A Compendium of Christian Theology
By William Burt Pope, D.D.,
Volume Three
Chapter 2
Christian Sanctification
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CHRISTIAN SANCTIFICATION
A very extensive class of terms—perhaps the most extensive—exhibits the Christian estate as one of consecration to God. This entire range of phraseology has been transferred from the ancient temple service to the use of the new temple or church. It embraces all aspects of the Christian privilege as one of dedication to God, whether the dedication be external or internal, effected by the Spirit or presented by the believer. But Sanctification is here viewed as a blessing bestowed freely under the covenant of grace; and we must therefore to some extent, though not altogether, omit its ethical relations. As a privilege of the covenant, its principle is twofold: purification from sin, consecration to God; holiness being the state resulting from these. As a gift of grace, it is declared to be perfect in the design of the Spirit; and full provision is made for the Entire Sanctification of the believer in the present life, even as full provision is made for his finished Righteousness and perfect Sonship The terms which belong to this branch of Christian theology are abundant: they constitute the largest class of homogeneous phrases in the New Testament; including almost every word pertaining to the Levitical economy. In their range they embrace the entire vocabulary of the Altar, its sacrifices, oblation, and priesthood, Divine and human; sanctification, dedication, presentation, hallowing, consecration; sprinkling, washing, and putting away sin; purity, sanctity, love and holiness, and the opposites of these, with all their shades; sealing, anointing, and therefore the very word Christian itself. The original terms form a wide and sacred assemblage for the department of Biblical theology; and the careful discrimination of their meanings, in the light of the Old Testament and of classical Greek, is the best method of studying this whole subject. They may be distributed, however, into two groups: first, those which signify the process of sanctification, as it is negative and positive, that is, as purification from sin and consecration to God; and, secondly, those which define the state of holiness, as it is imperfect and perfect, or partial and entire, sanctification. In considering these, it must be observed that we have not yet to do with ethical sanctification, but with the imparted blessing of the covenant of grace: man's efforts and attainments being subordinate. Of course the corresponding duties cannot be altogether omitted; but the distinction is important, and it must be remembered throughout our discussion of this privilege of the new covenant SANCTIFICATION IN PRINCIPLE AND PROCESS Sanctification, negatively considered, is purification from sin; considered positively, it is the consecration of love to God: both being the direct and sole work of the Holy Ghost, and their unity holiness I. Purification or cleansing from sin has in the whole Bible, but especially in the New Testament, two meanings: that of a removal of the bar which prevents the Divine acceptance of the offerer at His altar, and of the defilement which renders his offering unfit to be presented. The two meanings are in fact scarcely ever throughout the entire Scriptures disjoined 1. Christians are sanctified from guilt. This may seem a strange collocation of phrases But guilt, or the consciousness of sin as our own, is not a forensic word only: it has that meaning in court, and household, and temple. It is before the Divine altar the conscience of sins 1 which would keep the offerer from approaching. How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works?2 Here the term kathariseín is equivalent in the temple to StPaul's dikaioun in the forum of the gospel: to be purified is to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 3 from the conscience or guilty consciousness of evil1 Heb. 10:2; 2 Heb. 9:14; 3 Heb. 10:22 2. They are sanctified also by the purification from their sin viewed as defilement. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified: 1 here the middle term seems to unite the two others in itself. The Old-Testament illustration of this was the purifying of the flesh,2 which was the outward symbol of deliverance not from guilt but from impurity. In fact the word washing is one of the widest terms of the class: it includes all processes for the putting away of sin whether in its guilt or in its defilement, even to the uttermost; and in this large sense the penitent Psalmist cried out for it: wash me throughly from mine iniquity,3 where iniquity stands for the defilement of which it was the causeBut guilt and defilement may be here viewed as one: since the stain or MACULA of sin is its offensiveness in the sight of God, blotted out or removed when the shiner is accepted1 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Heb. 9:13; 3 Psa. 51:2 3. These two are sometimes combined and shown to correspond, in the temple service of Christianity, to the blessings of justification and regeneration in the court mediatorial and the household of faith. Mark the following striking passage: for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified: 1 made provision for their perfect pardon and holiness. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. In these sentences we have justification, regeneration, and sanctification united: remission of sins, the new law in the heart, and both introduced to illustrate the Spirit's perfect sanctification. So in regard to the first Gentiles: purifying their hearts by faith,2 which must include the whole work of the Gospel on them and in them. Though the distinction should not be pressed, it may be said that the purification from guilt is effected by sprinkling as the more external and as it were imputative application of what in washing is more internal, the two however being really the same. We read in St. Peter: elect . . . through sanctification of the Spirit,3 which is divided into two branches: unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. From the defilement and internal corruption of sin Christians are cleansed or washed: that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.4 The washing, however, sometimes must include both, as in the doxology unto Him that loved us and washed us from, our sins in His own blood:5 here the reading loúsanti is in some texts significantly changed into lúsanti Whichever reading is right, the corrector has not introduced a theological error; for the washing is equivalent to release from guilt, the loosing and the cleansing being the sameBoth ideas are found in some of the synonyms employed, such as the putting away or taking away 6 of sin. Sanctification has the double meaning in another passage: Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood;7 and also in such as speak of Christians as sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.8
1 Heb. 10:14-18;
2
Acts 15:9;
3
1 Pet. 1:2;
4
Eph. 5:26;
5
Rev. 1:5;
6
Heb. 5:4,11;
7 Heb. 13:12;
8
1 Cor. 1:2
II. The positive element of sanctification is the Holy
Spirit's consecration to God of what
is dedicated to God by man. In the New Testament this is
the love of God which is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us:
1. There is a lower, wider, and, as it were, improper
sense of the term throughout the
Scriptures. (1.) What is already holy is sanctified by
the acknowledgment of its holiness
Hallowed be Thy name!
2. Consecration proper of persons is to be viewed as
twofold: it is to God's possession
and to God's service
(1.) The leading, or at least the most important, idea
is that of possession. All men belong
to God by creation; but the bestowment of the virtue of
redemption makes them His in a
special sense; and if they are His then all that they
have becomes His: consecration in
detail follows from and is a part of the general
consecration. The believer is supposed to
The souls that are dedicated and consecrated to God are
not merely His; they have also
the most intimate union with Him. Truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with His
Son Jesus Christ:
1 Eph. 5:26,27;
2
Rom. 12:1;
3
Rom. 6:13;
4
Tit. 2:14;
5
1 John 1:3,7
(2.) Then follows consecration to the service of God.
The Divine temple and the Divine
service are correlative terms. The whole life of the
Christian is spent in a sanctuary. The
people are the house of God: ye are the temple of the living God;
1 2 Cor. 6:16;
2
1 Pet. 2:5;
3
Acts 17:28;
4
1 John 4:16;
5
2 Tim. 2:21
3. The Holy Ghost is the seal and the power of this
consecration; and these as it were in
one, yet with a distinction: He is the
The faith which worketh by love
III. The unity of these is
Christ is their
hagiasmos: the ground or principle or source of their sanctification
as in
process, in every sense negativing their sin. The state
in which they live is that of
Hagioosúne, or holiness
1. It is a relative sanctity: not of course forensic,
but corresponding nevertheless to the
imputation of righteousness. As there is a holy day, a
holy church, a holy city; and as
whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy,
1 Exo. 29:37;
2
1 Pet. 2:9;
3
Mat. 27:53;
4
1 Cor. 1:2
2. But this last quotation indicates that it is also an
internal holiness: not only
called
saints but
called to be saints: the addition in the translation precisely
expresses the
double truth, that all who are called saints are called
to become such. These same
Corinthians termed holy are exhorted to attain moral
sanctity: let us cleanse
ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God,
3. The external and internal holiness are always
combined in the purpose of God. No
sanctity possible to man, even at the foot of the
throne, is perfect without imputation. The
past sin is regarded as for ever sprinkled away: it
remains as a fact of history, but a
cancelled fact; as defilement that once was, but is now
effaced. But no imputation of
sanctity as belonging to the church will avail without
the reality. In the attainment of
Christian perfection the external and the internal are
one
4. Many other terms are used to denote the estate of
holiness under each of the two
aspects of purification and consecration. It is
described rather with reference to the
Divine act in
hagiasmós,
Our Lord first spoke of His own as sanctified
through the truth:
5. It is worthy of remark that consecration to God as a
state is predicated of man's nature
in all its constituent elements. And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless.
1 1 Thes 5:23;
2
1 Cor. 6:19;
3
Rom. 12:1;
4
Rom. 8:10;
5
Luke 20:10
SANCTIFICATION PROGRESSIVE AND PERFECT
While there is a sense in which sanctification is a
permanent and unchangeable principle,
it is also a process which reaches its consummation,
according to the provisions of the
New Covenant and the testimony of the Spirit, in the
present life
1. It is obvious that wherever the term is used to
signify that in the temple which
justification means in the lawcourt of Christianity it
admits of no change. The
worshippers, once purged, should have had no more
conscience of sins.
1 Heb. 10:2;
2
Heb. 10:10;
3
Heb. 10:22
2. The positive consecration also knows no change as a
principle. Whatever is on the
altar that sanctifieth the gift
3. Holiness as a state is also in the usage of Scripture
unchangeable. The New Testament
speaks of that state as ideal, and as virtually
perfected in all who belong to Christ. In this
sense also, He
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.
In His administration of sanctifying grace the Holy
Spirit proceeds by degrees. Terms of
progress are applied to each department of that work in
the saint; or, in other words, the
goal of entire sanctification is represented as the end
of a process in which the Spirit
requires the cooperation of the believer. This
co-operation, however, is only the condition
on which is suspended what is the work of Divine grace
alone
I. The negative side of sanctification as the removal of
sin is described as a process; but
chiefly in terms of the regenerate life
1. The most familiar is that which represents the
sinning nature as under the doom of
death. Our old
man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that
henceforth we should not serve sin:
Not only is the old man to be destroyed by the doom of
crucifixion, but every specific
member of his sin is to be surrendered to atrophy:
Make not provision for the flesh,
to
fulfill the lusts thereof.
2. From this we may deduce two principles. First, the
general bias, or character of the
soul, becomes positively more and more alienated from
sin and set upon good; and,
proportionally, the susceptibility to temptation or the
affinity with sin becomes negatively
less and less evident in its consciousness. There is in
the healthy progress of the Christian
a constant confirmation of the will in its ultimate
choice, and a constant increase of its
power to do what it wills: the vanishing point of
perfection in the will is to be entirely
merged in the will of God. There is also a perpetual
weakening of the susceptibility to
temptation: what was at first a hard contest gradually
advances to the sublime triumph of
the Savior, Get
thee hence, Satan!
1Mat. 4:10;
2
John 14:30;
3
1 John 1:9;
4
1 John 1:7
II. The positive side—that of consecration by the Spirit
of love—is also a process, a
gradual process
1. The Spirit Himself is given by measure
Of this great gift it holds good: unto every one which hath shall be
given.
1 John 3:34;
2
Luke 19:26;
3
Eph. 5:18;
4
Acts 2:4;
5
Jude 19
2. Hence the shedding abroad of the love of God by the
Holy Ghost admits of increase. It
is enough to cite the Apostle's prayer: that your love may abound yet more and
more.
John calls it,
love with us,—where the love of God to us and our love to. Him
because He
first loved us,
1 Phil. 1:9;
2
1 John 4:17,19;
3
1 John 4:17;
4
2 Cor. 5:14;
5
Luke 12:50;
6
Eph. 3:18,19
III. Holiness as an estate is also described as
progressive: first, as a goal to be attained; to
be attained, secondly, through human effort; but,
lastly, only as the bestowment of the
Holy Ghost, the Supreme Agent of all good
1. Once we have the expression perfecting holiness,
Again, a still higher prayer, Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy
word is truth!
2. The sanctification administered, effected, imparted
as the free gift of the Holy Ghost is
also conditional on the effort of man. Here the blessing
of the Christian covenant enters
into the ethical region. It is exceedingly difficult to
keep the two apart. Reserving for
Christian Ethics the consideration of much that belongs
to the subject, we note that the
process of sanctification keeps pace with the
fulfillment of certain conditions. A few
illustrations, referring to each department, will be
enough
(1.) We are exhorted as Christians to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of
the flesh and
spirit:
No one understands all these passages aright who does
not see that they all hang upon
one principle, that the Spirit's work in us is made our
own. Having these promises
(2.) Nothing is more constantly declared than that the
effusion of the Spirit of
consecration keeps pace with the co-operation of the
believer. Whether he regards love as
that of God to us, or as the response in us to Him, St.
John inculcates the need of our
compliance with conditions. But whoso keepeth His word, in him
verily is the love of God
perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.
The spirit of devotion to God becomes stronger in
proportion as these conditions are kept
in dependence on the Spirit who imparts that love
(3.) As to the state of holiness it is a goal to the
attainment of which Christian men are
habitually required to bend their effort. It is the
object of their own aspiration. This is
generally and. universally true: it is the secret and
strength of the command,
perfecting
holiness.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God:
3. Is then the process of sanctification ended by an
attainment which rewards human
endeavor simply? Assuredly not: the Holy Spirit finishes
the work in His own time, and
in His own way, as His own act, and in the absolute
supremacy if not in the absolute
sovereignty of His own gracious power
(1.) Every act and every habit of holiness is of the
Spirit. Though those who are Christ's
are said themselves to have crucified the flesh with its
passions and lusts,
(2.) There is a consummation of the Christian experience
which may be said to introduce
perfection, when the Spirit cries,
(3.) While, therefore, the tenor of the New Testament
represents entire sanctification as
the result of a process, it is also ascribed to the
result of the constant effusion of the Holy
Ghost, crowned in one last and consummating act of His
power. Of this resurrection also
we may ask, as the Apostle asked concerning another,
Why should it be thought a thing
incredible?
(4.) But, lastly, it must be remembered that this final
and decisive act of the Spirit is the
seal set upon a previous and continuous work. The
processes may be hastened and
condensed into a short space; they must be passed
through as processes. Yea, we
establish
the law
Never do we read of a
The preparations for an entire consecration to God may
be long continued or they may be
hastened. Whenever the seal of perfection is set on the
work, whether in death or in life, it
must be a critical and instantaneous act; possibly known
to God alone, or, if revealed in
the trembling consciousness of the believer, a secret
that he knows not how to utter. But
this leads us from the Sanctuary to the Most Holy Place
Provision is made in the Christian covenant for the
completeness of the Saviour's work as
the perfect application of His atonement to the
believer. This may be viewed as the
complete destruction of sin, as the entireness of
consecration to God, and as the state of
consummate holiness to which the character of the saint
may be formed in the present
life. These privileges may be regarded respectively as
Entire Sanctification, Perfect Love,
and Evangelical Perfection: these being one as the
finished application of the Saviour's
Finished Work, so far as its consummation belongs to
time and to grace
It is not meant that these three are distinct branches
of Christian privilege. Each implies
the other; and neither can be treated without involving
the rest. Nor are the terms exact as
indicating each its particular department: for instance,
sanctification is as much positive
consecration to God as negative purifying from sin. But
the distinction is convenient as
giving opportunity for a methodical, and, if the term
may be admitted, scientific view of
all sides of a deeply important question. Controversy
will be excluded as out of harmony
with this most sacred subject: what polemical reference
may be necessary will be
reserved for the Historical Review
PURIFICATION FROM SIN OR ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION
The virtue of the atonement, administered by the Holy
Spirit, is set forth in Scripture as
effecting the entire destruction of sin. This is
everywhere declared to be the design of
redemption: and it is promised to the believer as his
necessary preparation for the future
life. The entire removal of sin from the nature is
nowhere connected with any other
means than the word of God received in faith and proved
in experience
I. The work of Christ has for its end the removal of sin
from the nature of man: from the
nature of the believer in this present life.
No end is kept more constantly before us
1. Generally viewed, this is an uncontested truth.
For this purpose the Son of God
was
manifested) that He might destroy the works of the
devil:
There cannot be service if there is nothing wherewith to
serve. Therefore, finally, these
Apostles unite in exhorting Christians to regard
themselves as altogether delivered from
the law of sin. St. John says: these things write I unto you, that ye
sin not.
2. More particularly, we have to do with Original Sin.
This has two meanings here: it is
the individual portion of the common heritage, and it is
the common sin that infects the
race of man during the whole evolution of its history in
time
(1.) As to the latter, it is not to be doubted that
original sin, or sin as generic and
belonging to the race in its federal constitution on
earth, is not abolished till the time of
which it is said,
Behold, I make all things new:
(2.) But original sin, as in the unrenewed, sin that dwelleth in
3. And certainly the scene of our Saviour's atoning
sacrifice is always set forth as the
scene of His redeeming power. There is only one
redemption which is reserved for His
second coming:
the redemption of our body.
II. Full deliverance from sin is both required and
promised as the preparation for final
admission to the presence of God
1. We are exhorted to holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord:
2. Prayer—especially that of our Lord and His servant
Paul— is used as the vehicle of
teaching this.
Sanctify them through Thy truth ! . . . that they all may be one, as Thou
Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be
one in Us.
Paul: and to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled into
all the fullness of God.
3. Scripture presents a sinless state as actually
attained in this life. Perfect
love casteth
out fear:
There is nothing plainer in the Bible than this its last
testimony concerning the privilege
of Christian experience. I am crucified with Christ; yet I live;
though no longer I, but
Christ liveth in me:
III. No instrumentality in the impartation of this grace
is ever referred to but the Gospel
and its agencies consciously received
1. The discipline of affliction is among the
instrumentalities of grace, which transforms
all the sorrows of the believer in Christ into the fellowship of His sufferings,
the being
made conformable unto His death.
2. The only outer court of preparation is the present
life. The Scripture speaks of no
waterpots after the manner of the purifying of the Jews
ENTIRE CONSECRATION OR PERFECT LOVE
The Spirit is imparted in His fullness for the entire
consecration of the soul to the Triune
God: the love of God, having its perfect work in us, is
the instrument of our deliverance
from indwelling sin; and the return of our love made
perfect also is the strength of our
obedience unto entire holiness. This is abundantly
attested as the possible and attained
experience of Christians
I. The commandment of the entire Scriptures, from
beginning to end, is that of perfect
consecration to God; and the spring and energy of that
consecration is love
1. The love of God is the same in the Old Testament and
in the New. It is not a sentiment
of the mind alone, nor an affection of the sensibility
alone, nor an energy of the will
alone; but it is the devotion of the man, in the
integrity of all these, to God as the one
Object and Rest and Centre and Life of the soul. What
doth the Lord thy God require of
thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His
ways, and to love Him, and to serve
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul?
2. Its perfection is simply its soleness and supremacy.
It is not in the measure of its
intensity, which never ceases to increase throughout
eternity until it reaches the
maximum, if such there be, of creaturely strength; but,
in the quality of its unique and
sovereign ascendancy, it has the crisis of perfection
set before it as attainable. In the
interpretation of heaven that love is perfect which
carries with it the whole man and all
that he has and is. Its perfection is negative, when no
other object, that is no creature,
receives it apart from God or in comparison of Him; and
it is positive when the utmost
strength of the faculties, in the measure and according
to the degree of their possibility on
earth, is set on Him. Thus interpreted no law of the
Bible is more absolute than this of the
perfect love of God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.
II. The Spirit of God, as the Spirit of perfect
consecration, is poured out upon the
Christian Church. And He discharges His sanctifying
office as an indwelling Spirit: able
perfectly to fill the soul with love, and to awaken a
perfect love in return
1. The last document of the New Testament gives clear
expression to the former. We love
[Him] because He first loved us.
2. He also speaks most expressly of the return of love
to God in us as perfected. This
expression occurs but once in the Scripture in so
absolutely incontestable a form
Whereas in the previous instances the Apostle meant that
the love of God is perfected in
us, in the following words he can have no other meaning
than that our own love is to be,
and is—for these are the same, in our argument—itself
perfected, teteleioomenee. It
is of
course the same thing whether God's love is perfected or
ours made perfect in return; but
the combination gives much force to the statement of
privilege: Perfect love casteth
out
fear. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
3. The Holy Ghost uses the love of God as His instrument
in effecting an entire
consecration. This is that unction from the Holy One
III. All this may be said to be the high ideal of
Christianity, which has never been
realized. But the tenor of the New Testament forbids
this method of interpretation in
every form. An unbroken, perfect, uninterrupted
concentration of all the faculties on God
is possible in itself, and it is possible on earth
1. The honor of the Spirit's office requires this. His
dispensation is for man in this world;
when Christ returns it ceases; and if His perfect work
is accomplished it is in the present
life. We hear of no operation of His grace save in this
world. And the things concerning
Him also
2. The prayers of St. Paul invariably supplicate for
Christians in the present state the most
abundant outpouring of the love that consecrates. In
this they only echo the Lord's own
prayer for His people. But they are peculiar, and stand
alone in Scripture, as a series of
intercessory supplications which set no limits to the
Christian privilege. They have been
considered in this light already. It is sufficient now
to point to the Ephesian Prayer, for
instance, containing every element of our doctrine. The
Spirit's strength poured into the
inner man
3. The nature of man confirms this, and illustrates its
possibility. The constitution of the
human mind is made for unity, and unity is perfection.
But that unity is love: that is, the
supreme aim or pursuit of the will is the love which is
the bond of perfectness.
1 Col. 3:14;
2
Psa. 86:10,11
4. The example of our Lord is so presented as to assure
us of the possibility of a perfect
love to God and man. In the exercise of that twofold
love—one in Him as in no other—
He accomplished our redemption. And of this He said:
I have given you an example that
ye should do as I have done to you.
5. The aspiration of the renewed soul is confirmatory
evidence. The argument from
aspiration generally is one of the strongest that can be
used to move a reasonable mind; it
is valid in many departments of theology. In this case
it is especially strong. As
newborn
babes, they
long for the spiritual milk;
6. The honor put upon faith is such as to warrant the
utmost expectation and sanction the
highest doctrine. Thrice did our Lord speak of its
unlimited power as a principle living
and being enveloped from within like the life of the
mustard-seed. As to the uprooting of
sin He told His wondering disciples, who prayed for
increase of faith, that they might not
only overcome un-charitableness, but have its principle
extirpated: Ye would say unto
this
sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be
thou planted in the sea; it had
obeyed you!
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing, ye shall receive.
1 Luke 17:6;
2
Mat. 17:20;
3
Mat. 21:21,22
7. The recorded experience and character of the saints
should have its weight: their
experience; not their testimony, which in the nature of
things is not to be expected, as
there is no mystery more deeply hid in God, no
consciousness more unconscious of self,
than that of perfect holiness and love. As to Scriptural
examples the express references
are few. Not biography, nor delineation of
character—save that of One—is to be sought
there; men are described only in their relation to the
kingdom of God, and their holiness
appears only in their lives of devotion. But in every
dispensation some names are found
to whom the Searcher of hearts bears testimony that they
wholly pleased Him. In the
judgment of the Christian Church many in almost every
community and in every age
have been saints made perfect in holiness, and
self-renunciation, and charity, whose
record is with God. But we are not careful to establish
this argument. It is the privilege of
the covenant, and not the avowal of it, with which we
are here concerned
CHRISTIAN OR EVANGELICAL PERFECTION
The maturity of the Christian privilege is set before
believers as the goal of all
Evangelical aspiration. This perfection, as Evangelical
and the effect of Divine grace, is
estimated according to a gracious interpretation of the
law fulfilled in love; moreover, it
is limited, and in all respects accommodated to a
probationary condition; while it is
universal, as extending, under these conditions, to the
entire relations of Christian man
I. That Perfection is the goal of a possible estate is
undeniable
1. It is too common, however, to represent the Spirit as
setting before Christians an ideal
unattainable in the present life. On this much has been
already said, and more will be said
hereafter. Suffice to reiterate that no desire of
holiness can be vain
2. It is a more reasonable argument to point to passages
in which the word has a less
intense meaning, though, even when these are given up,
there is a large and sufficient
residuum of clear testimonies. Doubtless some are
incorrectly applied in the discussion:
referring rather to the perfection with which
Christianity begins than to that with which it
ends. Let us,
therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
3. Injunctions to seek perfection and corresponding
promises are few but very distinct
Were there no other the Redeemer's would be enough:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
II. This perfection is Evangelical: that is, it is
distinguished from every kind of perfection
that is not of pure grace; and it bears, like everything
pertaining to the estate of humanity,
the impress of the condescension and lovingkindness of
God. It is, however much the
thought may be disapproved of men, a perfection
accommodated to our fallen condition:
not lowered but accommodated; a distinction this which
is not without a difference. There
is a consummation here as well as hereafter
1. It is not absolute perfection; nor the perfection of
Adam's estate, who had not fallen;
nor the perfection of sinlessness, which can never be
predicated of those who will bear in
them the consequences of sin until the end. Those who
are unsinning in the gracious
estimate of God, neither think themselves, nor desire to
be thought, sinless in the utmost
meaning of the word
2. It is the perfection of that estate to which men are
called by the Gospel of glad tidings:
glad tidings, not only as to the remission of past sins,
but also as to the acceptance of
future service. Applying this to the threefold division
of that estate, we may note: (1.) The
righteousness of God, which He accepts, is regarded as a
fulfillment of the law, as that is
fulfilled in love:
love is the fulfilling of the law;
3. This being understood, the doctrine is not disparaged
by the use of the expression
itself. The word
III. Christian perfection is relative and probationary,
and therefore in a certain perhaps
undefinable sense limited
1. This may be viewed with reference to the final
consummation. In the hope of that last
teteleseai all Christians unite: when
With regard to physical resurrection St. Paul says:
That was not first which is
spiritual,
but that which is natural.
Perfection under this and every aspect is relative
2. Christian perfection at the best is that of a
probationary estate. There is no reason
therefore why it may not be lost again, and utterly
lost, even after the fruition of the result
of long years of heavenly blessing on earthly diligence.
The principle of sin extinct in the
soul may be kindled into life as it was kindled in Eve.
There is no reason why it should
not; but there is every reason why it need not and ought
not. Such a second fall would be
a fall indeed. It is not probable that it was ever
witnessed. It is only our theory that
demands the admission of its possibility
3. It is that of the individual person whose relation to
the race remains. Though
personally in Christ, and altogether in Christ, during
probation he is still under the
generic doom of original sin, with a concupiscence which
is not sin but the fuel of it
always ready to be kindled, and generally under that law
of probation which is peculiar to
our race. Hence he is also a sinner among sinful men to
the end of his continuance in the
flesh: the inheritor of a sinful nature which, cleansed
in himself, he transmits to his own
children uncleansed. He does not altogether lose his
connection with the line of sinful
humanity. We never read of an entire severance from the
first Adam as the prerogative of
those who are found in the Second. The entirely
sanctified believer may be, as touching
his relation to Christ and in Christ, without spot and
blameless; at the same time that in
relation to Adam and in him he is only a sinful man
among sinful men
4. Once more, it is a probationary perfection inasmuch
as it is always under the ethical
law. Christianity is the perfect law of liberty:
5. Hence this perfection needs constantly the
mediatorial work of Christ: it demands His
constant influence to preserve as a state what is
imparted as a gift. The mediatory
intercession is never so urgently needed as for those
who have so priceless a treasure in
earthen vessels: the higher the grace and the more
finished the sanctity, the more alien it
is from the surrounding world, the more hateful to the
tempter, and the more grace does it
require for its guard. Our Lord's rehearsal of His
abiding intercession tells us this:
I pray
not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but
that Thou shouldest keep them
from the evil.
6. With all these conditions and limitations the word
perfection—teleiotees,
integrity—
extends to all the blessings of the covenant of grace as
they are provided for man in
probation. In other words these several blessings are
perfect in their imperfection:
imperfect, when viewed in relation to the eternal
requirement of the Supreme Lawgiver;
perfect, when viewed in relation to the present economy
of grace. (1.) In the judicial court
of the Gospel the believer is or may be perfect in his
relation to the law. By one
offering
He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified:
Though the specific doctrine thus laid down is very
generally condemned among the
Churches, some kind of Christian Perfection has been
held in every age: held not only by
the orthodox, but also by many heretical sectaries. The
diverse principles which have
contributed to mould opinion may be very profitably
studied as shedding light upon the
Scriptural doctrine. Indeed their respective views on
this subject may be regarded as
among the most searching tests which can be applied to
the various systems. Every great
theological tendency of the Christian world has had its
own peculiar exhibition of it. As
there is no consecutive history of the doctrine—it has
no place in Histories of Doctrine
generally—it may be well to adopt a method not
chronological in this brief review:
considering the theories of Christian Perfection which
may be distinguished as the
Fanatical, the Ascetic, and the Pelagian, the Mystical,
the Romanist, the Imputationist,
the Arminian, and finally the Methodist: this last
returning to that which we shall place
first in order as the continuation in the Church of the
Scriptural doctrine. These, however,
will be given merely in outline, and with the proviso
that Christian Ethics is the more
appropriate place for some of them, especially of the
earlier members of the series
I. The Christian Perfection taught in the Scriptures has
descended as a sacred
uninterrupted tradition through all Christian ages.
Testimonies might be gathered from
the writers of every period—a true
1. The Apostolical Fathers, the common heritage of
Christianity, continued the strain of
the New Testament, and taught their successors not to
shrink from the application of the
term. So Clemens Romanus: " Those who have been
perfected in love, through the grace
of God, attain to the place of the godly in the
fellowship of those who in all ages have
served the glory of God in perfectness." Similarly,
Polycarp, speaking of faith, hope, and
charity, says: "If any man be in these, he has fulfilled
the law of righteousness, for he that
has love is far from every sin." Such words as these
contain the germ of what may be
called the doctrine of Christian Perfection: it is the
perfection of love through grace
accomplishing the righteousness of faith. The Epistles
of Ignatius again and again speak
of a perfect faith, of a perfect mind and intention, and
of the perfect work of holiness:
teleioi ontes,
teleia kai phroneite• Thelousi gar uooin eu prattein, kai ho Theos
etoimos
estin eis to paraschein. With these we may connect
Irenaeus, who says that "God is
mighty to make that perfect which the willing spirit
desires," and "the Apostle calls them
perfect who present body, soul, and spirit without blame
before God: who not only have
the Holy Spirit abiding in them, but also preserve
faultless their souls and bodies, keeping
their fidelity to God, and fulfilling their duties to
their neighbor."
2. But it soon became evident that the high tone of
New-Testament teaching was more or
less lowered in Christian literature. For this three
reasons may be assigned: first, the
recoil from the assumptions of the Gnostics, and other
fanatics; secondly, the introduction
of an undue asceticism; and, thirdly, the spread of
Pelagian error. The effect of these
three causes respectively will be given in their order
of development
II. From the Ascetic must be distinguished the fanatical
theories of Perfection which have
been among the saddest developments of Christian error.
The adage, Corruptio optimi
pessima, has here one of its most deplorable
illustrations
1. Gnosticism led the way, and found its best opponent
in Clemens Alexandrinus. He lays
down a high doctrine of Christian Perfection, but
recoils from the pride of these Fanatics:
"I cannot but sometimes wonder that some men dare to
call themselves perfect and
Gnostics, thinking of themselves more highly than the
Apostle did." He refers here the
pride of knowledge. But elsewhere he says: "A man may be
perfected, whether as godly,
or as patient, or in chastity, or in labors, or as a
martyr, or in knowledge. But to be
perfected in all these together I know not if this may
be said of any who is yet man, save
only of Him who put on humanity for us. Who therefore is
the perfect man? He who
professes abstinence from all evils." This negative
abstinence from sin he, however,
strengthens into positive fulfillment of righteousness:
"It is a thing impossible that man
should be perfect as God is perfect; but it is the
Father's will that we, living according to
the Gospel in blameless or unfailing obedience, should
become perfect." This wavering
language, holding fast the doctrine of Scriptural
Perfection and yet shrinking from the full
statement of it, may in Clement, Irenaeus, and others,
be fairly ascribed to a certain
failure of their faith in their own principles. The
Gnostics claimed to be the spiritual and
perfect, as being redeemed from the bondage of matter
and the flesh. The answer to them
should have been that believers are, or may be,
sanctified in the flesh as well as from the
flesh. But this grand principle was surrendered, and
Christian men were content to write
as if sin was a necessary concomitant of the body
2. Montanism in the second century was a system based on
the delusion that the Holy
Ghost, as the Paraclete, was not given to the Apostles
but was reserved for a third
dispensation. Montanus claimed, to be the prophet or
apostle of this new revelation,
which raised the Church to a higher perfection, and made
its true members the Spiritales
or Pneumatici, whereas before they were only Psychici,
or the Carnal. This enthusiast
aimed rather at a stricter external discipline than at
the establishment of any systematic
doctrine of personal sanctification, and therefore his
fanaticism only in an indirect way
concerns our present subject. But its fundamental
principle, that the Spirit may be
expected to descend for a fuller and deeper baptism than
on the Day of Pentecost, has
from time to time reappeared in theories of the
perfectibility of Christian faith and
Christian experience
3. Montanism was the first development of a principle
which has reappeared at various
times under other influences. Many of the fanatical
sects of the Patristic and Middle Ages
boasted of a plenary outpouring of the Spirit vouchsafed
to themselves alone. Adopting
the language of Scripture which speaks of the teleioi, or the Perfect, some of the
Catharists of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
termed themselves the
4. There has been a tendency among some teachers of
religion in modern times so to
speak of Christian perfection as to seem to make it the
entrance into a new order of life,
one namely of higher consecration under the influence of
the Holy Ghost. That this
higher life is the secret of entire consecration there
can be no doubt. But there is no
warrant in Scripture for making it a new dispensation of
the Spirit, or a Pentecostal
visitation super-added to the state of conversion.
Have ye received the Holy Ghost
since
ye believed? means Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye
believed?
5. A certain fanaticism of devout ignorance has in every
age led enthusiasts to mistake
transient effusions of heavenly influence for a finished
work of holiness. This error,
venial in one sense but very hurtful in another, is the
result of a too prevalent separation
between the sanctification of Christian privilege as a
free gift and the ethical means
appointed for its attainment. Sometimes it springs from
forgetting that the present posture
of the soul is a very different thing from its abiding
character. Opponents of the Scriptural
doctrine make much use of a fact which must be admitted,
that religious enthusiasm often
outruns discretion. But the fact, however lamentable,
has no force as argument
III. Asceticism is a development of the religious
tendency in man that has been almost
universal and has the highest sanction
1. Its definition is given by St. Paul in words which at
once recommend it and guard it
and promise its genuine fruit: Exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
(3.) Godliness is the reward of this discipline, even as
it must be its end
Therefore Christian perfection, which is the perfect
operation of the Holy Spirit in the
heart and life, requires on its human side a certain
askoosis, or personal
strenuous
exercise. St. Paul said of himself, I exercise myself to have always a
conscience void of
offence toward God and toward men.
2. "What may be called ascetical theories of Perfection
are to be traced in every age. As
they have expressed the most intense strivings of the
Christian devotion they must be
treated with respect. But in their general tendency they
have declined from the spirit of
the New Testament, and that in two ways:
(1.) They have laid too much stress on the human effort,
thereby dishonoring the
supremacy of the Holy Ghost, Who carries on His work
without the instrumentality too
often adopted by asceticism, and is after all the sole
Agent in the spirit's sanctification
Doubtless, many of those who abstracted themselves from
the world for the attainment of
perfect holiness depended on the grace of the Gospel for
acceptance, but many more
sought by the merit of their works to win that grace.
And, generally, the direct influence
of the Spirit in the extinction of sin through the
shedding abroad of the love of God was
not the prime element in their ascetic discipline
(2.) They have too carefully distinguished between
common and elect Christians by
adopting the Saviour's so-called
3. The noblest testimonies to the grandeur of the
Christian vocation are found in the
writings of the early anchorets; but the influence of an
undue stress upon human effort
qualifies the value of the best even of those who do
most honor to the Spirit's work. The
thought for ever lingers in their pages that something
must remain for human vigilance to
watch and keep down, without which humility would not be
perfect
(1.) Macarius, of Egypt, is a typical example. One
extract will show his precise relation to
the question: " Such souls as burn with ardent and
inextinguishable love to the Lord are
worthy of eternal life. Hence they are thought meet to
be free from such motions of the
mind, and to attain perfect enlightenment, and the
hidden Communion of the Holy Ghost,
and the mysterious fellowship of the fullness of grace."
" It is the Spirit who gives him
this, teaching him true prayer, true meekness, which he
had long sought and labored for;
and then he grows, and becomes perfect in God, and
worthy to be an heir of the
kingdom." Here the note of worthiness is a subtle fall,
if not from the language yet from
the spirit of Scripture. Again: " Every one of us must
attain blessedness through the gift
of the Holy Spirit. But he may in faith and love and the
struggle of the determination of
his free will reach a perfect degree of virtue, that so
he may both by grace and by
righteousness win eternal life. Thus not alone by the
Divine grace and power, without the
diligence of his own labor being added, is he counted
worthy of perfect growth. Nor
again only through his own diligence, as if not laying
hold of the Divine hand from
above, does he reach perfect freedom and purity." And
what is that purity? " Answer: the
perfect cleansing from sin, and freedom from base
passions, And the attainment of the
highest reach of virtue,' that is, the sanctification of
the heart, which takes place through
the indwelling of the Divine and perfect Spirit of God
in perfect joy" And even this
is not
the highest pitch of Macarius; but he descends again: "
Never have I seen a Christian man
perfect and entirely free. For though one may be resting
in grace, and may attain to
mysteries and revelations, and to much and deep
sweetness of grace: nevertheless, he has
sin within him. They think through the abounding grace
and light they have that they are
free and perfect: deceived by inexperience, even while
they receive much grace. I have
yet seen no man entirely free. I myself may have reached
that point sometimes, but have
learned still that no man is perfect." " In the case of
a man that is sick, it may be that
some members are sound; for instance, the sight or other
organs. So is it in spiritual
things. For it is probable that some may have all the
three members of the spirit sound,
but not on that account is he perfect." It is obvious
that the central idea is here wanting,
that the Spirit's operation is within the various
elements of our nature, mighty in the
personality itself, and that His supreme prerogative is
to kill that body of sin the members
of which we are to mortify. The Ascetic theory has
always rested in the contest between
the human spirit and the flesh: too often forgetting
that the Divine Spirit is not merely the
umpire and witness but the Almighty Agent also in the
destruction of sin
(2.) Many high testimonies were borne to the Saviour's
power in the inner man by Nilus,
a Greek disciple or representative of Asceticism in the
fifth century. " Our Lord Christ
can not only scatter and make powerless the temptations
which come upon us through
Satan from without, but He can also restrain and still
the motions and impulses which lie
deep in our corrupted nature." His teaching is, that if
we give heed to purity of heart, and
watch its bias, by grace "all its lusts and abominations
shall be extirpated from the soul
by its very roots; and joy, confidence, knowledge of
ourselves and of sin be brought in,
with true humility and great love to God and man." But
Nilus knows nothing of a perfect
destruction of sin in the heart: " When thou art
assailed by evil lust, fall down before God
and cry, O Son of God, help me! But do not over mightily
trouble thyself, for we fight
only with affections, but cannot entirely root them
out." Marcus Eremita speaks for the
whole class when he says: " There may have been
unspeakable heavenly glories enjoyed
It might seem that a perfect stage had been reached, and
that the man was pure and free
from sin itself. But afterwards that special grace was
withdrawn, and the veil over the
deadly evil removed, though the man still remained in a
lower degree of perfection." As
also Maximus: " Devotion indeed sets the will free from
lusts, yet so that its nature, as
will, does not fail. Think not that thou hast an entire
deliverance from concupiscence,
because the object is not now present: that would only
be if thou shouldst remain
immoveable on the remembrance or at the presence of the
object. But even so thou must
not be too secure, because devotion may for a long
season kill the desires which yet
afterwards rise again if strong devotion is suspended."
This is in harmony with the
uniform tendency of Ascetic writers of every age to
regard concupiscence as a secret
enemy in the soul left there for the discipline,
humiliation, and caution of the spiritual
athlete. Two sentences of the same saint may be
collated: " No man may make
the weakness
of the flesh the patron of his sins because union with
God the Word has abolished
the curse, and made it inexcusable if we still, with
evil concupiscence, cling to sinful
objects. For the Divinity of the Word, always present by
grace with the believer, makes
weak the law of sin in the flesh." With this compare:
"The end of godliness is the union
of human weakness with Divine strength through the true
wisdom. Now he who through
the weakness of nature limits himself does not reach the
goal of virtue, but lets his hands
fall short of the strength that is afforded to our
weakness. He has only his own sloth to
blame that he is not better than he is." There is but a
step between such views as these
and the Scriptural truth that the Divine strength not
only aids but is perfected in our
weakness. That step, however, was never taken by the
Ascetic theory
(3.) Cassian, in his Conferences on the Holy Life, gives
perhaps the best examples of the
dignity and the defect of the Ascetic aspiration. These
must be consulted by the student
himself
IV. The most radical error of ancient times in relation
to grace, in its perfection as well as
in its processes, was Pelagianism. What the heresy of
Arius was to Christ's Person, that of
Pelagius was to His work
1. No tenet was more logically necessary to the system
than that of a possible
perfectibility of human nature: the strongest argument
was that no reason existed to the
contrary. It taught that man's free will might be
educated, and had been educated in many
instances, up to such a pitch of conformity with the
moral law as would satisfy the
merciful Governor of mankind. But the highest law was
low in a theory which made
forgiveness possible without expiation; and regarded sin
merely as the temporary and
accidental condition of the mind, resulting from bad
example, which a strong exercise of
will could at any time correct The importance of the
Pelagian controversy in its bearing
on this subject will justify a fuller statement of the
views of the heresiarch and of his
opponent Augustine
(1.) The following gives the pith of the doctrine of
Pelagius as to human perfectibility: "
Ante omnia interrogandus est qui negat hominem sine
peccato esse posse, quid sit
quodcunque peccatum, quod vitari potest, an quod vitari
nori potest. Si quod vitari non
potest, peccatum non est; si quod vitari potest, potest
homo sine peccato esse quod vitari
potest . . .. Iterum quaerendum est peccatum voluntatis
an necessitatis est. Si necessitatis
est, peccatum non est; si voluntatis est, vitari potest
. . .. Iterum quaerendum est, utrumne
debeat homo sine peccato esse. Procul dubio debet. Si
debet, potest; si non potest, ergo
nec debet; et si nec debet homo esse sine peccato, debet
ergo cum peccato esse; et jam
peccatum non erit, si illud debere constiterit. Aut si
hoc etiam dici absurdum est, confiteri
necesse est debere hominem sine peccato esse, et constat
eum non aliud debere quam
potest . . .. Iterum quaerendum est quomodo non potest
homo sine peccato esse, voluntate
an natura. Si natura, peccatum non est; si voluntate,
perfacile potest voluntas voluntate
mutari." Here the possibility of Christian perfection is
based on the broad ground of the
essential power of the human will. Hence Pelagius boldly
asserted that through the use of
their natural faculties, and the natural means of grace,
men might attain unto a state of
perfect conformity with the law of God, Who prescribes
nothing impossible. But his
denial of original sin, and of the sanctifying power of
the Holy Ghost applying the
provision of the Atonement, robbed his theory of entire
sanctification of any essentially
Christian character
(2.) The views of Augustine on this subject deserve
careful consideration. It will appear
from the following extracts that he was not an opponent
of the doctrine of entire
sanctification, and that his statements on this subject
were much more faithful to
Scripture than those of his followers in the maintenance
of what are called by them the
Doctrines of Grace. He admits, in fact, that through a
supernatural operation of grace the
will might be so influenced as to concur with the will
of God in all things. He asserts that
a supreme delight in God might overcome every opposite
tendency: this being the
doctrine of Perfect Love which we have maintained. That
he afterwards denies the fact,
or seems to deny the fact, that God has given this grace
to any, does not weaken his
admission; since he arbitrarily attributes the restraint
to the secret wisdom of the Divine
procedure, a principle to which we shall return. " Et
ideo ejus perfectionem etiam in hac
vita esse possibilem, negare non possumus, quia omnia
possibilia sunt Deo, sive quae
facit sola sua voluntate, sive quae co-operantibus
creaturae suae voluntatibus a se fieri
posse con-stituit. Ac per hoc quicquid eorum non facit,
sine exemplo est quidem in ejus
operibus factis; sed apud Deum et in ejus virtute habet
causam qua fieri possit, et in ejus
sapientia quare non factum sit." Here are the two
factors in entire sanctification, plainly
stated, " the power of God in accomplishing whatsoever
He has determined to do with the
co-operation of His creatures' faculties." If there is
any bar to the finished holiness of the
believer, it must be found in the "wisdom of God." In
the next passage we receive in
Augustine's striking antithetical phrases, a luminous
statement of our doctrine. It is the "
revelation of all that belongs to righteousness," and "
the victory of the soul's delight over
every impediment." But here the wisdom of God's
appointment, which might forbid
perfect holiness, becomes His "judgment." "Ecce
quemadmodum sine exemplo est in
homini-bus perfecta justitia, et tamen impossibilis non
est. Fieret enim si tanta voluntas
adhiberetur quanta sufficit tantae rei. Esset autem
tanta, si et nihil eorum quae pertinent
ad justitiam nos lateret, et ea sic delectarent animum,
ut quicquid aliud voluptatis
dolorisve impedit, delectatio ilia superaret: quod ut
non sit, non ad impossibilitatem, sed
ad judicium Dei pertinet." In the quotation now to be
added an element is introduced
which was wanting before, the extinction of the law of
sin in the members: " Sed
inveniant isti, si possunt, aliquem sub onere
corruptionis hujus viventem, cui jam non
habeat Deus quod ignoscat . . .. Sane quemquam talem, si
testimonia ilia divina
competenter accipiant, prorsus invenire non possunt;
nullo modo tamen dicendum, Deo
deesse possibilitatem, qua voluntas sic adjuvetur
humana, ut non solum justitia ista quae
ex fide est, omni ex parte modo perficiatur in homine,
verum etiam ilia secundum quam
postea in aeternum in ipsa ejus contemplatione vivendum
est Quandoquidem, si nunc
veiit in quoquam etiam hoc corruptibili induere
incorrup-tionem, atque hic inter homines
morituros eum jubere vivere minime moriturum, ut tota
penitus vetustate consumpta nulla
lex in membris ejus repugnet legi mentis, Deumque ubique
praesentem ita cognoscat,
sicut sancti postea cognituri sunt; quis demum audeat
affirmare, non posse ? Sed quare
non faciat quaerunt homines, nee qui quaerunt se
attendunt esse homines." The substance
of this is, that no one should dare to say that God
cannot destroy the original sin in the
members, and make Himself so present to the soul that, "
(3.) Some modern tendencies, originating in America, may
be alluded to, which belong
partly to the Pelagian and partly to the semi-Pelagian
school. They are represented by the
Oberlin doctrine of entire sanctification: " a full and
perfect discharge of our entire duty,
of all existing obligations to God, and all other
beings. It is perfect obedience to the moral
law." Hence on this theory the moral law is relaxed,
though the expression is demurred
to, in sheer justice. We cannot love God as we should
have loved Him had not sin entered
the world and diminished our power. But God expects from
every man only the best he
can do with his impaired faculties. It is obvious that
on this theory Christian perfection is
too much a subjective matter, and varies with every
individual. Moreover, the view of
original sin on which it is based is one that does not
permit the thought of such an innate
bias to evil as must be negatively eradicated. Its
active and positive principle of
perfection is that of perfect disinterested benevolence,
or the ultimate choice of the
welfare of all being. This, perfect at any moment, makes
the man perfect. But the
character profoundly impressed on the soul is not taken
enough into account. And, to sum
up, the essential Pelagianism of the Oberlin teaching on
original sin, as exhibited in
Finney's System of Theology, counteracts the good in its
semi-Pelagian enforcement of
the necessity of Divine grace
2. Semi-Pelagianism, the main error of which was its
ascribing to human nature,
notwithstanding the Fall, the power of seeking God and
thus claiming Divine help by a
kind of meritum de congruo, did not teach a subsequent
Christian perfection attainable
without special grace. Its first representatives were
men who set up a very high standard
of Christian perfection as attainable through the help
of the Spirit. They were confused as
to the relation of Divine grace to the freedom of the
will in man before conversion, laying
the stress rather on the power of human co-operation
than upon the universal prevenient
grace of the Holy Ghost, restored in virtue of
redemption. That error was partially,
though only partially, corrected in the Synergism of one
section of Lutheran theology; it
was entirely removed in later Arminian and Methodist
teaching. Mediaeval discussions,
and the Romanist standards shaped by them, retained the
confusion as it respects the first
accesses of grace. That was ascribed to the remainder of
good left in the Fall which ought
to have been ascribed to the influence of the Holy Ghost
given back to the race. If we
suppose this error corrected—an error rather of
phraseology than of fact—then semi-
Pelagianism differs little from the truth taught by all
who hold a universal redemption
And its teaching as to Christian Perfection flows into
the general stream of the Mystical
and Roman Catholic doctrine to which we now pass
V. The central idea of Mysticism in all its varieties
has been the entire consecration of the
spirit of man to God, in absolute detachment from the
creature and perfect union with the
Creator
1. In its purest form, Mysticism proper has in every age
moulded an interior circle of
earnest souls, seeking the innermost mysteries of the
kingdom of grace by the most
strenuous ethical discipline. Its methods have been from
time immemorial described as,
first, the way of
John's First Epistle will find in it laid the sure and
deep foundations of this better
Mysticism. It gives the three principles in their order.
The blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth us from all sin:
2. Mediating between this highest type and its
subsequent perversions is the doctrine of
the Quakers, who are among the best representatives of
modern Mysticism. It is thus
stated by Barclay: "For though we judge so of the best
works performed by man,
endeavoring a conformity with the outward law by his own
strength, and in his own will,
yet we believe that such works as naturally proceed from
this spiritual birth and
formation of Christ in us are pure and holy, even as the
root from whence they come; and
therefore God accepts them, justifies us in them, and
rewards us for them in His own free
grace . . .. Wherefore their judgment is false and
against the truth who says that the
holiest works of the saints are defiled and sinful in
the sight of God. For these good
works are not the works of the law excluded by the
Apostle from justification." In the
following extract the new birth is regarded as a
developing process, and is not sufficiently
distinguished from the sanctification of the life that
is imparted in it. This may, however,
be conformed to St. John's doctrine of a birth of God,
with which all sin is incompatible
For the rest, the true teaching of Scripture is clearly
stated. " In whom this pure and holy
birth is fully brought forth, the body of death and sin
comes to be crucified and removed;
and their hearts united and subjected to the truth; so
as not to obey any suggestions or
temptations of the Evil One, and to be free from actual
sinning and transgressing of the
law of God, and in that respect perfect. Yet doth this
perfection still admit of a growth;
and there remaineth always in some part a possibility of
sinning, where the mind doth not
most diligently and watchfully attend unto the Lord."
"Although this gift and inward
grace of God be sufficient to work out salvation, yet in
those in whom it is resisted it both
may and doth become their condemnation. Moreover, they
in whose hearts it hath
wrought in part to purify and sanctify them in order to
their further perfection, may by
disobedience fall from it, turn to wantonness (Jude 4);
make shipwreck of faith (1 Tim. 1:
19); and, after having tasted of the heavenly gift, and
been made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, again fall away (Heb. 6: 4, 5, 6). Yet such an
increase and stability in the truth
may in this life be attained, from which there can be no
total apostasy." The Apologist
can adduce no passage for this last statement, which
however is a venial one. Although
he nowhere expressly teaches that the evil of our nature
may be absolutely eradicated, yet
his general principle leads that way; for instance, in
another place we read: " The first is
the redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in His crucified body
without us; the other is the redemption wrought by
Christ in us, which no less
properly is
called and accounted a redemption than the former. The
first, then, is that whereby a man,
as he stands in the Fall, is put into a capacity of
salvation, and hath conveyed unto him a
measure of that power, virtue, spirit, life and grace
that was in Christ Jesus, which, as the
free gift of God, is able to counterbalance, overcome,
and root out the evil seed
wherewith we are naturally, as in the Fall, leavened."
This is a noble testimony, which, in
its last sentence, goes beyond the general strain of
Mysticism, and anticipates the doctrine
we have maintained
3. False or impure Mysticism, which came from the East
through Neo-Platonism and ran
into the Middle Ages, stimulated the trembling spirit to
seek an uncreaturely
identification with the Uncreated, after the manner of
the Buddhist Nirvana; or an
absorption of the finite into the Infinite Essence whose
Name cannot be uttered, of Whom
no attribute can be predicated, Who is beyond human
thought, and of Whom our highest
conception is that He is at once
VI. The Roman Catholic doctrine, or rather varieties of
doctrine, concerning Christian
Perfection, combines the results of most of the theories
already referred to, and adds
some elements common to it and Arminiamsm. Here we refer
to the standards of
Romanism; but it must be remembered that this most
comprehensive of all theological
systems includes a Jansenist teaching, which modifies
the doctrine in the spirit of St
Augustine and of modern Calvinism. It may be said that
in Roman Catholicism there may
be found statements of the subject conformed to every
one of the theories of our present
sketch. But we have to do with the sanctioned dogma
alone; first, in its bases of truth, and
secondly, in its erroneous superstructure
1. The Council of Trent determined with reference to the
perfection of possible
obedience, that, negatively, there is no bar to an
entire conformity with the law; and,
positively, that a complete satisfaction of its
requirements is necessary to salvation. "
Nemo temeraria ilia voce uti debet, Dei praecepta homini
justificato ad observandum esse
impossibilia. Licet enim in hac mortali vita quantumvis
sancti et justi in Iaevia saltem et
quotidiana, quae etiam venialia dicuntur, peccata
quandoque cedant, non propterea
desinant esse justi." But the necessity of even venial
sin is by implication denied: "Si quis
in quolibet bono opere justum saltem venialiter peccare
dixerit . . . anathema esto." This
high doctrine of the satisfaction of the Divine law
requires as its foundation that its
demands are relaxed to meet the fallen estate of man: it
is the law
(1.) There is no provision for the suppression of the
principle of sin in the regenerate;
without which every doctrine of sanctification must be
imperfect. The remains of original
sin, or Concupiscence, baptismal grace does not remove;
but, all condemnation being
removed from the justified, God does not regard the
fomes or fuel of sin to be sin itself
Here there are two things to be noted. First, the theory
which so strongly protests against
the forensic imputation of righteousness nevertheless
resorts, though without avowing it,
to a reckoning of the Divine estimate which beholds no
evil in what is undoubtedly " of
the nature of sin." Holding that in the regenerate this
remainder of the carnal mind is not
accounted for guilt, we insist that it is sin, and
pardoned only through habitual faith and
in prospect of its entire removal. Secondly, the
inconsistency of the doctrine appears in
this, that such concupiscence is a root of evil which,
though not sin in itself, yet requires
to be utterly removed by discipline. If removed in the
present life, then the Romanist
doctrine is imperfect in not making provision for this.
If removed in another state, the
error of purgatorial grace is introduced. Once more let
Mohler be heard, who makes the
best of his cause in the context: " Hence, the question
recurs: how shall man be finally
delivered from sin, and how shall holiness in him be
restored to perfect life? Or, in case
we leave this earthly world, still bearing about us some
stains of sin, how shall we be
purified from them? Shall it be by the mechanical
deliverance from the body, whereof the
Protestant Formularies speak so much? But it is not easy
to discover how, when the body
is laid aside, sin is therefore purged out from the sinful spirit. It is only one
who rejects
the principle of moral freedom in sin, or who has been
seduced by Gnostic or Manichsean
errors, that could look with favor on a doctrine of this
kind. Or are we to imagine it to be
some potent word of the Deity, or some violent
mechanical process, whereby purification
ensues? Some sudden, magical change the Protestant
doctrine unconsciously
presupposes; and this phenomenon is not strange, since
it teaches that by original sin the
mind had been deprived of a certain portion, and that in
regeneration man is completely
passive. But the Catholic, who cannot regard man other
than as a free, independent agent,
must also recognize this free agency in his final
purification, and repudiate such a
mechanical process as inconsistent with the whole moral
government of the world. It God
were to employ an economy of this nature then Christ
came in vain. Therefore is our
Church forced to maintain such a doctrine of
justification in Christ, and of a moral
conduct in this life regulated by it, that the Redeemer
will at the day of judgment have
fulfilled the claims of the law outwardly for us, but on that very account
inwardly in us
The consolation, therefore, is to be found in the power
of the Redeemer which effaces as
well as forgives sin: yet in a twofold way. With some it
consummates purification in this
life: with others it perfects it only in the life to
come. The latter are they who by faith,
love, and a sincere penitence, have knit the bond of
communion with the Lord, but only
in a partial degree, and at the moment of their quitting
life were not entirely pervaded by
His Spirit: to them will be communicated the saving
power, that at the day of judgment
they also may be found pure in Christ. Thus the doctrine
of a place of purifying is closely
connected with the Catholic theory of justification."
This is followed by a vigorous
exposure of the inconsistencies of the Lutheran
Formularies, in much of which we must
concur but far greater is the inconsistency of " the
mechanical process " that separates sin
from the nature after its departure from the body.
Surely the original sin, which is the
fleshly mind, cannot be the object of sanctifying grace
in the pure spirit. It may be replied
that it is not the principle of sin, but the stain of
it, that purgatorial discipline removes
Then we fall back on the charge, that the Romanist
doctrine, strong as against those who
insist that death is the destruction of sin, is weak in
making no provision for the
suppression and extinction of concupiscence
(2.) The love which is the strength of entire
consecration in all who believe is made by
the Romanist teaching a power that may more than fulfill
the law. With what subtlety this
erroneous principle glides into the theology of Rome may
be seen in the following words
of Mohler: " Some men of late have defended the old
orthodox Lutheran doctrine by
assuring us that the moral law proposes to men an ideal
standard, which, like everything
ideal, necessarily continues unattained. If such really
be the case with the moral law, then
He who comes not up to its requirements can as little
incur responsibility as an epic poet
for not equaling the Iliad." So far well; but here
follows the unevangelical notion that
love may achieve Works of Supererogation, by keeping the
Counsels of Perfection
recommended though not imposed by our Lord; and thus
adding to the general
meritoriousness of all good works the special Merits of
an obedience above law. " More
rational, at least, is the theory that the higher a
believer stands in the scale of morality, the
more exalted are the claims of the moral law upon him:
so that they increase, as it were,
to infinity with the internal growth of man, and leave
him ever behind them. Now, when
we contemplate the lives of the saints the opposite
phenomenon strikes our attention. The
consciousness of being in the possession of an
all-sufficing, infinite power, discloses
more and more the tenderer and nobler relations of man
to God, and to his fellowcreatures;
so that the sanctified in Christ, filled with His
Spirit, ever feels himself superior
to the law. It is the nature of heavenborn love, which
stands so infinitely far above the
claims of the mere law, never to be content with its own
doings, and ever to be more
ingenious in its own devices; so that Christians of this
stamp not unfrequently seem to
others of a lower grade of perfection to be enthusiasts,
or men of distempered mind. Only
in this way that remarkable doctrine can be
satisfactorily explained, —which, like every
other that has for ages existed and seriously engaged
the human mind, is sure to rest on
some sure foundation, —the doctrine, namely, that there
can be works which are more
than sufficient (
The attempt to separate between law and love is a
hopeless one: love is said to be the
fulfilling of the law, and in maintaining that
everlasting principle against their opponents
the Romanist divines had Scripture on their side; but in
establishing it as a higher
standard than the moral law which it only interprets,
and in linking it with special and
arbitrary counsels which are made into statutory laws
binding on a particular class, and,
above all, in assigning specific merit, the merit of
satisfaction, to the acts of this Estate of
Perfection, they are contradicted both by the spirit and
the letter of the entire New
Testament. But this subject carries us onward to
Christian Ethics
VI. The theory of Imputation may serve to designate the
doctrine of Christian Perfection
as taught in the Standards of the Reformation, both
Lutheran and Reformed, and
especially in modern Calvinism. It assumes that the
Christian's entire sanctification as
well as complete justification is provided for the
believer, and applied to him, as a free
gift of the covenant of grace. The three following texts
may be regarded as summing up,
in their unity and their order, the essentials of this
doctrine. Ye are complete in Him.
1. In some it leads to Antinomianism. The pursuit of an
independent perfection, such as
shall crown the individual's own character, is regarded
as a superfluity, not indeed of
naughtiness but of goodness. It is thought to be the
glory of Christ to defy or negative, in
the name of His own, both the condemnation and the
demands of the law. For this,
however, neither Augustinianism, nor Calvinism is
responsible: it is sui generis, a heresy
apart, Antinomianism proper; and, as such, is condemned
of itself, autokatakritos,
the
object of reprobation to all true theology, and, in
fact, the common enemy
2. But even in orthodox systems which make Christ too
absolutely the Substitute of the
believer, the thought of a perfection already belonging
to His people, and ready to be
revealed, must needs in some measure tend to check the
ardor of desire for a personal and
inwrought holiness, affording subtle encouragement to
the thought that any remainders of
sin serve only to feed humility and glorify the grace of
God. The warnings of Scripture,
and the confessions of the saints themselves, give
evidence that this witness is true and
that this danger is real
3. It is in its noblest representatives a most mighty
stimulant to the pursuit of personal
perfection. Union with the Lord is the soul of their
doctrine, and of their ethics, and of
their hopes; and, where the aspiration towards
fellowship with Christ has its full
unhindered influence on the soul, it excites an
unbounded horror of sin and thirst for
holiness. It is the more Christian form of that union
with God which was the goal of
perfection to the more ancient Mystics
VII. The early Arminians wrote much on Christian
Perfection: but laid down no very
determinate principles on this subject. Their
statements, however, contain the germ of the
doctrine which Methodism has developed. They were led by
their theological convictions
to the truth that such holiness as God reputes perfect
may be attained in the present life
They dwelt upon a first perfection of the beginning of
Christianity; a second perfection of
the unimpeded progress of regenerate religion; and a
third perfection of an established
maturity of grace: a triple distinction which is in
harmony with the teachings of the
Gospels and Epistles. They did not however speak very
positively about the means, the
assurance and the limitations of the last stage.
Episcopius says: "The commandments of
God may be kept with what He regards as a perfect
fulfillment, in the supreme love
which the Gospel requires according to the covenant of
grace, and in the utmost exertion
of human strength assisted by Divine help. This
consummation includes two things, (1) A
perfection proportioned to the powers of each
individual; (2) A pursuit of always higher
perfection." Limborch describes it as " perfect, in
being correspondent to the provisions
and terms of the Divine covenant. It is not sinless or
an absolutely perfect obedience, but
such as consists in a sincere love of piety, absolutely
excluding every habit of sin. It has
three degrees, that of the truly perfect being the
entire suppression of every habit of sin."
The Remonstrant divines exhibited their doctrine rather
in its opposition to Romanist
works of supererogation, on the one hand, and
Antinoimanism on the other. They did not
pursue it into its deep relation to sin, and to love,
and to Evangelical perfection. But the
following extract from Arminius himself will show their
true position in relation to this
subject. " Besides those doctrines which I have treated,
there is now much discussion
respecting the Perfection of Believers in this life; and
it is reported that I hold opinions
allied to those of the Pelagians, viz., that it is
possible for the regenerate perfectly to keep
God's precepts. To this I reply that, though these might
have been my sentiments, yet I
ought not on this account to be considered a Pelagian,
either partly or entirely, provided I
had only added that they could do this by the grace of
Christ, and by no means without it
But, while I never asserted that a believer could
perfectly keep the precepts of Christ in
this life, I never denied it, but always left it as a
matter to be decided. For I have
contented myself with those sentiments which St.
Augustine has expressed on this point
He marks four questions which claim our attention. (1)
Was there ever a man without sin,
one who from the beginning of life never committed sin 1
and he decides that such a
person never yet lived, nor will hereafter come into
existence, with the exception of Jesus
Christ. (2) Has there ever been, is there now, or can
there possibly be, an individual who
does not sin, that is, who has attained to such a state
of perfection in this life as not to
commit sin, but perfectly to fulfill the law of God? and
he does not think that any man
has ever reached this. (3) Is it possible for a man to
exist without sin in this life? and he
thinks that this is possible by means of the grace of
God and free will. (4) If it be possible
for a man to be without sin, why has such an individual
never been found I and he
answers, that man does not do what is possible to him by
the grace of Christ to perform:
either because that which is good escapes his
observation, or because in it he places no
part of his delight. Besides this, the same Christian
Father says, 'Let Pelagius confess that
it is possible for a man to be without sin in no other
way than by the grace of Christ, and
we will be at peace with each other.' The opinion of
Pelagius, however, was to Augustine
only this, that man could fulfill the law of God by his
own proper strength and ability; but
with still greater facility by means of the grace of
Christ. I have shown abundantly the
great distance at which I stand from such a sentiment."
But the vital question of the
abolition of original sin was never, either by Arminius
or his successors, decided upon
The following exposition of the general doctrine of
Sanctification will put this in a clear
light. It is abridged from the Private Disputations of
Arminius, which contain the
principles of his uncompleted system of theology: " (1)
The word Sanctification denotes
an act by which anything is separated from common, and
is consecrated to Divine, use
(2) Common use is either according to nature itself, by
which man lives a natural life; or
according to the assumption of sin, by which he obeys it
in its lusts. Divine use is when a
man lives unto godliness, in conformity to the holiness
and righteousness in which he
was created. Therefore this Sanctification, with respect
to the terminum a quo, is
either
from the natural use or from the use of sin; with
respect to the terminum ad quern,
it is
the supernatural and Divine use. (3) When we treat of
man as a sinner, Sanctification is a
gracious act of God by which he purifies man who is a
sinner, and yet a believer, from
ignorance, from indwelling sin with its lusts and
desires, and imbues him with the spirit
of knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; that, being
separated from the life of the
world, and being made conformable to God, he may live
the Divine life. It consists in the
mortification or death of the old man, and the
quickening of the new man. The Author of
Sanctification is God the Holy Father Himself, in His
Son, who is the Holy of holies,
through the Spirit of holiness. The External Instrument
is the Word of God; the Internal is
faith in the Word preached, (4) The Object of
Sanctification is man, a sinner and yet a
believer; a sinner, because his sin has made him unfit
to serve the living God; a believer,
because he is united to Christ, died to sin and is
raised in a new life. (5) The Subject is
properly the soul of man: the mind, first, and then the
affections of the will, which is
delivered from the dominion of indwelling sin, and
filled with the spirit of holiness. The
body is not changed; but, as it is a part of the man who
is consecrated to God, and
removed by the sanctified soul from the purposes of sin,
it is employed in the Divine
service. (6) The process lies in purification from sin,
and conformity with God in the
body of Christ through the Holy Ghost. (7) As, under the
Old Dispensation, the priests,
approaching the worship of God, were sprinkled with
blood, so the blood of Christ
sprinkles us, His priests, to serve the living God. In
this respect, the sprinkling of the
Redeemer's blood, which principally serves for the
expiation of sin, and is the cause of
justification, belongs to sanctification also. For, in
justification the sprinkling washes
away the guilt of sins that have been committed; but in
sanctification it serves to sanctify
those who have received remission, that they may be
enabled to offer spiritual sacrifices
to God through Christ. (8) This sanctification is not
completed in a single moment; but
sin, from whose dominion we have been delivered through
the cross and death of Christ,
is weakened more and more by daily detriments or losses,
and the inner man daily
renewed more and more, while we carry about with us in
our bodies the death of Christ,
and the outward man is perishing. (9)
VIII. The Methodist modification of this Arminian
doctrine, and of all other congenial
exhibitions of it, may be gathered from the writings of
John Wesley, dogmatic and
defensive, from the Methodist Hymn-book, which sings a
higher strain on this subject
than any other psalmody in Christendom, ancient or
modern; and in the commentaries
and monographs which treat the question, whether in
England or in America. A clear
view can be gained only by dividing between the
essentials of the doctrine believed by
the entire community, and certain non-essential aspects
of it which appear different to
different eyes
1. The doctrine of Christian Perfection which the
Wesleys taught was very early
embraced, and in its main elements was consistently
maintained throughout their career
It was presented to them at first in its mystical and
ascetic form, as an object of ethical
aspiration; it never afterwards lost this character; the
grandeur and depth of Thomas a
Kempis, and the best Mysticism of antiquity, are
reflected in the hymns of Charles
Wesley, and in all the writings of John Wesley, even the
most controversial, on this
subject. To this preparatory discipline the Methodist
doctrine owes much: the foundations
of its future highest teaching were laid before the
first elements of it were clearly understood
From the very beginning it had this burden committed to
it; the clear views of its
Founders as to the acceptance of the believer, and his
assurance of acceptance, were
connected from the very outset with clear views as to
his privilege of being filled with the
love of God and delivered from indwelling sin, and
attaining, as the result, a state of
Evangelical perfection. This doctrine was not the slow
result of reflection and study of
the Scriptures. It was indeed confirmed by these; but it
was most assuredly a truth bound
up with the Methodist commission from the very first. It
was simply the doctrine of
former ages with one element, formerly indistinct,
cleared up; that, namely, which made
the entire sanctification of the believer a provision of
the new covenant directly
administered by the Holy Spirit to faith: to faith
working by love and preparing for it, to
faith making this blessing its express object, and to
faith as retaining it through constant
union with the risen Savior. A few extracts from the
last testimonies of John Wesley will
establish all these points, and at the same time give a
fair epitome of the Methodist
doctrine in its relation to the work of the Spirit and
the co-operation of man. They are
taken from "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, as
believed and taught by the
Reverend Mr. John Wesley, from the year 1725 to the year
1777," found in the eleventh
volume of his works: a tract which deserves most careful
study, not only as a defense of
the doctrine, but as containing one of the noblest
collections of Spiritual Exercises in the
English language. The selections are chosen with
reference to the three points mentioned
above, but they fairly exhibit the spirit of the whole
(1.) Christian Perfection was taught by early Methodism
as the seal of the Holy Ghost set
upon the earnest striving of the regenerate will: "This
great gift of God, the salvation of
our souls, is no other than the image of God fresh
stamped on our hearts. It is a 'renewal
of believers in the spirit of their minds, after the
likeness of Him that created them.'"
From this it appears that entire sanctification was
regarded as in reality the perfection of
the regenerate state, a view confirmed as follows: "The
more care should we take to keep
the simple Scriptural account continually in our eye.
Pure love reigning alone in the heart
and life—this is the whole of Scriptural perfection. Q.
When may a person judge himself
to have attained this? A. When, after having been fully
convinced of inbred sin, by a far
deeper and clearer conviction than that he experienced
before justification, and after
having experienced a gradual mortification of it, he
experiences a total death to sin, and
an entire renewal in the love and image of God, so as to
rejoice evermore, to pray without
ceasing, and in everything to give thanks. Not that ' to
feel all love and no sin' is a
sufficient proof. Several have experienced this for a
time, before their souls were fully
renewed. None therefore ought to believe that the work
is done, till there is added the
testimony of the Spirit witnessing his entire
sanctification as clearly as his justification
Q. But whence is it that some imagine they are thus
sanctified, when in reality they are
not? A. It is Hence; they do not judge by all the
preceding marks, but either by part of
them or by others that are ambiguous. But I know no
instance of a person attending to
them all, and yet deceived in this matter. I believe,
there can be none in the world. If a
man be deeply and fully convinced, after justification,
of inbred sin; if he then experience
a gradual mortification of sin, and afterwards an entire
renewal in the image of God; if to
this change, immensely greater than that wrought when he
was justified, he added a clear,
direct witness of the renewal; I judge it as impossible
this man should be deceived herein,
as that God should lie. And if one whom I know to be a
man of veracity testify these
things to me, I ought not, without some sufficient
reason, to reject his testimony
" Q. Is this death to sin, and renewal in love,
gradual or instantaneous?
" A. A man may be dying for some time; yet he does
not, properly speaking, die, till the
instant the soul is separated from the body; and in that
instant he lives the life of eternity
In like manner, he may be dying to sin for some time;
yet he is not dead to sin, till sin is
separated from his soul; and in that instant he lives
the full life of love. And as the change
undergone, when the body dies, is of a different kind,
and infinitely greater than any we
had known before, yea, such as till then it is
impossible to conceive; so the change
wrought, when the soul dies to sin, is of a different
kind, and infinitely greater than any
before, and than any can conceive till he experiences
it. Yet he still grows in grace, in the
knowledge of Christ, in the love and image of God; and
will do so, not only till death, but
to all eternity. Q. How are we to wait for this change?
A. Not in careless indifference, or
indolent inactivity; but in vigorous, universal
obedience, in a zealous keeping of all the
commandments, in watchfulness and painfulness, in
denying ourselves, and taking up our
cross daily; as well as in earnest prayer and fasting,
and a close attendance on all the
ordinances of God. And if any man dream of attaining it
any other way, (yea, or of
keeping it when it is attained, when he has received it
even in the largest measure) he
deceiveth his own soul. It is true, we receive it by
simple faith: but God does not, will
not, give that faith, unless we seek it with all
diligence, in the way which He hath
ordained."
(2.) This extract has anticipated the second point: that
the destruction of "inbred sin/'
which is to the individual what " original sin " is to
the race of which he is a member, is
to be made the object of faith; and therefore to be
followed by assurance; and evidenced
in confession. Faith, its assurance and its profession,
generally go together in John
Wesley's writings; but the two latter are kept in their
distinct and subordinate place
With regard to the first, a simple extract will be
enough. It refers to the decisions of an
early Conference as to certain points of discussion:
" Q. How much is allowed by our brethren who differ from
us as to entire sanctification?
A. They grant (1) That everyone must be entirely
sanctified in the article of death. (2)
That till then a believer daily grows in grace, comes
nearer and nearer to perfection
(3) That we ought to be continually pressing after it,
and to exhort all others so to do. Q What do we allow them? A. We grant, (1) That many of
those who have died in the faith,
yea, the greater part of those we have known, were not
perfected in love, till a little
before their death. (2) That the term sanctified is continually applied by
St. Paul to all
who were justified. (3) That by this term alone, he
rarely, if ever, means, ' saved from all
sin.' (4) That, consequently, it is not proper to use it
in that sense, without adding the
word wholly,
entirely, or the like. (5) That the inspired writers almost
continually speak
of, or to those who were justified, but Very rarely of,
or to those who were wholly
sanctified. (6) That, consequently, it behooves us to
speak almost continually of the state
of justification: but more rarely, 'at least in full and
explicit terms, concerning entire
sanctification.' Q. What then is the point where we
divide? A. It is this: Should we expect
to be saved from all sin before the article of death? Q.
Is there any clear Scriptural
promise of this, —that God will save us from all sin? A.
There is: 'He shall redeem Israel
from all his sins.'" Then follow a number of passages
from both Testaments, containing
promises and commandments which declare the believer's
privilege, and indirectly make
the destruction of inbred sin the object of personal
faith. Indirectly: for it is never asserted
that a specific promise to this effect is given. At a
later time these distinct words occur:
"(1) That Christian perfection is that love of God and
our neighbor which implies
deliverance from all sin; (2) that this is received
merely by faith; (3) that it is given
instantaneously, in one moment; (4) that we are to
expect it, not at death, but every
moment; that now is the accepted, time, now is the day
of salvation." But again: " As to
the manner. I believe this perfection is always wrought
in the soul by a simple act of
faith; consequently in an instant. But I believe a
gradual work, both preceding and
following that instant. As to the time I believe this
instant generally is the instant of
death, the moment before the soul leaves the body. But I
believe it may be ten, twenty, or
forty years before. I believe it is usually many years
after justification; but that it may be
within five years or five months after it, I know no
conclusive argument to the contrary
If it must be many years after justification, I would be
glad to know how many. Pretium
quotus arroget annus?" " But in some this change was
not instantaneous. They did not
perceive the instant when it was wrought. It is often
difficult to perceive the instant when
a man dies; yet there is an instant in which life
ceases. And if ever sin ceases, there must
be a last moment of its existence, and a first moment of
our deliverance from it."
As to the assurance following this faith Mr. Wesley's
doctrine was once more a general
deduction from the principle that in things pertaining
to the Christian salvation perfect
faith is attended by its interior evidence. The
following observations are very suggestive
on this subject generally. " Q. But does not
sanctification shine by its own light? A. And
does not the new birth too? Sometimes it does; and so
does sanctification; at others it
does not. In the hour of temptation Satan clouds the
work of God, and injects various
doubts and reasonings, especially in those who have
either very weak or very strong
understandings. At such times there is absolute need of
that witness . . .. Q. But what
Scripture makes mention of any such thing, or gives any
reason to expect it? A. That
Scripture, ' We have received, not the spirit that is of
the world, but the Spirit which is of
God; that we may know the things that are freely given
us of God.' (1 Cor. 11: 12.) Now
surely sanctification is one of 'the things which are
freely given us of God.' . . . Consider
likewise 1 John 5: 19: 'We know that we are of God.'
How? 'By the Spirit that He hath
given us.' Nay, ' hereby we know that He abideth in us.'
And what ground have we, either
from Scripture or reason, to exclude the witness, any
more than the fruit, of the Spirit
from being here intended? Not that I affirm that all
young men, or even fathers, have this
testimony every moment. There may be intermissions of
the direct testimony that they are
thus born of God; but those intermissions are fewer and
shorter as they grow up in Christ;
and some have the testimony both of their justification
and sanctification without any
intermission at all; which I presume more might have,
did they walk humbly and closely
with God."
As to the profession of this experience the general
language of Mr. Wesley was guarded:
on the one hand, he was anxious to do justice to the
New-Testament principle that
confession is made unto salvation by all who believe;
while, on the other, he was an
enemy to enthusiasm, and was deeply impressed with a
sense of the self-renunciation and
essential humility that belong to the state of
perfection. " Q. How shall we avoid setting
perfection too high or too low? A. By keeping to the
Bible, and setting it just as high as
the Scripture does. It is nothing higher and nothing
lower than this, the pure love of God
and man; the loving God with all our heart and soul, and
our neighbor as ourselves. It is
love governing the heart and life, running through all
our tempers, words, and actions. Q
Supposing one had attained to this, would you advise him
to speak of it? A. At first
perhaps he would scarce be able to refrain, the fire
would be so hot within him: his desire
to declare the lovingkindness of the Lord carrying him
away like a torrent. But afterwards
he might; and then it would be advisable not to speak of
it to them that know not God (it
is most likely it would only provoke them to contradict
and blaspheme), nor to others,
without some particular reason, without some good in
view. And then he should have
especial care to avoid all appearance of boasting; to
speak with the deepest humility and
reverence, giving all the glory to God.... Men do not
light a candle to put it under a
bushel; much less does the all-wise God. He does not
raise such a monument of His
power and love to hide it from mankind."
2. But the spirit of Mr. Wesley's teaching on this
subject may best be discerned in the
wise cautions which he threw around the profession of
their experience. A few of these
may be quoted, not only as showing his moderation on
this point, but also as containing a
noble defense of the doctrine itself, and its strict
connection with faith working by love
The constant necessity of the virtue of the Atonement is
strongly insisted on: " The best
of men need Christ as their Priest, their Atonement,
their Advocate with the Father: not
only as the continuance of their every blessing depends
on His death and intercession, but
on account of their coming short of the law of love. For
every man living does so." " Bat
even these souls dwell in a shattered body, and are so
pressed down thereby, that they
cannot exert themselves as they would, by thinking,
speaking, and acting precisely right
For want of better bodily organs, they must at times
think, speak, or act wrong; not
indeed through a defect of love, but through a defect of
knowledge. And while this is the
case, notwithstanding that defect, and its consequences,
they fulfill the law of love. Yet
as, even in this case, there is not a full conformity to
the perfect law, so the most perfect
do, on this very account, need the blood of atonement,
and may properly for themselves,
as well as for their brethren, say, ' Forgive us our
trespasses/" Consequently, the highest
state of earthly perfection is a gift that may be
withdrawn: " it is admissible, capable of
being lost; of which we have numerous instances. But we
were not thoroughly convinced
of this, till five or six years ago." There is no
tolerance of the Antinomian spirit in this
doctrine. " We are ' dead to the law by the body of
Christ/ given for us (Rom. 7: 4): to the
Adamic as well as Mosaic law. But it does not follow
that we are without any law; for
God has established another law in its place, even the
law of faith. And we are all under
this law to God and to Christ." Love is the fulfilling
of every law. " The whole law under
which we now are is fulfilled by love. Faith working or
animated by love is all that God
requires of man. He has substituted (not sincerity, but)
love, in the room of angelic
perfection." There is no limit to the stern cautions
everywhere administered to professors
of entire sanctification. " Beware of that daughter of
pride, enthusiasm. 0 keep at the
utmost distance from it! Give no place to a heated
imagination. Do not hastily ascribe
things to God. Do not easily suppose dreams, voices,
impressions, visions, or revelations
to be from God. They may be from Him. They may be from
nature. They may be from
the devil. Therefore ' believe not every spirit, but try
the spirits whether they be of God.'
Try all things by the written Word, and let all bow down
before it. You are in danger of
enthusiasm every hour, if you depart ever so little from
Scripture; yea, or from the plain,
literal meaning of any text, taken in connection with
the context. And so you are if you
despise or lightly esteem reason, knowledge, or human
learning; every one of which is an
excellent gift of God, and may serve the noblest
purposes." " One general inlet to
enthusiasm is, expecting the end without the means; the
expecting knowledge, for
instance, without searching the Scriptures, and
consulting the children of God; the
expecting spiritual strength without constant prayer,
and steady watchfulness; the
expecting any blessing without hearing the Word of God
at every opportunity." But
everywhere, in common with the strain of the deepest
theology of all ages, love is made
the safeguard as it is the strength of perfection.
"Another ground of these and a thousand
mistakes is the not considering deeply that love is the
highest gift of God: humble, gentle,
patient love. The heaven of heavens is love. There is
nothing higher in religion; there is,
in effect, nothing else; if you look for anything but
more love, you are looking wide of
the mark, you are getting out of the royal way. And when
you are asking others, * Have
you received this or that blessing?' if you mean
anything but mere love, you mean wrong
Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God
has saved you from all sin, you are
to aim at nothing more, but more of that love described
in the thirteenth of the
Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you
are carried into Abraham's bosom." "
Fire is the symbol of love; and the love of God is the
principle and end of all our good
works. But truth surpasses figure; and the fire of
Divine love has this advantage over
material fire, that it can reascend to its source, and
raise thither with it all the good works
which it produces. And by this means it prevents their
being corrupted by pride, vanity,
or any evil mixture. But this cannot be done otherwise
than by making these good works
in a spiritual manner die in God, by a deep gratitude,
which plunges the soul in Him as in
an abyss, with all that it is,' and all the grace and
works for which it is indebted to Him: a
gratitude whereby the soul seems to empty itself of
them, that they may return to their
source, as rivers seem willing to empty themselves, when
they pour themselves with all
their waters into the sea. When we have received any
favor from God we ought to retire,
if not into our closets, into our hearts, and say: 'I
come, Lord, to restore to Thee what
Thou hast given; and I freely relinquish it, to enter
again into my own nothingness. For
what is the most perfect creature in heaven or earth in
Thy presence, but a void capable of
being filled with Thee and by Thee; as the air which is
void and dark is capable of being
filled with the light of the sun, who withdraws it every
day to restore it the next, there
being nothing in the air that either appropriates this
light or resists it? 0 give me the same
facility of receiving and restoring Thy grace and good
works! I say THINE; for I
acknowledge the root from which they spring is in Thee,
and not in me."
3. Reviewing the whole, we may conclude that, while the
substance of the Methodist
doctrine of Entire Sanctification is the same which has
been aimed at in all the purest
types of practical theology, it has some points of
difference, or specific characteristics of
great importance
(1.) It connects the fulfillment of the Evangelical law
with the effusion of Divine love in
the heart more strictly and consistently than any other
system of teaching. The Mystical
and Ascetic teachers of perfection have generally made
love, and that the love of God,
their keynote. But they seldom gave a good account of
the relation of that love to the
obedience which is essential to perfection. Some of them
erred by making the absolute
moral law the standard; and then the highest result was
a striving towards a perfection
which death only could introduce. Others lost all
thought of law in the contemplation of
the holiness of Christ, and their perfection was the
gradual transformation of the character
into His image. Others rightly viewed love as the
fulfilling of the law; and supposed that
its value in the sight of God was such as to obtain a
meritorious acceptance beyond that
of mere obedience to any law: forgetting, meanwhile,
that the preciousness of love as a
grace springs from its faith in the Merit and Strength
of the Redeemer. Others separated
between the righteousness of the law which is
unattainable, and must be reckoned to the
believer, and the perfection of love which he may attain
in his own person: thus dividing
what the Scripture joins But the Methodist doctrine
boldly declares that the righteousness
of the law is fulfilled in believers, that is the
righteousness of the new law of faith; and
that as faith is reckoned for righteousness, so faith
working by love is reckoned for
perfection
(2.) The Methodist doctrine is the only one that has
consistently and boldly maintained
the possibility of the destruction of the carnal mind,
or the inbred sin of our fallen nature
It is true that certain of the Mystics held, as we have
seen, something almost equivalent to
this doctrine; and that the Pietists of the school of
Spener included the annihilation of the
old Adam among the privileges of God's children. But the
utmost contemplated by them
was the gradual suppression of the evil nature through
the ascendancy of love. Now it is
undeniable that a very large portion of the Methodist
teaching takes that ground. On the
same principle that the shedding abroad of love is made
the spring of regeneration, its
perfect effusion is made the strength of entire
sanctification. In many passages of
Sermons and Hymns the Wesleys expressly taught this. But
they failed not to look deeper
into the heart than the region of its affections. They
knew that life is more even than love;
and that, as the regeneration of the Spirit is the gift
of a new life capable of loving God,
so the perfection of that love towards God is possible
only where the original death of the
soul is altogether changed into life. Hence the fervor
with which the Hymns appeal to the
Holy Ghost for the destruction of inbred sin, and the
almost equal earnestness with which
the Sermons urge on believers the prayer for faith in
the omnipotent power of God, not
only to shed abroad His perfect love, but to finish the
death of the body of sin. The
combination of the two elements, the negative
annihilation of the principle of sin and the
positive effusion of perfect love, is, it may be said,
peculiar to Methodist theology as
such
(3.) The original teaching of Methodism was peculiar
also in its remarkable blending of
the Divine and human elements in the process of entire
sanctification. It invariably did
justice both to the supreme Divine efficiency and to the
co-operation of man. The charge
brought against it, sometimes malevolently, sometimes
thoughtlessly, that it stimulates
believers to expect this supreme and most sacred
blessing at any time, irrespective of
their preparatory discipline, is contradicted by the
whole tenor of the authoritative
standards of this doctrine. Wesley's Sermon on " The
Scripture Way of Salvation "
contains an elaborate discussion of this point; and it
must be taken as a whole by those
who would understand the subject. The sum of all is in
the following sentences: "
Experience shows that, together with this conviction of
sin remaining in our hearts,
and
cleaving to all our works and actions, as well as
the guilt which on account thereof we
should incur were we not continually sprinkled with the
atoning blood, one thing more is
implied in this repentance, namely, a conviction of our
helplessness.”..." But what good
works are those the practice of which you affirm to be
necessary to sanctification? First,
all works of piety: such as public prayer, family
prayer, and praying in our closet;
receiving the Supper of the Lord; searching the
Scriptures, by hearing, reading,
meditating; and using such a measure of fasting or
abstinence as our bodily health allows
Secondly, all works of mercy . . .. This is the
repentance, and these the 'fruits meet for
repentance/ which are necessary to full sanctification.
This is the way whereon God hath
appointed His children to wait for complete salvation."
" Yet they are not necessary either
in the same sense with faith, or in the same degree.
This repentance and these fruits are
only remotely
necessary, necessary in order to the continuance of his faith, as well
as the
increase of it, whereas faith is immediately and directly necessary to
sanctification." " To
this confidence, that God is both able and willing to
sanctify us now, there needs to be
added one thing more, —a Divine evidence and conviction
that He doeth it. In that hour it
is done; God says to the inmost soul, 'According to thy
faith be it unto thee!' then the soul
is pure from every spot of sin; it is clean ' from all unrighteousness.' The
believer then
experiences the deep meaning of these solemn words: 'If
we walk in the light as He is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth us from all sin.'" The intense, absorbing,
patient, human preparations of the
heart in man are from the same Spirit who at length
gives the Divine evidence of the unspeakable
power of God to save from all sin. Here it is to be
observed that Mr. Wesley
passes from the perfect shedding abroad of love in the
heart to the application of the
supreme efficacy of the Atonement to take away the evil
of the nature: it is " the moment
wherein sin ceases to be." It is more, therefore, than
the spirit of entire consecration to
which many of those who have received his teaching limit
it; it is more even than the
abundant effusion of love which may fill the heart's
sensibilities without purifying its
hidden depths: a distinction which his own words refer
to: " How clearly does this
express the being perfected in love! How strongly imply
the being saved from all sin!"
(4.) Finally, the doctrine which runs through the works
and the whole career of the
Wesleys is marked by its reasonableness and moderation
as well as its sublimity. The far
greater part of the definitions of it are taken up with
defining what it is not. It is not
absolute perfection, nor the perfection of angels, nor
even that of unfallen Adam: it is a
perfection which has come up from much tribulation, and
bears the scars of infirmity to
the end. It is not immunity from temptation, and the
possibility of falling, and the
remainders of ignorance and shortcoming in the presence
of the perfect law the rigor of
which is not applied to it in Christ. It is a perfection
which is no other than a perfect selfannihilating
life in Christ: a perfect union with His passion and His
resurrection, and the
perfect enjoyment of the value of His name of Jesus, as
it is salvation from sin. It is the
perfection of being nothing in self, and all in Him. It
is a perfection for which the elect
with one consent have longed, from the Apostles
downwards: neither more nor less than
the unuttered groaning desire of the children of God in
every age; the common deep
aspiration, with only one note more emphatic than has
been always heard, though even
that has not been always wanting, the destruction of the
inbred sin of our nature. He who
searcheth the-heart hath always known the mind of the
Spirit, even when its deepest
desire has not been clearly uttered. And He will yet, we
dare to believe, remove the last
fetter from the aspirations of His saints, and give them
one heart and one voice in seeking
the destruction of the body of sin as well as the
mortification of its members |
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