pire at more perfection, and at greater freedom from sin upon earth, than had been attained by St. Paul, who was not a whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles, but laboured more abundantly than they all." To this common objection I answer: 1. The perfection we preach, is nothing but perfect repentance, perfect faith, and perfect love, productive of the gracious tem. pers which St. Paul himself describes, 1 Cor. xiii. We see those blessed tempers shining through his epistles, discourses, and conduct; and I have proved in the preceding section, that he himself professed Christian perfection. This objection therefore appears to us, an ungenerous attempt to make St. Paul grossly to contradict himself.-For what can be more ungenerous, than to take advantage of a figurative mode of expression, to blast a good man's character, and to traduce him as a slave of his fleshly lusts, a drudge to carnality, a wretch sold under sin? What would Mr. Hill think of me, if under the plausible pretence of magnifying God's grace to the chief of sinners, and of proving that there is no deliverance from sin in this life, I made the following speech? "The more we grow in grace the more clearly we see our sin; and the more willingly we acknowledge them to God and men. This is abundantly verified by the confessions that the most holy men have made of their wickedness. Paul himself, holy Paul, is not ashamed to humble himself for the sins which he committed even after his conversion. 'I robbed other churches, says he, taking wages of them to do you service,' 2 Cor. xi. 8. Hence it appears, that the apostle had agreed to serve some churches for a proper salary: but, being carnal and sold under sin, he broke his word; he fleeced, but refused to feed the flocks; and robbing the churches, he went to the Corinthians, perhaps to see what he could get of them also in the end: for the heart is desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things,' Jer. xvii. 9. Nay, partial as he was to those Corinthians, for whom he turned Church-robber, he shewed that his love to them was not sinless and free from rage; for once he threatened to come to them with a rod: and he gave one of them to satan for the destruction of the flesh. With great propriety therefore, did holy Paul say to the last, I am the chief of sinners." And now when the chief of the apostles abases himself thus before God, and publicly testifies, both by his words and works, that there is no deliverance from sin, no perfection in this life, who can help being frightened at the pharisaic pride of the men, who dare inculcate the doctrine of sinless perfection?" I question if Mr. Hill bimself, upon reading this ungenerous and absurd, though in one sense scriptural plea for St. Paul's imperfection, would not be as much out of conceit with my fictitious explanation of 2 Cor. xi. as I am with his Calvinistic exposition of Rom. vii. Nor do I think it more criminal to represent the apostle as a church-robber, than to traduce him as a wretched, carnal man, sold under sin:-another Ahab, that is, a man who "did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him." 2. St. Paul no more professes himself actu ally a carnal man, in Rom. vii, than he professes himself actually a liar in Rom. iii. 7, where he says, " But if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie, why am I judged as a sinner?"-He no more professes himself a man actually sold under sin, than St. James and his fellow believers profess themselves a generation of vipers, and actual cursers of men, when the one wrote and the other read, "The tongue can no man tame:-it is full of deadly poison;-therewith curse we men.' When St. Paul reproves the partiality of some of the Corinthians to this or that preacher, he introduces Apollos and himself; though it seems that his reproof was chiefly intended for other preachers, who fomented a party-spirit in the corrupted church of Corinth. And then he says, "These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to my. self and to Apollos, for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written," 1 Cor. iv. 6.-By the same figure he says of himself, what he might have said of any other man, or of all mankind: "Though I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass." Thrice in three verses he speaks of his not having charity: and suppose he had done it three hundred times, this would no more have proved that he was really uncharitable, than his saying, Rom. vii. I am sold under sin, proves that he served the law of sin with his body, as a slave is forced to serve the master who bought him. 3. It frequently happens also, that by a figure of rhetoric, which is called Hypotyposis, writers relate things past or things to come in the present tense; that their narration may be more lively, and may make a stronger impression. Thus Gen. vi. 17, we read, "Behold, I even I do bring [i. e. I will bring 120 years hence] a flood upon the earth to destroy all flesh."-Thus also 2 Sam. xxii. 1, 35, 48, "When the Lord had delivered David out of the hand of all his enemies, and given him peace in all his borders, he spake the words of this song:-He teacheth [i. e. he taught] my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is [i. e. was] broken by mine arms:-It is God that avengeth [i. e. that hath avenged] me and that bringeth [i. e. has brought] me forth from mine enemies." A thousand such expressions, or this figure continued through a thousand verses, would never prove, before unprejudiced persons, that king Saul was in a Roman triumph, some of the spectators had taken the chained king on foot, for the victorious general in the chariot, because the one immediately followed the other; they would have been guilty of a mistake not unlike that of our opponents, who take the carnal Jew, sold under sin, and groaning as he goes along, for the Christian believer, who walks in the Spirit, exults in the liberty of God's children, and always triumphs in Christ. alive, and that David was not yet delivered for good out of his bloody hands. Now if St. Paul, by a similar figure, which he carries through part of a chapter, relates his past experience in the present tense: If the Christian apostle, to humble himself, and to make his description more lively, and the opposition between the bondage of sin and Christian libe ty more striking :-If the apoɛtle, I say, with such a design as this, appears upon the stage of instruction in his old Jewish dress, a dress this, in which he could 5. To see the propriety of the preceding serve God day and night, and yet, like ano- observations, we need only take notice of the ther Ahab, breathe threatnings and slaughter contrariety there is between the bondage of against God's children :-and if in this dress the carnal penitent, described Rom. vii. 14, he says, "I am carnal, sold under sin, &c. is &c, and the liberty of the spiritual man deit not ridiculous to measure his growth as an scribed in the beginning of that very chapter. apostle of Christ, by the standard of his sta--The one says, "who shall deliver me' Sin ture when he was a Jewish bigot, a fiery revives:"-"It works in him all manner of zealot, full of good meanings and bad per- concupiscence;"-yea, "it works death in formances? him he is carnal-sold under sin"-forced by his bad habits to do what he is ashamed of-and kept from doing what he sees his duty-"In him, that is, in his flesh dwells no good thing-Sin dwelleth in him-How to perform that which is good, he finds not." Though he has a desire to be better, yet still he "does not do good;-he does evil;—evil is present with him!" His inward u an, his reason and conscience approve, yea, delight in God's law, i. e. in that which is right: but still he does it not: his good resolutions are no sooner made than they are broken: for "another law in his members wars against the law of his mind," that is, his carnal appetites oppose the dictates of his conscience, and bring him into captivity to the law of sin: so that like a poor chained slave, he has just liberty enough to rattle his chains, and to say, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death," from this complete as emblage of corruption, misery, and death! Is it not ridiculous to conclude, that, because this groaning slave has now and then a hope of deliverance, and at times thanks God through Jesus Christ for that hope; he is ac ually a partaker of the liberty, which is thus described in the begin ning of the chapter? "Ye are become dead to the law" [the Mosaic dispensation] "that ye should be married to him, who is raised from the dead, that [instead of omitting to do good, and doing evil] we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh [in the state of the carnal man sold under sin,-a sure proof this that the apostle was no more in that state] the motions of sin, which were by the law [abstracted from the gospel-promise] did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the [curse of the moral, as well as from the bondage of the Mosaic] law, That being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve God in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter," 4 To take a scripture out of the context, is often like taking the stone that binds an arch out of its place: you know not what to make of it. Nay, you may put it to an use quite contrary to that for which it was intended. This our opponents do, when they so take Rom. vii. out of its connexion with Rom. vi. and Rom. viii. as to make it mean the very reverse of what the apostle designed. St. Paul, in Rom. v. and vi. and in the beginning of the vii. chapter, describes the glorious liberty of the children of God under the Christian dispensation. And as a skilful painter puts shades in his pic. tures to heighten the effect of the lights; so the judicious apostle introduces in the latter part of Rom. vii. a lively description of the domineering power of sin, and of the intolerable burden of guilt:-a burden this, which he had so severely felt, when the convincing Spirit charged sin home upon his conscience after he had broken his good resolutions; but especially during the three days of his blindness and fasting at Damascus. Then he groaned, "O wretched man that I am "&c. hanging night and day between despair and hope, between unbelief and faith, between bondage and freedom, till God brought him into Christian liberty by the ministry of Ananias of this liberty the apostle gives us a farther and fu ler account in Romans viii. Therefore the description of the man, who groans under the galling yoke of sin, is brought in merely by contrast, to set off the amazing difference there is between the bondage of sin, and the liberty of gospel-holiness just as the generals who entered Rome in triumph, used to make a show of the prince whom they had conquered. On such occasions the conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot crowned with laurel: while the captive king followed him on foot, loaded with chains, and making, next to the conqueror, the most striking part of the show. Now if Rom. vii. 4, 5, 6. Immediately after this glorious profession of liberty, the apostle in his own person, by way of contrast, describes to the end of the chapter, the poor, lame, sinful obedience of those who "serve God in the oldness of the letter:" so that nothing can be more unreasonable than to take this description, for a description of the obedience of those, who "serve God in the new ness of the spirit." We have therefore in Rom. vii. 4, 5, 6, a strong rampart against the mistake which our opponents build on the rest of the chapter. 6. This mistake will appear still more astonishing, if we read Rom. vi. where the apostle particularly describes the liberty of those who serve God in newness of the spirit," according to the glorious privileges of the new covenant. Is darkness more contrary to light than the preceding description of the carnal Jew is to the following description of the spiritual Christian? "How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein! Our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." [Note: The carnal Jew, though against his conscience, still" serves the law of sin," Rom. vii. 25. "Now he that is dead, is freed from sin."-" Reckon ye yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin."-" Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead." [Note: The carnal Jew says, "Sin revived and I died," Rom. vii. 9, but the spiritual Christian is alive from the dead.]"Sin shall not have dominion over you" [now you are spiritual: you need not say, I do the evil that I hate, and the evil I would not, that I do,"] for you are not under the law [under the weak dispensation of the law of Moses ;] but under grace, [under the powerful, gracious dispensation of Christ.]"God be thanked, that [whereas] ye were the servants of sin [when you carnally served God in the oldness of the letter, ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine, which was delivered you :" [that is, ye have heartily embraced the gospel of Christ, who gives rest to all that come to him travailing and heavy laden.] "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness :-For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness :— But now being-" carnal, sold under sin," ye serve the law of sin! No: just the reverse; "but now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life,' Rom. vi. 2-22. Is it possible to reconcile this description of Christian liberty, with the preceding description of Jewish bondage? Can a man at the same time exult in the one, and groan under the other? When our opponents assert it, do they not confound the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations: the workings of the spirit of bondage, and the workings of the spirit of adoption? And yet, astonishing! they charge us with confounding law and gospel! : 7. We shall see their mistake in a still more glaring light, if we pass to Rom. viii. and consider the description, which St. Paul continues to give us of the glorious liberty of those, who have done with the oldness of the [Jewish] letter, and serve God in newness of the spirit. The poor Jew, carnally sticking to the letter, is condemned for all he does, if his conscience is awake. But "there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," [who are come up to the privileges of the Christian dispensation] "who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," [the power of the quickening Spirit given me, and my fellow believers, under the spiritual and perfect dispensation of Christ Jesus] "hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law [the letter of the Mosaic dispensation] could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law [the spiritual obedience, which the moral law of Moses adopted by Christ requires] might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." "For [so far from professing that I am, carnal and sold under sin," I' declare that] to be "carnally minded is death:" [Well may then the carnal Jew groan, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death!"] But to be spiritually mind. ed is life and peace: so then, they that are in the flesh, [i. e. carnal, sold under sin,] cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his:" [he is, at best, a disciple of Moses, a poor carnal Jew; and remains still a stranger to the glorious privileges of the Christian dispensation] "But if Christ be in you, the body is dead [weak and full of the seeds of death] because of [original] sin; but the spirit is life [strong and full of immortality] because of [implanted and living] righteousness.-For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, [like the poor, carnal man, who through fear and anguish groans out, "Owretched man that I am"] But ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we [who walk in newness of the spirit and please God-we, who have the Spirit of Christ] cry Abba, Father: the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God [whom we please] and joint heirs with Christ," [through whom we please God,] Rom. viii. 1,-17. This glorious liberty, which God's children enjoy in their souls, under the perfection of the Christian dispensation, will one day extend to their bodies, which are dead [i. e infirm and condemned to die because of [original] sin. And with respect to the body only it is, that the Apostle says, Rom. viii. 23, "We ourselves also, who have the first fruits. of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption [of our outward man] that is, the redemption of our body: for [with respect to the body, whose imperfection is so great a clog to the soul] we are saved by hope." [In the mean time] "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God."-" Who shall separate us, [that love God, and walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit] from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, &c. [do it?] Nay, in all these things [much more in respect of sin, and carnal mindedness] we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us," Rom. viii. 23,-37. And, that this abundant victory extends to the destruction of the carnal mind, we prove by these words of the context, "To be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace; because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh [they that are carnally minded] cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, [ye are not carnally minded] but in the Spirit [ye are spiritually minded :] if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, [and dwells as a spirit of adoption,] there is constant liberty; and if any man have not that spirit," or if he have it' only as a "spirit of bondage," to make him groan, "O wretched man!" he may indeed be a servant of God in the land of his spiritual captivity, but he is none of Christ's" free-men he may serve God" in the oldness of the letter," as a Jew: but he does not serve him" in newness of the spirit," as a Christian. For, I repeat it, where the Spirit of Christ is," and dwells according to the fulness of the Christian dispensation, there is liberty, a glorious liberty, which is the very reverse of the bondage, that Mr. Hill pleads for during the term of life. See Rom. viii. 14,-21. Whether therefore we consider Rom. vii. Rom. vi. or Rom. viii. it appears indubitable, that the sense which our opponents fix upon Rom. vii. 14, &c. is entirely contrary to the Apostle's meaning, to the context, and to the design of the whole epistle, which is to extol the privileges of those who are Christ's, above the privileges of those who are Noah's or Moses's; or, if you please, to extol the privileges of spiritual Christians who serve God, in newness of the spirit, above the privileges of carnal Heathens and Jews, who serve him only in the oldness of the letter. If the sense which our opponents give to Rom. vii. 14, is true, the doctrine of christian perfection is a dream, and our utmost attain. ment on earth is, St. Paul's apostolic car nality, and involuntary servitude to the law of sin; with a hopeful prospect of deliverance in a death-purgatory. It is therefore of the utmost importance to establish our exposition of that verse, by answering the arguments, which are supposed to favour the Antinomian meaning rashly fixed upon that portion of Scripture. ARGUMENT I. "If St. Paul was not carnal and sold under sin when he wrote to the Romans, why does he say, I am carnal? Could he not have said, I was carnal once, but now "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death?" Can you give a good reason why, in Rom. vii. 14, the phrase I am carnal, must mean, I was carnal? Is it right thus to substitute the past tense for the present?" ANSWER. We have already shewn, that this figurative way of speaking is not uncommon in the Scriptures. We grant how. ever that we ought not to depart from the literal sense of any phrase, without good reasons. Several such, I trust have already been produced, to show the necessity of taking St. Paul's words, I am carnal, in the sense stated in the preceding Section. I shall offer one more remark upon this head, which, if I mistake not, might alone convince the unprejudiced. The states of all souls may in general be reduced to three :-(1) That of unawakened sinners, who quietly sleep in the chains of their sins, and dream of self-righteousness and heaven.-(2) That of awakened, uneasy, reluctant sinners, who try in vain to break the galling chains of their sins:-And (3) That of delivered sinners, or victorious believ ers, who enjoy the liberty of God's children. This last state is described in Rom. vii. 4, 6. The rest of that chapter is judiciously brought in, to show how the unawakened sinner is rouzed out of his carnal state, and how the awakened sinner is driven to Christ for liberty by the lashing and binding commandment. The Apostle shows this by observing [ver. 7, &c.] how the law makes a sinner [or, if you please, made him] pass from the unawakened to the awakened state. I had not known sin, says he, but by the law, &c. When he had described his unawakened state with out the law, and began to describe his awakened state under the law; nothing was more natural than to change the tense. But, hav ing already used the past tense in the descrip whereas there is among you envying and strife, &c. are ye not carnal?" Might not these carnal Corinthians have justly replied, Carnal physician, heal thyself (3) In the language of the Apostle, to be carnal,-to he carnally minded, to walk after the flesh,--not to walk after the spirit,-and to be in the flesh, are phrases of the same import. This is evident from Rom. vii. 14. viii. 1, to 9: and tion of the first for the unawakened] state and having said, Without the law sin was dead -1 was alive without the law once ;Sin revived and I died," &c. he could no more use that tense, when he began to de scribe the second [or the awakened state:] I mean the state in which he found himself, when the commandment had rouzed his sleepy conscience, and slain his pharisaic hopes. He was therefore obliged to use another he says directly, or indirectly, that to those tense and none, in that case was fitter than the present: just as if he had said: "When the commandment slew the conceited pharisee in me ;-when I died to my self-righteous hopes; I did not die without a groan; nor did I pass into the life of God without severe pangs: no; I struggled with earnestness, I complained with bitterness, and the language of my oppressed heart was: I am carnal, sold under sin," &c. to the end of the chapter.* It is therefore with the utmost rhetorical propriety, that the apostle says, I am, and not I was carnal, &c. But rhetorical propriety is not theological exactness. David may say as a Poet, "God was wroth: There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it:" but it would be ridiculous to take these expressions in a literal sense. Nor is it much less absurd to assert, that St. Paul's words, I am carnal, sold under sin, are to be understood of Christian and Apostolic liberty. ARG. II. "St. Paul says to the Corinthians, I write not to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal, even to babes in Christ." Now if the Corinthians could be at once holy, and yet carnal; why could not St. Paul be at the same time an eminent apostolic saint, and a carnal, wretched man, sold under sin ?" ANS. (1) The Corinthians were by no means established believers in general, for the Apostle concludes his last epistle to them, by bidding them "examine whether they were in the faith."—(2) If St. Paul proved carnal still, and was to continue so till death, with all the body of christian believers; why did he upbraid the Corinthians with their unavoidable carnality? Why did he wonder at it, and say, "Ye are yet carnal; for * Some time after I had written this, looking into Dr. Doddridges's Lectures on Divinity, page 451, I was agreeably surprised to find, that what that judicious and moderate Calvinist presents as the most plausible sense of Rom, vii, 14, is exactly the sense which I defend in these pages. Take his own words. St. Paul first represents a man as ignorant of the law, and then insensible of sin; but afterwards became acquainted with it, and then thrown into a kind of des pair, by the sentence of death which it denounces, on account of sins he is now conscious of having com. mitted: he then farther shows, that even where there is so good a disposition, as even to delight in the law, yet the motives are too weak to maintain that uniform tenor of obedience, which a good man greatly desires, and which the gospel by its superior motives and grace does in fact produce." who are in that state, there is condemnation : that they cannot please God.-And that they are in a state of death; because to be carnal, or carnally-minded is death, Rom. viii. 1, 6, 8. Now, if he was carnal himself, does it not follow that he could not please God, and that he was in a state of condemnation and death? But how does this agree with the profession which he immediately makes of being led by the Spirit, of walking in the Spirit, and of being made free from the law of sin and death, by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?-(4) We do not deny that the remains of the carnal mind still cleave to imperfect christians; and that, when the expression carnal is softened, and qualified, it may in a low sense be applied to such professors as those Corinthians were, to whom St. Paul said, I could not speak to you as to spiritual. But, could not the Apostle be yet spoken to as a spiritual man? And does he not allow, that even in the corrupted churches of Corinth and Galatia, there were some truly spiritual men-some adult, perfect christians? See 1 Cor. xiv. 37, and Gal. vi. 1.—(5) When the Apostle calls the divided Corinthians carnal, he immediately softens the expression, by adding, babes in Christ: if therefore the word carnal is applied to St. Paul in this sense, it must follow that the Apostle was but a babe in Christ: and if he was but a babe, is it not as absurd to judge of the growth of adult christians by his growth, as measure the stature of a man by that of an infant ?-(6) And lastly: the man described in Rom. vii. 14, is not only called carnal without any softening, qualifying phrase: but the word carnal is immediately heightened by an uncommon expression, sold under sin; which is descriptive of the strongest bondage of corruption. Thus reason, Scripture, and Criticism agree to set this argument aside. ARG. III. "The carnal man, whose cause we plead, says Rom. vii. 20, "If I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me," that is, in my unrenewed part; and therefore he might be an eminent, apostolic saint in his renewed part; and a carnal wretched man, sold under sin, in his unrenewed part." ANS. (1) The Apostle speaking there as a carnal, and yet awakened man, who has light enough to see his sinful habits, but not faith |