be filled with one fluid or
substance, not a drop or particle of any other kind can enter
it, without displacing the same quantum of the original matter
as that which is afterward introduced. God cannot be said to
fill the whole soul while any place, part, passion, or faculty
is filled, or less or more occupied, by sin or Satan: and as
neither sin nor Satan can be where God fills and occupies the
whole, so the terms of the prayer state that Satan shall neither
have any dominion over that soul nor being in it. A fulness of
humility precludes all pride; of meekness, precludes anger; of
gentleness, all ferocity; of goodness, all evil; of justice, all
injustice; of holiness, all sin; of mercy, all unkindness and
revenge; of truth, all falsity and dissimulation; and where God
is loved with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, there is
no room for enmity or hatred to him, or to any thing connected
with him; so, where a man loves his neighbor as himself, no ill
shall be worked to that neighbor; but, on the contrary, every
kind affection will exist toward him; and every kind action, so
far as power and circumstances can permit, will be done to him.
Thus the being filled with
God's fulness will produce constant, pious, and affectionate
obedience to him, and unvarying benevolence towards one's
neighbor; that is, any man, any and every human being. Such a
man is saved from all sin; the law is fulfilled in him; and he
ever possesses and acts under the influence of that love to God
and man which is the fulfilling of the law. It is impossible,
with any Scriptural or rational consistency, to understand these
word in any lower sense; but how much more they imply, (and more
they do imply,) who can tell? Many preachers, and multitudes of
professing people, are studious to find out how many
imperfections and infidelities, and how much inward sinfulness,
are consistent with a safe state in religion; but how few, very
few, are bringing out the fair gospel standard to try the height
of the members of the church; whether they be fit for the
heavenly army; whether their stature be such as qualifies them
for the rank of the church militant! "the measure of the
stature of the fulness" is seldom seen; the measure of the
stature of littleness, dwarfishness, and emptiness, is often
exhibited.
Some say "The body of sin
in believers is, indeed, an enfeebled, conquered, and deposed
tyrant, and the stroke of death finishes its destruction."
So, then, the death of Christ and the influences of the Holy
Spirit were only sufficient to depose and enfeeble the tyrant
sin; but our death must come in to effect his total destruction!
Thus our death is, at least partially, our Saviour, and thus
that which was an effect of sin, ("for sin entered into the
world, and death by sin,") becomes the means of finally
destroying it: that is, the effect of a cause can become so
powerful as to react upon that cause and produce its
annihilation! The divinity and philosophy of this sentiment are
equally absurd. It is the blood of Christ alone that cleanses
from all unrighteousness; and the sanctification of a believer
is no more dependent on death than his justification. If it be
said that "believers do not cease from sin till they
die," I have only to say they are such believers as do not
make a proper use of their faith: and what can be said more of
the whole herd of transgressors and infidels? They cease to sin
when they cease to breathe. If the Christian religion bring no
other privileges than this to its upright followers, well may we
ask, "Wherein doth the wise man differ from the fool, for
they have both one end!" But the whole gospel teaches a
contrary doctrine.
It is strange there should be
found a person believing the whole gospel system and yet living
in sin! "Salvation from sin" is the long continued
sound, as it is the spirit and design, of the gospel. Our
Christian name, our baptismal covenant, our profession of faith
in Christ, and avowed belief in his word, all call us to this:
can it be said that we have any louder calls than they? Our
self-interest, as it respects the happiness of a godly life, and
the glories of eternal blessedness; the pains and wretchedness
of a life of sin, leading to the worm that never dies, and the
fire that is not quenched; second, most powerfully, the above
calls. Reader, lay these things to heart, and answer this
question to God: "How shall I escape if I neglect so great
salvation?" And then, as thy conscience shall answer, let
thy mind and thy hand begin to act.
As there is no end to the
merits of Christ incarnated and crucified; no bounds to the
mercy and love of God; no let or hindrance to the almighty
energy and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit; no limits
to the improvability of the human soul; so there can be no
bounds to the saving influence which God will dispense to the
heart of every genuine believer. We may ask and receive, and our
joy shall be full! Well may we bless and praise God, "who
has called us into such a state of salvation;" a state in
which we may be thus saved; and, by the grace of that state,
continue in the same to the end of our lives!
As sin is the cause of the ruin
of mankind, the gospel system, which exhibits it cure, is fitly
called "good news, or glad tidings;" and it is good
news, because it proclaims Him who saves his people from their
sins; and it would indeed be dishonorable to that grace, and the
infinite merit of Him who procured it, to suppose, much more to
assert, that sin had made wounds which grace would not heal. Of
such a triumph Satan shall ever be deprived.
"He that committeth sin is
of the devil." Hear this, ye who plead for Baal, and cannot
bear the thought of that doctrine that states believers are to
be saved from all sin in this life! He who committeth sin is a
child of the devil, and shows that he has still the nature of
the devil in him; "for the devil sinneth from the
beginning:" he was the father of sin,-- brought sin into
the world, and maintains sin in the world by living in the
hearts of his own children, and thus leading them to
transgression; and persuading others that they cannot be saved
from their sins in this life, that he may secure a continual
residence in their heart. He also knows that if he has a place
throughout life, he will probably have it at death; and, if so,
throughout eternity.
"That is," say some,
"he does not sin habitually as he formerly did." This
is bringing the influence and privileges of the heavenly birth
very low indeed. We have the most indubitable evidence that many
of the heathen philosophers had acquired, by mental discipline
and cultivation, an entire ascendancy over all their wonted
vicious habits. Perhaps my reader will recollect the story of
the physiognomist, who, coming into the place where Socrates was
delivering a lecture, his pupils, wishing to put the principles
of the man's science to proof, desired him to examine the face
of their master, and say what his moral character was. After a
full contemplation of the philosopher's visage, he pronounced
him the "most gluttonous, drunken, brutal, and libidinous
old man that he ever met." As the character of Socrates was
the reverse of all this, his disciples began to insult the
physiognomist. Socrates interfered, and said, "The
principles of his science may be very correct; for such I was,
but I have conquered it by my philosophy." O ye Christian
divines! ye real or pretended gospel ministers! will ye allow
the influence of the grace of Christ a sway not even so
extensive as that of the philosophy of a heathen who never heard
of the true God?
Many tell us that "no man
can be saved from sin in this life." Will these persons
permit us to ask, How much sin may we be saved from in this
life? Something must be ascertained on this subject: 1. That the
soul may have some determinate object in view. 2. That it may
not lose its time, or employ its faith and energy, in praying
for what is impossible to be attained. Now, as Christ was
manifested to take away our sins, to destroy the works of the
devil; and as his blood cleanseth from all sin and
unrighteousness, is it not evident that God means that believers
in Christ shall be saved from all sin? For if his blood cleanses
from all sin, if he destroys the works of the devil, (and sin is
the work of the devil,) and if he who is born of God does not
commit sin, then he must be cleansed from all sin; and while he
continues in that state, he lives without sinning against God,
for the seed of God remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because
he is born, or begotten of God.
How strangely warped and
blinded by prejudice and system must men be who, in the face of
such evidence as this, will still dare to maintain that no man
can be saved from his sin in this life; but must daily commit
sin in thought, word, and deed, as the Westminster divines have
asserted! that is, every man is laid under the fatal necessity
of sinning as many ways against God as the devil does through
his natural wickedness and malice; for even the devil himself
can have no other way of sinning against God, except by thought,
word, and deed. And yet, according to these and others of the
same creed, "even the most regenerate sin against God as
long as they live." It is a miserable salvo to say
"they do not sin so much as they used to do; and they do
not sin habitually, only occasionally." Alas for this
system! Could not the grace that saved them partially save them
perfectly? Could not that power of God that saved them from
habitual sin save them from occasional or accidental sin? Shall
we suppose that sin, how potent soever it may be, is as potent
as the Spirit and grace of Christ? And may we not ask, If it was
for God's glory and their good that they were partially saved,
would it not have been more for God's glory and their good if
they had been perfectly saved? But the letter and spirit of
God's word, and the design and end of Christ's coming, is to
save his people from their sins.
The perfection of the gospel
system is not that it makes allowances for sin, but that it
makes an atonement for it; not that it tolerates sin, but that
it destroys it.
However inveterate the disease
of sin may be, the grace of the Lord Jesus can fully cure it.
God sets no bounds to the
communications of his grace and Spirit to them that are
faithful. And as there are no bounds to the graces, so there
should be none to the exercise of those graces. No man can ever
feel that he loves God too much, or that he loves man too much
for God's sake.
Be so purified and refined in
your souls, by the indwelling Spirit, that even the light of God
shining into your hearts shall not be able to discover a fault
that the love of God has not purged away.
"Be thou perfect, and thou
shalt be perfection," that is, altogether perfect: be just
such as the holy God would have thee to be, as the Almighty God
can make thee, and live as the sufficient God shall support
thee; for He alone who makes the soul holy can preserve it in
holiness. Our blessed Lord appears to have these word pointedly
in view, "Ye shall be perfect, as your Father who is in
heaven is perfect," Matt. v. 48. But what does this imply?
Why, to be saved from all the power, the guilt, and the
contamination of sin. This is only the negative part of
salvation, but it has also a positive part; to be made perfect
--to be perfect as our Father who is in heeaven is perfect, to
be filled with the fulness of God, to have Christ dwelling
continually in the heart by faith, and to be rooted and grounded
in love. This is the state in which man was created; for he was
made in the image and likeness of God. This is the state from
which man fell; for he broke the command of God. And this is the
state into which every human soul must be raised who would dwell
with God in glory; for Christ was incarnated and died to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What a glorious privilege!
And who can doubt the possibility of its attainment who believes
in the omnipotent love of God, the infinite merit of the blood
of the atonement, and the all-pervading and all-purifying energy
of the Holy Ghost? How many miserable souls employ that time to
dispute and cavil against the possibility of being saved from
their sins, which they should devote to praying and believing
that they might be saved out of the hands of their enemies! But
some may say, "You overstrain the meaning of the term; it
signifies only, Be sincere; for, a perfect obedience is
impossible, God accepts of sincere obedience." If by
sincerity the objection means "good desires, and generally
good purposes, with an impure heart and spotted life," then
I assert that no such thing is implied in the text, nor in the
original word. But if the word sincerity be taken in its proper
and literal sense, I have no objection to it. Sincere is
compounded of sine cera, " without wax;" and, applied
to moral subjects, is a metaphor taken from clarified honey,
from which every atom of the comb or wax is separated. Then let
it be proclaimed from heaven, "Walk before me, and be
sincere! Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump
unto God; and thus ye shall be perfect, as your Father who is in
heaven is perfect." This is sincerity. Reader, remember
that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. Ten thousand
quibbles on insulated texts can never lessen, much less destroy,
the merit and efficacy of the great atonement.
God never gives a precept but
he offers sufficient grace to enable thee to perform it. Believe
as he would have thee, and act as he shall strengthen thee, and
thou wilt believe all things savingly, and do all things well.
God is holy; and this is the
eternal reason why all his people should be holy--should be
purified from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God. No faith in any particular creed,
no religious observance, no acts of benevolence and charity, no
mortification, attrition, or contrition can be a substitute for
this. We must be made partakers of the divine nature. We must be
saved from our sins--from the corruption that is in the world,
and be holy within and righteous without, or never see God. For
this very purpose Jesus Christ lived, died, and revived, that he
might purify us unto himself; that through faith in his blood
our sins might be blotted out, and our souls restored to the
image of God. Reader, art thou hungering and thirsting after
righteousness? Then, blessed art thou, for thou shalt be filled.
God is ever ready, by the power
of his Spirit, to carry us forward to every degree of life,
light, and love, necessary to prepare us for an eternal weight
of glory. There can be little difficulty in attaining the end of
our faith, the salvation of our souls from all sin, if God carry
us forward to it; and this he will do, if we submit to be saved
in his own way, and on his own terms. Many make a violent outcry
against the doctrine of perfection; that is, against the heart
being cleansed from all sin in this life, and filled with love
to God and man; because they judge it to be impossible! Is it
too much to say of these, that they know neither the Scripture
nor the power of God? Surely, the Scripture promises the thing,
and the power of God can carry us on to the possession of it.
The object of all God's
promises and dispensations was to bring fallen man back to the
image of God, which he had lost. This, indeed, is the sum and
substance of the religion of Christ. We have partaken of an
earthly, sensual, and devilish nature; the design of God, by
Christ, is to remove this, and to make us partakers of the
divine nature, and save us from all the corruption, in principle
and fact, which is in the world.
It is said that Enoch not only
"walked with God," setting him always before his
eyes--beginning, continuing, and ending every work to His
glory--but also that "he pleased God," and had
"the testimony that he did please God." Hence we learn
that it was then possible to live so as not to offend God:
consequently so as not to commit sin against him, and to have
the continual evidence or testimony that all that a man did and
purposed was pleasing in the sight of Him who searches the
heart, and by whom devices are weighed: and if it was possible
then, it is surely, through the same source, possible now; for
God, and Christ, and faith are still the same.
The petition "Thy will be
done in earth, as is in heaven," certainly points out a
deliverance from all sin; for nothing that is unholy can consist
with the divine will; and, if this be fulfilled in man, surely
sin shall be banished from his soul. Again: the holy angels
never mingle iniquity with their loving obedience; and, as our
Lord teaches us to pray that we do his will here as they do in
heaven, can it be thought he would put a petition into our
mouths the fulfilment of which was impossible?
The reader is probably amazed
at the paucity of large stars in the whole firmament of heaven.
Will he permit me to carry his mind a little farther, and either
stand astonished at, or deplore with me the fact that, out of
the millions of Christians in the vicinity and splendor of the
eternal Sun of Righteousness, how very few are found of the
first order! How very few can stand examination by the test laid
down in 1 Cor. xiii! How very few love God with all their heart,
soul mind, and strength, and their neighbors as themselves! How
few mature Christians are found in the church! How few are, in
all things, living for eternity! How little light, how little
heat, and how little influence and activity, are to be found
among them that bear the name of Christ! How few stars of the
first magnitude will the Son of God have to deck the crown of
His glory! Few are striving to excel in righteousness; and it
seems to be a principal concern with many, to find out how
little grace they may have, and yet escape hell; how little
conformity to the will of God they may have, and yet get to
heaven. In the fear of God I register this testimony, that I
have perceived it to be the labor of many to lower the standard
of Christianity, and to soften down, or explain away, those
promises of God that Himself has linked with duties; and because
they know they cannot be saved by their good works, they are
contented to have no good works at all; and thus the necessity
of Christian obedience, and Christian holiness, makes no
prominent part of some modern creeds. Let all those who retain
the apostolic doctrine, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from
all sin in this life, press every believer to go on to
perfection, and expect to be saved, while here below, into the
fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus. To all such my
soul says, Labor to show yourselves approved unto God; workmen
that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth;
and may the pleasure of the Lord prosper in your hands! Amen.
Many employ that time in
brooding and mourning over their impure hearts, which should be
spent in prayer and faith before God, that their impurities
might be washed away. In what a state of nonage are many members
of the Christian church!
I am afraid that what some
persons call their infirmities may rather be called their
strengths; the prevailing and frequently ruling power of pride,
anger, ill will, &c.; for how few think evil tempers to be
sins! The gentle term "infirmity" softens down the
iniquity; and as St. Paul, so great and so holy a man, say they,
had his infirmities, how can they expect to be without theirs?
These should know that they are in a dangerous error; that St.
Paul means nothing of the kind; for he speaks of his sufferings,
and of these alone. One word more: would not the grace and power
of Christ appear more conspicuous in slaying the lion than in
keeping him chained? in destroying sin, root and branch, and
filling the soul with his own holiness, with love to God and
man, with the mind, all the holy, heavenly tempers that were in
himself, than in leaving these impure and unholy tempers ever to
live, and often to reign, in the heart? The doctrine is
discreditable to the gospel, and wholly antichristian.
"If they sin against thee,
for there is no man that sinneth not," 1 Kings viii. 46. On
this verse we may observe that the second clause, as it is here
translated, renders the 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 taken
away by reference to the original, which should be translated,
"If they shall sin against thee;" or, "Should
they sin against thee; for there is no man that may not
sin;" that is, There is no man impeccable; none infallible;
none that is not liable to transgress. This is the true meaning
of the phrase in various parts of the Bible, and so our t
ranslators have understood the original; for, even in the
thirty-first verse of this chapter, they have translated yecheta,
"If a man trespass;" which certainly implies he might
or might not do it; and in this way they have translated the
same word, "If a soul sin" in Lev. v. 1; vi. 2; 1 Sam.
ii. 25; 2 Chron. vi. 22; and in several other places. The truth
is, the Hebrew has no mood to express words in the permissive or
optative way; but to express this sense, it uses the future
tense of the conjugation kal. This text has been a wonderful
stronghold for all who believe that there is no redemption from
sin in this life; that no man can live without committing sin;
and that we cannot be entirely freed from it till we die. 1. The
text speaks no such doctrine; it only speaks of the possibility
of every man sinning; and this must be true of a state of
probation. 2. There is not another text in the divine records
that is more to the purpose than this. 3. The doctrine is flatly
in opposition to the design of the gospel; for Jesus came to
save his people from their sin, and to destroy the work of the
devil. 4. It is a dangerous and destructive doctrine, and should
be blotted out of every Christian's creed. There are too many
who are seeking to excuse their crimes by all means in their
power; and we need not embody their excuses in a creed, to
complete their deception, by stating that their sins are
unavoidable.
The soul was made for God, and
can never be united to him, nor be happy, till saved from sin.
He who is saved from his sin, and united to God, possesses the
utmost felicity that the human soul can enjoy, either in this or
the coming world.
Where a soul is saved from all
sin, it is capable of being fully employed in the work of the
Lord: it is then, and not till then, fully fitted for the
Master's use.
All who are taught of Christ
are not only saved, but their understandings are much improved.
True religion, civilization, mental improvement, common sense,
and orderly behavior, go hand in hand.
When the light of Christ dwells
fully in the heart, it extends its influence to every thought,
word, and action; and directs its possessor how he is to act in
all places and circumstances.
Our souls can never be truly
happy till our wills be entirely subjected to, and become one
with, the will of God.
While there is an empty,
longing heart, there is a continual overflowing fountain of
salvation. If we find, in any place, or at any time, that the
oil ceases to flow, it is because there are no empty vessels
there; no souls hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We
find fault with the dispensations of God's mercy, and ask,
"Why were the former days better than these?" Were we
as much in earnest for our salvation as our forefathers were for
theirs, we should have equal supplies, and as much reason to
sing aloud of divine mercy.
"Be ye holy," saith
the Lord, "for I am holy." He who can give thanks at
the remembrance of his holiness is one who loves holiness; who
hates sin; who longs to be saved from it, and takes
encouragement at the recollection of God's holiness, as he seeth
in this the holy nature which he is to share; and the perfection
which he is here to attain. But most who call themselves
Christians hate the doctrine of holiness, never hear it
inculcated without pain; and the principal part of their studies
and those of their pastors, is to find out with how little
holiness they can rationally expect to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. O fatal and soul-destroying delusion! How long will a
holy God suffer such abominable doctrines to pollute his church,
and destroy the souls of men.
Increase in the image and favor
of God. Every grace and divine influence which ye have received
is a seed, a heavenly seed, which, if it be watered with the dew
of heaven from above, will endlessly increase and multiply
itself. He who continues to believe, love, and obey, will grow
in grace, and continually increase in the knowledge of Jesus
Christ, his Sacrifice, Sanctifier, Counsellor, Preserver, and
final Saviour. The life of a Christian is growth: he is at first
born of God, and is a little child: becomes a young man and a
father in Christ. Every father was once an infant; and had he
not grown, he would never have been a man. Those who content
themselves with the grace they received when converted to God,
are, at best, in continual state of infancy; but we find, in the
order of nature, that the infant that does not grow, and grow
daily too, is sickly, and soon dies: so, in the order of grace,
those who do not grow up into Jesus Christ are sickly and will
soon die--die to all sense and influence of heavenly things.
There are many who boast of the grace of their conversion;
persons who were never more than babes, and have long since lost
even that grace, because they did not grow in it. Let him that
readeth understand.
In order to get a clean heart,
a man must know and feel its depravity, acknowledge and deplore
it before God, in order to be fully sanctified. Few are
pardoned, because they do not feel and confess their sins; and
few are sanctified and cleansed from all sin, because they do
not feel and confess their own sore and the plague of their
hearts. As the blood of Jesus Christ, the merit of his passion
and death, applied by faith, purges the conscience from all dead
works, so the same cleanses the heart from all unrighteousness.
As all unrighteousness is sin, so he that is cleansed from all
unrighteousness is cleansed from all sin. To attempt to evade
this, and plead for the continuance of sin in the heart through
life, is ungrateful, wicked, and blasphemous; for, as he who
says he has not sinned, makes God a liar, who has declared the
contrary through every part of His revelation, so he that says
the blood of Christ either cannot or will not cleanse us from
all sin in this life, gives also the lie to his Maker, who has
declared the contrary, and thus shows that the word, the
doctrine of God, is not in him. Reader, it is the birthright of
every child of God to be cleansed from all sin, to keep himself
unspotted from the world, and so to live as never more to offend
his Maker. All things are possible to him that believeth,
because all things are possible to the infinitely meritorious
blood and energetic Spirit of the Lord Jesus.
Every man whose heart is full
of the love of God, is full of humility; for there is no man so
humble as he whose heart is cleansed from all sin. It has been
said that indwelling sin humbles us; never was there a greater
falsity: pride is the very essence of sin; he who has sin has
pride; and pride, too, in proportion to his sin: this is a mere
popish doctrine; and, strange to tell, the doctrine on which
their doctrine of merit is founded! They say, God leaves
concupiscence in the heart of every Christian, that, in striving
with and overcoming it from time to time, he may have an
accumulation of meritorious acts. Certain Protestants say,
"It is a true sign of a very gracious state when man feels
and deplores his inbred corruption." How near do these come
to the Papists, whose doctrine they profess to detest and abhor!
The truth is, it is no sign of grace whatever; it only argues,
as they use it, that the man has got light to show him his
corruptions, but he has not yet got grace to destroy them. He is
convinced that he should have the mind of Christ, but he feels
that he has the mind of Satan; he deplores it; and, if his bad
doctrine do not prevent him, he will not rest till he feels the
blood of Christ cleansing him from all sin.
Can any man expect to be saved
from his inward sin in the other world? None, except such as
hold the popish, anti-scriptural doctrine of purgatory.
"But this deliverance is expected at death." Where is
the promise that it shall then be given? There is not one such
in the whole Bible! And to believe for a thing essential to our
glorification, without any promise to support that faith in
reference to the point on which it is exercised, is a
desperation that argues as well the absence of true faith as it
does of right reason. Multitudes of such persons are continually
deploring their want of faith, even where they have the clearest
and most explicit promises; and yet, strange to tell, risk their
salvation at the hour of death on a deliverance that is nowhere
promised in the sacred oracles! "But who has got this
blessing?" Every one who has come to God in the right way
for it. "Where is such a one?" Seek the blessing as
you should do, and you will soon be able to answer the question.
"But it is too great a blessing to be expected."
Nothing is too great for a believer to expect, which God has
promised, and Christ has purchased with his blood. "If I
had such a blessing, I should not be able to retain it."
All things are possible to him that believeth. Besides, like all
other gifts of God, it comes with a principle of preservation
with it; "and upon all thy glory there shall be a defence."
"Still, such an unfaithful person as I cannot expect
it." Perhaps the infidelity you deplore came through the
want of this blessing: and as to worthlessness, no soul under
heaven deserves the least of God's mercies. It is not for thy
worthiness that He has given thee any thing, but for the sake of
his Son. You can say, "When I felt myself a sinner, sinking
into perdition, I did then flee to the atoning blood, and found
pardon: but this sanctification is a far greater work." No;
speaking after the manner of men, justification is far greater
than sanctification. When thou wert a sinner, ungodly, an enemy
in thy mind, by wicked works, a child of the devil, an heir of
hell, God pardoned thee on thy casting thy soul on the merit of
the great sacrificial offering: thy sentence was reversed, thy
state was changed, thou wert put among the children, and God's
Spirit witnessed with thine that thou wert His child. What a
change! and what a blessing! What then is this complete
sanctification? It is the cleansing of the blood that has not
been cleansed; it is washing the soul of a true believer from
the remains of sin; it is the making one, who is already a child
of God, more holy, that he may be more happy, more useful in the
world, and bring more glory to his heavenly Father. Great as
this work is, how little, humanly speaking, is it when compared
with what God has already done for thee? But suppose it were ten
thousand times greater, is any thing too hard for God? Are not
all things possible to him that believes? And does not the blood
of Christ cleanse from all unrighteousness? Arise, then, and be
baptized with a greater effusion of the Holy Ghost, and wash
away thy sin, calling on the name of the Lord.
Art thou weary of that carnal
mind which is enmity to God? Canst thou be happy while thou art
unholy? Dost thou know anything of God's love to thee? Dost thou
not know that he has given his Son to die for thee? Dost thou
love him in return for his love? Hast thou even a little love to
him? And canst thou love him a little, without desiring to love
him more? Dost thou not feel that thy happiness grows in
proportion to thy love and subjection to him? Dost thou not wish
to be happy? And dost thou not know that holiness and happiness
are as inseparable as sin and misery? Canst thou have too much
happiness or too much holiness? Canst thou be made holy and
happy too soon? Art thou not weary of a sinful heart? Are not
thy bad tempers, pride, anger, peevishness, fretfulness,
covetousness, and the various unholy passion that too often
agitate thy soul, a source of misery and woe to thee? And canst
thou be unwilling to have them destroyed? Arise, then, and shake
thyself from the dust, and call upon thy God! His ear is not
heavy that it cannot hear; his hand is not shortened that it
cannot save. Behold, now is the accepted time! Now is the day of
salvation! It was necessary that Jesus Christ should die for
thee, that thou mightest be saved; but he gave up his life for
thee eighteen hundred years ago! and himself invites thee to
come, for all things are now ready. Such is the nature of God
that he cannot be more willing to save thee in any future time
than he is now. He wills that thou shouldst love him now with
all thy heart; but he knows that thou canst not thus love him
till the enmity of the carnal mind is removed; and this he is
willing this moment to destroy. The power of the Lord is
therefore present to heal. Turn from every sin; give up every
idol; cut off every right hand; pluck out every right eye. Be
willing to part with thy enemies that thou mayest receive thy
chief friend. Thy day is far spent, the night is at hand, the
graves are ready for thee, and here thou hast no abiding city. A
month, a week, a day, an hour, yea, even a moment, may send thee
into eternity. And if thou die in thy sins, where God is thou
shalt never come. Do not expect redemption in death: it can do
nothing for thee even under the best consideration: it is thy
last enemy. Remember then that nothing but the blood of Jesus
can cleanse thee from all unrighteousness. Lay hold, therefore,
on the hope that is set before thee. The gate may appear strait;
but strive, and thou shalt pass through! "Come unto
me," says Jesus. Hear His voice, believe at all risks, and
struggle into God. Amen and Amen!
In no part of the Scriptures
are we directed to seek holiness gradatim. We are to come to God
as well for an instantaneous and complete purification from all
sin, as for an instantaneous pardon. Neither the seriatim
pardon, nor the gradatim purification, exists in the Bible. It
is when the soul is purified from all sin that it can properly
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ:
--as the field may be expected to produce a good crop, and all
the seed vegetate, when the thorns, thistles, briers, and
noxious weeds of every kind are grubbed out of it.
From every view of the subject,
it appears that the blessing of a clean heart, and the happiness
consequent on it, may be obtained in this life; because here,
not in the future world, are we to be saved. Whenever,
therefore, such blessings are offered, they may be received; but
all the graces and blessings of the gospel are offered at all
times; and when they are offered, they may be received. Every
sinner is exhorted to turn from the evil of his way, to repent
of sin, and supplicate the throne of grace for pardon. In the
same moment in which he is commanded to turn, in that moment he
may and should return. He does not receive the exhortation to
repentance today that he may become a penitent at some future
time. Every penitent is exhorted to believe on the Lord Jesus,
that he may receive remission of sins:--he does not, he cannot,
understand that the blessing thus promised is not to be received
today, but at some future time. In like manner, to every
believer the new heart and the right spirit are offered in the
present moment; that they may in that moment, be received. For
as the work of cleansing and renewing the heart is the work of
God, his almighty power can perform it in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye. And as it is this moment our duty to love
God with all our heart, and we cannot do this till he cleanse
our hearts, consequently he is ready to do it this moment,
because he wills that we should in this moment love him.
Therefore we may justly say, "Now is the accepted time, now
is the day of salvation." He who in the beginning caused
light in a moment to shine out of darkness, can in a moment
shine into our hearts, and give us to see the light of His glory
in the face of Jesus Christ. This moment, therefore, we may be
emptied of sin, filled with holiness, and become truly happy.
Such cleansed people never
forget the horrible pit and miry clay out of which they have
been brought. And can they then be proud? No! they loathe
themselves in their own sight. They can never forgive themselves
for having sinned against so good a God and so loving a Saviour.
And can they undervalue Him by whose blood they were bought, and
by whose blood they were cleansed? No! That is impossible: they
now see Jesus as they ought to see him; they see him in his
splendor, because they feel him in his victory and triumph over
sin. To them that thus believe he is precious; and he was never
so precious as now. As to their not needing him when thus saved
from their sins, we may as well say, as soon may the creation
not need the sustaining hand of God, because the works are
finished! Learn this, that as it requires the same power to
sustain creation as to produce it; so it requires the same Jesus
who cleansed to keep clean. They feel that it is only through
his continued indwelling that they are kept holy, and happy, and
useful. Were he to leave them, the original darkness and kingdom
of death would soon be restored.
--From "Holiness
Miscellany and Experiencees" By John S. Inskip
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