THE LAST CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM, CONTINUED. A POLEMICAL ESSAY ON THE TWIN DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIAN IMPERFECTION AND A DEATH PURGATORY. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE CHECKS. "BE ye perfect. Every one that is perfect shall be as his Master. If thou wilt be perfect, go, and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor."-JESUS CHRIST. "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud."-ST. PAUL. "Let no man deceive you," &c.: "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. In him is no sin. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he" (the vine) " is, so are we" (the branches)" in this world."-ST. JOHN. ΤΠΕ LAST CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM, CONTINUED. SECTION VII. It is easier to raise a dust than to answer an argument: I expect, therefore, that our opponents, instead of solidly answering the contents of the preceding section, will assert, that St. Paul was an avowed enemy to deliverance from lust and evil tempers before death, and, of consequence, a strong opposer of the doctrine of Christian perfection. And to support their assertion, they will probably quote the following text: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Gal. v. 17. For, they conclude from these words, that so long as we dwell in bodies of corruptible flesh, we cannot help breaking the law of liberty, at least, from time to time, by sinful internal lusts. As this objection passes among them for unanswerable, it may not be amiss to give it a fourfold answer. 1. St. Paul wrote these words to the carnal, fallen Galatians to them he said, "So that ye cannot do the things that ye would." And there was a good reason why they could not do what they had a weak desire to do. They were "bewitched" by the flesh, and by carnal teachers, who led them from the power of the Spirit to the weakness of the letter, yea, to the letter of Judaism too. But did he not speak of himself to the Philippians in a very different strain? Did he not declare, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me?" And cannot every believer, who steadily walks in the Spirit, say the same thing? Who does not see the flaw of this argument? The disobedient, fallen, bewitched believers of Galatia, of whom St. Paul stood in doubt, could not but fulfil the lusts of the flesh, when they were led by the flesh. "Neither hot nor cold," like the Laodiceans, they could neither be perfect Christians, nor perfect worldlings, because they fully sided neither with the Spirit, nor with the flesh; or, to use the apostle's words, "they could not do the things that they would," through the opposition which the flesh made against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, neither of these principles being yet fully victorious in their halting, distracted hearts. Therefore, this must be also the miserable case of all obedient, faithful, established believers through all ages all the world over. What has this antinomian conclusion to do with the scriptural premises? When I assert, that all those who have put out their knees cannot run a race swiftly, do I so much as intimate, that no man can be a swift racer? 66 2. It is as unscriptural to judge of the power and liberty of established believers by the power and liberty of the Galatians, as it is unreasonable to judge of the liberty of a free nation by the servitude of a half-enslaved people ; or of the strength of a vigorous child, by the weakness of an half-formed embryo. I found this remark, (1.) Upon Gal. v. 1, where the apostle indirectly reproves his Judaizing, wrangling converts, for being fallen from "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," and for being " entangled again with the yoke of bondage." And, (2.) Upon Gal. iv. 19: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." The dawn of day is not more different from the meridian light, than the imperfect state described in this verse is different from the perfect state described in the following lines, which are descriptive of the adult Christian :- am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." Gal. ii. 20. |