these things, we are more than conquerors through him that hath loved us."

SEVENTH ARGUMENT.-"You extol the apostle too much. He certainly was a carnal man still; for St. Luke informs us, that the contention,' πарoğuσμos, 'was so sharp between' Barnabas and him, 'that they departed one asunder from another.' Acts xv. 39. Now 'charity' 8 πароEUVEтαι, is not provoked,' or 'does not contend.' 'Strife' or contention is one of the fruits of the flesh;' and if St. Paul bore that fruit, I do not see why you should scruple to call him a 'carnal, wretched man, sold under sin.'"

ANSWER.-1. Every contention is not sinful. The apostle says himself, "Contend for the faith." "Be angry, and sin not." "It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." Jesus Christ did not break the law of love, when he "looked round with anger" upon the pharisees; "being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." Nor does Moses charge sin upon God, where he says, "The Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation." If St. Paul had contended in an uncharitable manner, I would directly grant that in that hour he fell from Christian perfection. For we assert, that, as a carnal professor may occasionally cross Jordan, take a turn into the good land, and come back into the wilderness, as the spies did in the days of Joshua; so a spiritual man, who lives in Canaan, may occasionally draw back, and take a turn in the wilderness, especially before he is "strengthened, established," and "settled" under his heavenly vine, in the good land that flows with spiritual milk and honey. But this was not the apostle's case. There is not the least intimation given of his sinning in the affair. "Barnabas," says the historian, determined to take with them" his own nephew "John Mark; but Paul thought not good to do it," because when they had tried him before, “he went not with them to the work," but "departed from them from Pamphylia." Acts xv. 37, 38. Now, by every rule of reason and scripture, Paul was in the right; for we are to "try the spirits," and lovingly to "beware of men," especially of such men

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as have already made us smart by their cowardly fickleness, as "John Mark" had done when he had left the itinerant apostles in the midst of their dangers.

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2. With respect to the word nagovoμos, "contention," or provoking," it is used in a good, as well as in a bad, sense. Thus Hebrews x. 24, we read of aрovσμor αγαπης, a contention or a provoking unto love and good works." And therefore, granting that a grain of partiality to his nephew made Barnabas stretch too much that fine saying, "Charity hopeth all things;" yet, from the circumstances of Barnabas's parting with St. Paul, we have not the least proof that St. Paul stained at all his Christian perfection in the affair.

If the reader properly weighs these answers to the arguments by which our opponents try to stain the character of St. Paul as a spiritual man, he will see, I hope, that the apostle is as much misrepresented by Mr. Hill's doctrine, as Christian perfection is by his Fictitious Creed.

SECTION IX.

MR. HILL'S mistake with respect to St. Paul's supposed carnality is so much the more astonishing, as the apostle's professed spirituality not only clears him, but demonstrates the truth of our doctrine. Having therefore rescued his character from under the feet of those who "tread his honour in the dust," and "sell" his person "under sin" at an antinomian market, I shall retort the argument of our opponents; and, appealing to St. Paul's genuine and undoubted experiences, when he "taught wisdom among the perfect," I shall present the reader with a picture of the perfect Christian drawn at full length. Nor need I inform Mr. Hill, that the misrepresented apostle sits for his own picture before the glass of evangelical sincerity; and that turning spiritual self-painter, with the pencil of "a good conscience," and with colours

mixed by "the Spirit of truth," he draws this admirable portrait from the life :

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"Be followers of me." "This one thing I do; leaving the things that are behind, I press towards the mark for the prize of my heavenly calling," a crown of glory. "Charity is the bond of perfection." "Love is the fulfilling of the law." "If I have not charity, I am nothing." And what "charity" or "love" St. Paul had, appears from Christ's words, and from his own. Greater," that is, more perfect, "love hath no man than this," says our Lord, "that he lay down his life for his friends." Now, this very love Paul had for Christ, for souls, yea, for the souls of his fiercest adversaries, the Jews. Hear him. "The love of Christ constraineth us." "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "I long to depart, and to be with Christ." “I count not my life dear unto myself, that I may finish my course with joy." "I am ready not to be bound only, but to die also for the name of the Lord Jesus." "If I be offered up on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." And in the next chapter but one to that in which the apostle is supposed to profess himself actually "sold under sin," he professes 'perfect love" to his sworn enemies; even that love by which "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them who walk after the Spirit.” Hear him. "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not; my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I," &c., "could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my kinsmen according to the flesh;" meaning his inexorable, bloody persecutors, the Jews.

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Nor was this love of St. Paul like a land-flood: it constantly flowed like a river. This living water sprang up constantly in his soul; witness these words: "Remember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." "Of many I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that" they "mind earthly things; for our conversation is in heaven." "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the

world." "I know nothing," that is, no evil, "by," or of, "myself." "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." "Whether we are besides," that is, carried out beyond, "ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober," that is, calm, "it is for your cause;" that is, the love of God and man is the only source of all my tempers. "Giving no offence in anything, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, by pureness, by kindness, by love unfeigned;" "being filled with comfort, and exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.' "I will gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved;" a rare instance this of the most perfect love! "We speak before God in Christ: we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying." "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I," (see here the destruction of sinful self!) "but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." "As always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. We worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confi dence in the flesh." "Mark them who walk so, as ye have us for an example." "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content; everywhere, and in all things, I am instructed both to abound and to suffer need; I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Teaching every man in all wisdom, that I may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto also I labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily."

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This description of the perfect Christian, and of St. Paul, is so exceedingly glorious; and it appears to me such a refutation of the Calvinian mistake which I oppose, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure, and my readers the edification, of seeing the misrepresented apostle give his own lovely picture a few more finishing strokes. "We speak not as pleasing men," says he, "but as pleasing God, who trieth our hearts." "For neither at any time used we flattering words," &c.; "God is witness: nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others."

"But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." "Being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted to you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls; labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you." "The Lord make you abound in love one towards another, and towards all men, even as we do towards you." "Thou hast fully known my manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience." "I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me in that day."

When I read this wonderful experience of St. Paul, written by himself, and see his doctrine of Christian perfection so gloriously exemplified in his own tempers and conduct, I am surprised that good men should still confound Saul the Jew with Paul the Christian; and should take the son of the "earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children," for the son of "the Jerusalem from above," which "is free," and "is the mother of us all," who "stand in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." But, upon second thoughts, I wonder no more; for if those who engross to themselves the title of "catholics" can believe that Christ took his own body in his own fingers, and broke it through the middle, when he took bread, broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is broken for you;" why cannot those who monopolize the name of "orthodox" among us, believe also that St. Paul spoke without a figure when he said, "I am carnal, sold under sin," and "brought into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Brethren, I beseech you be as I am: those things which ye have heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you." Now you have "heard and seen," that "the evil which I would not, that I do ;" and that “with my flesh I serve the law of sin." In short, you have heard and seen, that "I am carnal, sold under sin."

I am not at all surprised that carnal and injudicious