and resolution enough to overcome them; his meaning is evidently this: if 1, as a carnal man, do what I, as an awakened man, would not; it is no morel that do it, that is, I do not do it according to my awakened conscience, for my conscience rises against my conduct: but it is sin that dwelleth in me; it is the tyrant sin, that has full possession of me, and minds the dictates of my conscience no more, than an inexorable task-master minds the cries of an oppressed slave. (2) If the pure love of God was shed abroad in St. Paul's heart, and constrained him; he dwelt in love, and of consequence, in God; for St. John says, "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in Him."-" He that is in you, is greater than he that is in the world," Now if God dwelt in Paul by his loving Spirit, it becomes our objectors to shew that an indwelling God, and indwelling sin, are one and the same thing; or that the Apostle had strangely altered his doctrine when he asked with indignation, "What concord hath Christ with Belial ?" For if indwelling sin [the Belial within] was necessarily to nestle with Christ in St. Paul's heart, and in the hearts of all believers, should not the Apostle have rather cried out with admiration," See how great is the concord between Christ and Belial? They are inseparable! They always live in the same heart together and nothing ever parted them, but what parts man and wife, that is, death." (3) If a reluctance to serve the law of sin is a proof that we are holy as Paul was holy, is there not joy in heaven over the apostolic holiness of most robbers and murderers, in the kingdom? Can they not sooner or later say, "With my mind [or conscience] I serve the law of God: but with my flesh the law of sin. How to perform what is good I find not, I would be honest and loving, if I could be so without denying myself; but I find a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me? Nor can any thing be stronger upon this head, than the words of the inhuman princess, who being at the point of committing murder, cried out; " My mind [that is, my reason or conscience] leads me to one thing, but my new, impetuous passion carries me to another against my will. I see, I approve what is right, but I do what is criminal." ARG. IV. "The man, whose experience is described in Rom. vii. is said to delight in the law of God after the inward man, and to serve the law of God with the mind; therefore he was partaker of apostolic holi. ness.' I serve the law of sin? And did not Medea say as much in her way, before she imbrued her hands in innocent blood? What else could she mean when she cried out," I see and ap prove with my mind what is right, though I do what is criminal ?" Did not the Pharisees for a time rejoice in the burning and shining light of John the Baptist? And does not an evangelist inform us, that Herod himself heard that man of God [news] with delight, and did many things too? Mark vi. 20. But, is this a proof that either Medea, the Phari sees, or Herod had attained apostolic holi ness? ARG. V. "The person who describes his unavailing struggles under the power of sin, cries out at last, Who shall deliver me, &c. and immediately expresses a hope of future deliverance; thanking God for it through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. vii. 24, 25. Does not this shew that the carnal man sold under sin was a christian believer, and, of consequence, Paul himself?" ANS. This shows only that the man sold under sin, and groaning for evangelical liber. ty, is supported under his unhappy circumstances by a hope of deliverance; and that when the law, like a severe school-master, has almost brought him to Jesus Christ; when he is come to the borders of Canaan, and is not far from the kingdom of God and the city of refuge, he begins to look and long earnestly for Christ, and has at times comfortable hopes of deliverance through him. He has a faith that desires liberty, but not a faith that obtains it. He has a degree of the faith to be healed, which is mentioned Acts xiv. 9, but he has not yet the actually. healing, prevailing faith, which St. John calls the victory, and which is accompanied with an internal witness, that Christ is formed in our hearts. It is absurd to confound the carnal man, who struggles into Christ and liberty, saying, Who shall deliver me, &c. with the spiritual man, who is come to Christ, stands in his redeeming power, and witnesses that "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has made him free from the law of sin and death." The one may say in bis hopeful moments, I thank God [I shall have the victory] through Jesus Christ: but the other can say I have it now Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 57. The one wishes for, and the other enjoys liberty: the one bas ineffectual desires; and the other has victorious habits. Such is the contrast between the carnal penitent described in Rom. vii. 14, and the obedient believer described in Rom. viii. "There is a great difference" [says the Rev. Mr. Whitefield] "between good desires and good habits. Many have the one, who never attain the other." [Many come up to the experience of a carnal penitent, who never attain the experience of an obedient believer.] "Many have good desires to subdue sin; and yet ́resting in those good desires, sin has always had the dominion over them," [with the flesh they have always served the law of sin.] "A person sick of a fever may desire to be in health but that desire is not bealth itself." Whitefield's Works, Vol. iv. page 7. If the Calvinists would do justice to this important distinction, they would soon drop the argument which I answer, and the yoke of carnality which they try to fix upon St. Paul's neck. ARG. VI. "You plead hard for the Apostle's spirituality but his own plain confes sion shews that he was really carnal, and sold under sin. Does he not say to the Corinthians, that there was given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure, by the abundance of the revelations' which had been vouchsafed him? 2 Cor. xii. 7. Now what could this thorn in the flesh be, but a sinful lust? And what this messenger of Satan, but pride or immoderate anger? Thrice be besought the Lord, that these plagues might depart from him, but God would not hear him. Indwelling sin was to keep him humble; and if St. Paul stood in need of that remedy, how much more we?" ANS. (1) Indwelling anger keeps us angry, and not meek: indwelling pride keeps us proud, and not humble. The streams answer to the fountain. It is absurd to suppose, that a salt spring will send forth fresh water. (2) You entirely mistake the Apostle's meaning. While you try to make him a modest imperfectionist, you inadvertently represent him as an impudent Antinomian; for speaking of his thorn in the flesh, and of the buffeting of Satan's messenger, he calls them his infirmities: and says, Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities. Now, if his infirmities were pride, a wrathful disposition, and a filthy lust; did he not act the part of a filthy antinomian, when he said that he gloried in them? Would not even Paul's carnal man have blushed to speak thus ? Far from glorying in his pride, wrath, or indwelling lust, did he not groan, O wretched man that I am? (3) The Apostle stillspeaking of his thorn in the flesh, and of Satan buffeting him by proxy, and still calling these trials his infirmities, explains himself farther in these words: "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in persecutions, &c. for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then I am strong. Christ's strength is made perfect in my weakness." Those infirmities-that thorn in the flesh-that buffeting of Satan, cannot then be indwelling sin, or any out-breaking of it; for the devil himself could do no more than to take pleasure in his wickedness: and [in Rom. vii.] the carnal penitent himself delights in the law of God after the inward man, instead of taking pleasure in his indwelling sin. (4) The infirmities, in which St. Paul glories and takes pleasure, were such as had been given him to keep him humble after his revelations. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, &c. 2 Cor. xii. 7. Those infirmi. ties, and that thorn were not then indwelling sin, for indwelling sin was not given him after his visions; seeing it stuck fast in him long before he went to Damascus. It is absurd therefore to suppose that God gave him the thorn of indwelling sin afterwards, or indeed that he gave it him at all. (5) If Mr. Hill wants to know what we understand by St. Paul's thorn in the flesh and by the messenger of Satan that buffeted him; we reply, that we understand his bodily infirmities-the great weakness, and the violent head-ache, with which Tertullian and St. Chrysostom inform us the Apostle was afflicted. The same God, who said to Satan concerning Job, "Behold he is in thine hand to touch his bone and his flesh, but save his life :"-The same God who per. mitted that adversary to bind a daughter of Abraham with a spirit of [bodily] infirmity for eighteen years: the same gracious God, I say, permitted Satan to afflict Paul's body with uncommon pains; and, at times, it seems, with preternatural weakness, which made his appearance and delivery contemptible in the eyes of his adversaries. That this is not a conjecture grounded upon uncertain tradition, is evident from the Apostle's own words two pages before. "His letters, say they [that buffeted me in the name of satan] are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible," But Cor. x. 10. And soon after, describing these emissaries of the devil, he says: "Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ [to oppose me, and to prejudice you against my ministry] and no marvel: for Satan himself [who sets them on] is transformed into an angel of light," 2 Cor. xi. 13. if the " thorn in the flesh" is all one with the buffeting messenger of Satan, St. Paul's meaning is evidently this: "God who suffered the Canaanites to be scourges in the sides of the Israelites, and thorns in their eyes, Josh. xxiii. 13, has suffered Satan to bruise my heel, while I bruise his head: and that adversary afflicts me thus, by his thorns and pricking briers, that is, by false apostles, who buffet me through malicious misrepresentations which render me vile in your sight."-This sense is strongly countenanced by these words of Ezekiel, "They shall know that I am the Lord, and there shall no more be a Both these senses agree with reason and godliness, with the text and context. Satan immediately pierced the apostle's body with preternatural pain; and, by the malice of false brethren, the opposition of false apostles within the church, and the fierceness of cruel persecutors without, he mediately endeavoured to cast down or destroy the zealous apostle. But Paul walked in the perfect way, and we may well say of him, what was said of Job on a similar occasion, In all this Paul sinned not, as appears from his own words in this very epistle: "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation: Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side with out [the church] were fightings, within were fears" [We had furious opposition from the heathens without; and within, we feared lest our brethren should be discouraged by the number and violence of our adversaries:] "Nevertheless God who comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish" [through the thorns in our flesh, and the buffetings of Satan :] "yet the inward man is renewed day by day."-It grows stronger and stronger in the Lord. When I see St. Paul bear up with such undaunted fortitude, under the bruising hands of Satan's messengers, and the pungent operation of the thorns in his flesh; methinks I see the General of the christians waving the standard of christian perfection, and crying, "Be followers of me:-Be wholly spiritual: "Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand, [and to witness with me, that,] in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that hath loved us." ARG. VII. "You extol the apostle too much. He certainly was a carnal man still : for St. Luke informs us, that the contention [παροξυσμός] was so sharp between Barnabas and him, that they departed one asunder from another, Acts xv. 39. Now charity [ Taρožνveraι] 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." thing."-Jesus Christ did not break the law But this There is not the (2) With respect to the word [#apožvσμo] contention or provoking, it is used in a good, as well as in a bad sense. Thus Heb. x. 24, we read of [παροξυσμον αγαπης] a conten: tion, 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 circumstan ces of Barnabas's parting with St. Paul, we have not the least proof that St. Paul stained at all his christian perfection in the SECTION IX. St. Paul, instead of owning himself a carnal man, still sold under sin, presents us with a striking picture of the perfect christian, by occasionally describing his own spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. And therefore his genuine experiences are so many proofs, that christian perfection is attainable, and has actually been attained in this life. What St. Augustine and the Rev. Mr. Whitefield - once thought of Rom. vii.-And how near this last divine, and the Rev. Mr. Romaine, sometimes come to the doctrine of christian perfection. MR. Hill's mistake with respect to St. Panl'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 An• tinomian 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 christim 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 "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, [i. e. more perfect] love hath no man that 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 my. self, 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." Hlear 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 per. secutors, the Jews. Nor was this love of St. Paul like a landflood: 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 [i, e. no evil] by, [or, of] myself. We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth-Whether we are besides [i. e, carried out beyond] ourselves it is to God, or whe ther we be sober, [i. e. calm] it is for your cause" [i. e. the love of God and man is the only source of all my tempers,]-" Giv ing no offence in any thing, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, by pureness, by kindness, by love unfeigned :-being filled with com fort, 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 confidence 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." 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 unblameably we be haved 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, long-suffering, 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 Sul 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 professors should contend for this contradictory doctrine, this flesh-pleasing standard of Calvinian inconsistency, and christian imperfection. But that good, and in other respects judicious men, should so zealously contend for it, appears to me astonishing! They can never design to confound carnal bondage with evangelical liberty, and St. Paul's christian experience with that of Medea, and Mr. Fulsome,” in order to countenance gross Antinomianism: nor can they take any pleasure in misrepresenting the holy apostle. Why do they then patronise so great a mistake? I answer still by the same reason which makes pious Papists believe that consecrated bread is the real flesh of Christ. Their Priests and the Pope say so some figurative expressions of our Lord seem to countenance their saying. We Protestants, whom the Papists call carnal reasoners and heretics, are of a different sentiment; and should they believe as we do, their hu mility and orthodoxy would be in danger. Apply this to the present case. Calvinian divines and St. Augustin affirm, that St. Paul humbly spake his present experience when he said, I am curnal, &c. We who are called "Arminians and Perfectionists," think the contrary; and our pious op❤ ponents suppose, that if they thought as we do, they should lose their humility and orthodoxy. Their error therefore springs chiefly from mistaken fears, and not from a wilful opposition to truth. Nor is St. Augustin fully for our opponents: we have our part in the Bishop of Hippo, as well as they. If he was for them, when his controversy with Pelagius had heated him; he was for us, when he yet stood upon the scriptural line of moderation. Then he fairly owned, that the man, whom the apostle personates in Rom. vii. is "homo sub lege positus ante gratiam ;"-A man under the [condemning, irritating] power of the law, who is yet a stranger to the liberty and power of Christ's gospel. Therefore, If Mr. Hill claims St. Augustin the prejudiced controver tist, we claim St. Augustin the unprejudiced Father of the Church; or rather, setting aside his dubious authority, we continue our appeal to unprejudiced Reason and plain Scripture. What I say of St. Augustin may be said of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield. Before he had embraced St. Augustin's mistakes, which are known among us by the name of Calvinism, he believed, as well as that Father, that the disconsolate man who groans, "who shall deliver me?" Is not a possessor, but a seeker of christian liberty. To prove it I need only transcribe the latter part of his sermon entitled, The Marks of the New Birth. "Thirdly, [says he] I address myself to those, who are under the drawings of the Father, and are going through the spirit of bondage; but not finding the marks" [of the New Birth] before-mentioned, are ever cry. ing out [as the carnal penitent, Rom. vii.] "Who shall deliver us from the body of this death? Despair not for notwithstanding your present trouble, it may be the Divine pleasure to give you the kingdom." [Hence it appears that Mr. Whitefield did not look upon such mourners as christian believers; but only as persons, who might become such if they earnestly sought. He therefore most judiciously exhorts them to seek till they find.-"The grace of God through Jesus Christ" [adds he] 4 is able to deliver you, and give you what you want: even you may receive the Spirit of Adop |