THE TWO FOUNDATIONS.

Doctrine of the continued conscious sinfulness of all Believers in this life. Its foundation.

WE have now carefully considered all Scripture texts which are ever cited to prove the doctrine of the continued conscious sinfulness of all believers in this life, on the one hand, and in disproof of the opposite doctrine, that of full redemption from the condemnation and power of sin, on the other. If these passages are found to be void of validity for the proof and disproof for which they are adduced, then it must be admitted, that the doctrine, to verify which the said passages are adduced, has no foundation in the Word of God. In our examination of these passages, the following fundamental facts have been found to be true:---

1. For nearly, or quite, four centuries after the entire Scriptures were written, the entire Primitive Church had no suspicion that these passages have any bearing whatever against the doctrine of full salvation from condemnation and power of sin in this life, or in proof of the opposite doctrine. On the other hand, that Church, with wondrous unanimity, put the identical construction upon these passages, which the advocates of the doctrines of the Higher Life now do.

2. Since that period, the consent of the ages has, throughout Christendom, vastly preponderated in favour of the primitive, and against the post-primitive, construction.

3. A. careful and critical examination and exposition of these texts has most fully evinced the deduction that not one of them sustains the doctrine to verify which they have, in "these latter days," been adduced; while not a few of them, when rightly expounded, bear directly and strongly in favour of the doctrine of the Higher Life. Such are the actual facts of the case. Whatever may be true of the doctrine of the continued sinfulness of all believers while life continues, that doctrine is void of authority from the Word of God.

Doctrine of Full Salvation from the condemnation and Power of Sin. Its foundation.

If the doctrine we teach should be found to rest upon no "more sure word of prophecy" than that whose only claim we have considered, we should never again---no, not for an hour---urge the former upon the regard of believers. What is the revealed basis on which this doctrine rests?

I.---Christ's revealed power to save.

The central rock, on which this doctrine rests, is Christ's revealed power to save from the condemnation and power of sin. "Christ," as we read (1 John iii. 5), "was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." Sin itself, and not condemnation for sin, is here directly referred to, this being the specific subject of discourse. "For their sakes," says our Saviour, "I sanctify (not in part dedicate) myself, that they also might be sanctified (not a part, dedicated) through (or for the promotion of) the truth." Here we are distinctly informed that "all the fulness" which, by appoint-merit of the Father, dwells in Christ, all the merits and efficacy of His Atonement, all the infinitude of His grace and power, are specifically set apart, and consequently made available to our faith, for our personal sanctification and divine mission and work. "All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me," said our Saviour, again---that is, all the resources of the Divine Infinity, are put into My hands, and made subject to My disposal. "And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Here we are distinctly and specifically taught that Christ is ever with us to exert, as we shall avail ourselves of it by faith, all this power for our spiritual and eternal good, and for the success of His cause in our hands. Everywhere in the Bible the power of God is revealed as a sure ground of faith and hope. "Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." We lay this down as a self-evident principle, that whatever form or degree of sanctification Christ, or the Father in him, or the Spirit through Him has specifically revealed himself as able to induce in us, we are, by such revelation, authorized to expect from Him, and that in the form and degree specified. We here adduce three passages which reveal to us in specific form what each person of the Trinity is able to do for us in this matter, and which reveal the power of each as united with that of both the others to insure this one end. "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. vii. 29). "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Cor. ix. 8). "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to (by means of) the power (of the Spirit) that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Eph. iii. 21). The meaning of these passages is too plain to be misunderstood, and all expositors agree in respect to their meaning. What we affirm is this: the revealed power of the Godhead thus to save us from all sin authorises us to expect salvation "to the uttermost," or, God's revealed power to save, to bless, and to "keep from falling," is, in no sense or form, a basis of hope or trust. Will the opposers of the doctrine of the Higher Life, if we have erred in our deduction here, show us wherein the error consists?

2.---Revealed Provisions and Promises of Grace.

Let us now turn our attention to the revealed Provisions and Promises of Grace for our I resent sanctification. The principle which lies at the basis of our reasoning here is this: Whatever form or degree of present sanctification is clearly specified in these provisions and promises, is to all believers an object of assured hope and trust. Provisions not available to our faith are, undeniably, no provisions at all. The promises are revealed for the specifically declared purpose, "that by these," by embracing them by faith, "we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust." Of the passages pertaining to the provisions of grace we adduce but three: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom viii 3, 4) The words, "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," show absolutely that the provisions here revealed are for believers in this life. Equally manifest is the fact, that the words, "righteousness of the law," represent righteousness, not in the sense of justification, but of obedience to what the law requires. Such obedience is the specific and exclusive subject of discourse in the connection in. which the words are here employed. Besides, the words, "righteousness of the law," are never employed to represent the doctrine of "justification by faith," but always in the sense under consideration. Christ, then, has made provision for our full present obedience to the law and will of God---provisions, by availing ourselves of which by faith, the "righteousness of the law," the righteousness or obedience which the law requires, "may be fulfilled in us." Consider one other passage: "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed " (1 Pet. ii. 24). (See, also, Eph. v. 25-27; 1 John iii. 5, 6; Tit. ii. 14.) Of the promises which Christ, as the Mediator of the New Covenant, has absolutely pledged Himself to render real in our experience, "When He shall be enquired of by us to do it for us," we cite only the two following: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them" (Ez. xxxvi. 25-27). "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thess. v. 23, 24). (See, also, Phil. iv. 19; Deut. xxx. 6; 1 Cor. x. 13.) No candid enquirer after truth can misapprehend the real meaning of such promises, and as to their meaning, all commentators, as far as we know, agree. If, then, the revealed provisions and promises of grace are a sure foundation of faith and hope, the doctrine under consideration rests upon the rock of truth.

3.--- Christ's Intercessory Prayer for all Believers.

We now recur to the specific blessings presented to our faith, in our Saviour's Intercessory Prayer for all believers. Let the reader carefully ponder this prayer, and distinctly notice the blessings therein specified---blessings, every one of which distinctly imply utter separation from all sin, a perfected union between us and Him, such as exists between Him and the Father, His abiding in us, as the Father abides in Him, and our being "made perfect in. one." Nor can there be a doubt that this prayer refers exclusively to believers in this life. Believers are to be brought into this state of perfection in Christ, as a means to an end, the salvation of the world. But to the prayer itself:---"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me: and the glory which Thou gayest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in. them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou has loved me" In respect to this prayer, we conclude---and not a shadow of doubt arises, or can rest upon our mind in. regard to the absolute validity of that conclusion---that every blessing specified in that prayer) and in the form and degree therein specified, fully "accords with the Will of God "---that every blessing designated, the Eternal Father holds in readiness for our faith, and that whenever He shall be inquired of to do it for us," that prayer will become a divine reality in our experience.

We here rest our cause, not referring to other grounds, equally immovable, on which the doctrine we maintain has its revealed basis. If the specifically revealed power of the Godhead---the equally specific provisions and promises of grace, and blessings undeniably specified in the intercessory prayer of our Saviour do not present an immovable basis for absolute "assurance of faith," "assurance of hope,---"and assurance of understanding," then "the foundations are destroyed," and the Bible stands revealed as one of the most unmeaning and deceptive books that ever was written.

Professed attainments, when credible.

We have now before us a clearly revealed test, by which we may determine the credibility of any professed attainments in the divine life. When such attainments fall clearly within the circle of Christ's revealed power to save and to bless---when they are as manifestly included within the circle of the revealed provisions and promises of grace, and are as distinctly and specifically implied or expressed in the intercessory prayer of our Saviour, then, nothing can be more credible in itself than are such affirmed attainments, and the question of their actual possession, like that of regeneration or justification, becomes a question of fact, to be determined by its own proper evidence. This is the only reasonable and revealed test, by which the professions of the advocates of the Higher Life are to be tried.

Evidence from experience.

Tested by the actual experience of the vast majority of professing Christians, the Rest of Faith must be set down as among the impossibilities of Faith. The almost exclusive reason why such believers regard Rom. vii. as revealing the divinely drawn portraiture of Christian experience in its highest forms, is the conscious fact, that what they there read does accord with their experience. Then, on the other hand, saints in all ages---who have regarded this chapter as portraying a legal, in opposition to a faith, experience, who rest their faith and hope upon Christ's revealed power to save and to bless---upon the revealed provisions and promises of grace, and upon Christ's intercessory prayer for all believers---do attain to forms of conscious experience and life in all respects the opposite to the portraiture drawn in that chapter. What evidence do we find in the experience of the former class that, beyond what they experience, God has not "prepared some better things for us"? The unvarying experience of the latter class, on the other hand, absolutely verifies the fact, that their faith rests upon the clear revelations of the Word of God