Commentary on the Whole Bible | Commentary on Romans 9 | Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes | "Coming of Jesus" Commentary on James 5

"I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining of the image which Adam lost." 

"The last time. - The conclusion of the Jewish polity." Jude 18

Dividing Line Between Destruction of Jerusalem and General Judgment - Matthew 25:1; though, Perhaps 25:1-31 the Destruction of Jerusalem

(On the Resurrection)
"I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining of the image which Adam lost." (Quoted by Terry, BIBLICAL DOGMANTICS, 1907)

(On Nature of Christ's Return ; Matthew 16:27-28 ; Significance of A.D.70)
"I conclude, therefore, that this prophecy has not the least relation to Judas Maccabeus. It may be asked, to whom, and to what event does it relate? .. to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish polity; which in the Gospel is called the coming of Christ and the days of vengeance, Matthew 16:28; Luke 21:22." (Isaiah 65, p. 513)

(On Deuteronomy 25:1)
"The following is Mr. Ainsworth’s note on this verse: "This number forty the Scripture uses sundry times in cases of humiliation, affliction, and punishment. As Moses twice humbled himself in fasting and prayer forty days and forty nights, Deuteronomy 9:9, 18. Elijah fasted forty days, 1 Kings 19:8; and our Savior, Matthew 4:2. Forty years Israel was afflicted in the wilderness for their sins, Numbers 14:33, 34. And forty years Egypt was desolate for treacherous dealing with Israel, Ezekiel 29:11-13. Forty days every woman was in purification for her uncleanness for a man-child that she bare, and twice forty days for a woman-child, Leviticus 12:4, 5. Forty days and forty nights it rained at Noah’s flood, Genesis 7: 12. Forty days did Ezekiel bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, Ezekiel 4:6. Jonah preached, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, Jon 3:4. Forty years’ space the Canaanites had to repent after Israel came out of Egypt, and wandered so many years in the wilderness, Numbers 14:33. And thrice forty years the old world had Noah preaching unto them repentance, Genesis 6:3. It was forty days ere Christ ascended into heaven after his resurrection, Acts 1:3, 9. And forty years’ space he gave unto the Jews, from the time that they killed him, before he destroyed their city and temple by the Romans." (in loc. pp. 1474,5)

(On Deuteronomy 28:49)
"Verse 49. A nation-from far— Probably the Romans.
As the eagle flieth— The very animal on all the Roman standards. The Roman eagle is proverbial.
Whose tongue thou shalt not understand— The Latin language, than which none was more foreign to the structure and idiom of the Hebrew."

(On Deuteronomy 28:64)
"Verse 64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people— How literally has this been fulfilled! The people of the Jews are scattered over every nation under heaven."

(On Deuteronomy 28:68)
"Verse 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again— That is, into another state of slavery and bondage similar to that of Egypt, out of which they had been lately brought. And there ye shall be sold, that is, be exposed to sale, or expose yourself to sale as the word µtrkmth hithmaccartem may be rendered; they were vagrants, and wished to become slaves that they might be provided with the necessaries of life. And no man shall buy you; even the Romans thought it a reproach to have a Jew for a slave, they had become so despicable to all mankind. When Jerusalem was taken by Titus, many of the captives, which were above seventeen years of age, were sent into the works in Egypt. See Josephus, Antiq., b. xii, 100:1, 2, War b. vi., c. 9, s. 2; and above all, see Bp. Newton’s Dissertations on the Prophecies."

(On Deuteronomy 29:22)
Verse 22. The lowest hell— tytjt lwa sheol tachtith, the very deepest destruction; a total extermination, so that the earth-their land, and its increase, and all their property, should be seized; and the foundations of their mountains-their strongest fortresses, should be razed to the ground. All this was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, so that of the fortifications of that city not one stone was left on another. See the notes on Matthew 24.

(On Deuteronomy 29:27)
"Verse 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy— Houbigant and others contend that wrath here refers not to the enemy, but to God; and that the passage should be thus translated: "Indignation for the adversary deters me, lest their enemies should be alienated, and say, The strength of our hands, and not of the Lord’s, hath done this." Had not God punished them in such a way as proved that his hand and not the hand of man had done it, the heathens would have boasted of their prowess, and Jehovah would have been blasphemed, as not being able to protect his worshippers, or to punish their infidelities. Titus, when he took Jerusalem, was so struck with the strength of the place, that he acknowledged that if God had not delivered it into his hands, the Roman armies never could have taken it."

(On Psalm 2:5)
"Verse 5. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath — He did so to the Jews who rejected the Gospel, and vexed and ruined them by the Roman armies"

(On Isaiah 3:26)
"Verse 26. Sit upon the ground.— Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 2:8) has given it the first place among many indications of sorrow, in the following elegant description of the same state of distress of his country:—

"The elders of the daughter of Sion sit on the ground, they are silent: They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth;

The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed down their heads to the ground." "We find Judea," says Mr. Addison, (on Medals, Dial. ii,) "on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: ‘By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion.’ But what is more remarkable, we find Judea represented as a woman in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the prophet, that foretells the very captivity recorded on this medal." Mr. Addison, I presume, refers to this place of Isaiah; and therefore must have understood it as foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans: whereas it seems plainly to relate, in its first and more immediate view at least, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity at Babylon. — L. Several of the coins mentioned here by Mr. Addison are in my own collection: and to such I have already referred in this work. I shall describe one here. On the obverse a fine head of the emperor Vespasian with this legend, Imperator Julius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunitia Potestate Pater Patriae, Consul VIII. On the reverse a tall palm tree, emblem of the land of Palestine, the emperor standing on the left, close to the tree, with a trophy behind him; on the right, Judea under the figure of a female captive sitting on the ground, with her head resting on her hand, the elbow on her knee, weeping. Around is this legend, Judea Capta. Senates Consulto. However this prediction may refer proximately to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, I am fully of opinion that it ultimately refers to the final ruin of the Jewish state by the Romams. And so it has been understood by the general run of the best and most learned interpreters and critics." (in loc.)

(On Isaiah 65)
"We have here a vindication of God’s dealings with the Jews, 1, 2. To this end the prophet points out their great hypocrisy, and gives a particular enumeration of their dreadful abominations, many of which were committed under the specious guise of sanctity, 3-5. For their horrid impieties, (recorded in writing before Jehovah,) the wrath of God shall certainly come upon them to the uttermost; a prediction which was exactly fulfilled in the first and second centuries in the reigns of the Roman emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian, when the whole Jewish polity was dissolved, and the people dispersed all over the world."

(On Isaiah 66:6)
"Verse 6. A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord— It is very remarkable that similar words were spoken by Jesus, son of Ananias, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem. See his very affecting history related by Josephus, WAR, B. vi., chap. v."

(On Zechariah 14:2)
"Verse 2. I will gather all nations— The Romans, whose armies were composed of all the nations of the world. In this verse there is a pitiful account given of the horrible outrages which should be committed during the siege of Jerusalem, and at its capture. The residue of the people shad not be cut off— Many were preserved for slaves, and for exhibition in the provincial theatres."

(On Zechariah 14:4)
Verse 4. And his feet shall stand— He shall appear in full possession of the place, as a mighty conqueror.

And the mount of Olives shall cleave— Some refer this to the destruction of the city by the Romans. It was on the mount of Olives that Titus posted his army to batter Jerusalem. Here the tenth legion that came to him from Jericho was placed. JOSEPH. De Bello, lib. 6:c. 3. It was from this mountain that our Lord beheld Jerusalem, and predicted its future destruction, Luke 19:41, with Matthew 24:23; and it was from this mountain that he ascended to heaven, (Acts 1:12,) utterly leaving an ungrateful and condemned city.

And half of the mountain shall remove— I really think that these words refer to the lines of circumvallation, to intrenchments, redoubts, etc., which the Romans made while carrying on the siege of this city; and particularly the lines or trenches which the army made on Mount Olivet itself." (in loc.)

(On Matthew 2:3)
"Verse 3. When Herod-heard these things, he was troubled] Herod's consternation was probably occasioned by the agreement of the account of the magi, with an opinion predominant throughout the east, and particularly in Judea, that some great personage would soon make his appearance, for the deliverance of Israel from their enemies; and would take upon himself universal empire. SUETONIUS and TACITUS, two Roman historians, mention this. Their words are very remarkable:-Percrebuerat Oriente toto, vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judaea profecti rerum potirentur. Id de imperatare Romano, quantum eventu postea predictum patuit, Judaei ad se trahentes, rebellarunt. SUETON. VESP. "An ancient and settled persuasion prevailed throughout the east, that the fates had decreed some to proceed from Judea, who should attain universal empire. This persuasion, which the event proved to respect the Roman emperor, the Jews applied to themselves, and therefore rebelled." The words of Tacitus are nearly similar:-Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judaea rerum potirentur. Quae ambages Vespasianum ac Titum praedixerant. "Many were persuaded, that it was contained in the ancient books of their priests, that at that very time the east should prevail: and that some should proceed from Judea and possess the dominion. It was Vespasian and Titus that these ambiguous prophecies predicted." Histor. v. (in loc.)

(On Matthew 3:9)
"The wrath to come?] The desolation which was about to fall on the Jewish nation for their wickedness, and threatened in the last words of their own Scriptures. See Mal. iv. 6. Lest I come and smite the earth Årah ta (et ha-arets, this very land) with a curse. This wrath or curse was coming: they did not prevent it by turning to God, and receiving the Messiah, and therefore the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost. Let him that readeth understand. "

(On Matthew 3:10)
"It was customary with the prophets to represent the kingdoms, nations and individuals, whose ruin they predicted, under the notion of forests and trees, doomed to be cut down. (See Jer. xlvi. 22, 23; Ezek. xxxi. 3, 11, 12.) The Baptist follows the same metaphor; the Jewish nation is the tree, and the Romans the axe, which, by the just judgment of God, was speedily to cut it down. It has been well observed, that there is an allusion here to a woodman, who, having marked a tree for excision, lays his axe at its root, and strips off' his outer garment, that he may wield his blows more powerfully, and that his work may be quickly performed. For about sixty years before the coming of Christ, this axe had been lying at the root of the Jewish tree, Judea having been made a province to the Roman empire, from the time that Pompey took the city of Jerusalem, during the contentions of the two brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, which was about sixty-three years before the coming of Christ. (See Josephus Antiq. i. xiv. c. 1—5.) But as the country might be still considered as in the hands of the Jews, though subject to the Romans, and God had waited on them now nearly ninety years from the above time, expecting them to bring forth fruit, and none was yet produced; but he kept the Romans as an axe, lying at the root of this tree, who were ready to cut it down the moment God gave the commission." (Com. in loc.)

(On Matthew 3:12)
"Whose fan is in his hand: The Romans are here termed God's fan, as, in ver. 10, they were termed his axe; and in chap. xxii. 7, they are termed his troops or armies. His floor: Does not this mean the land of Judea, which has been long, as it were, the threshing-floor of the Lord? God says he will now, by the winnowing fan, [viz. the Romans,] thoroughly cleanse this floor:—the wheat, those who believe in the Lord Jesus, he will gather into his garner, either take to heaven from the evil to come, or put in a place of safety, as he did the Christians, by sending them to Pella, in Coelosyria, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem. But he will burn up the chaff—the disobedient and rebellious Jews, who would not come unto Christ  that they might have life. Unquenchable fire — that cannot be extinguished by man." (Com. in loc.)

(On Matthew 10:15)
"In the day of judgment, or punishment : Perhaps not meaning the day of general judgment, nor the day of the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans; but a day in which God should send punishment on that particular city, or on that person, for their crimes ; so the day of judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, was the time in which the Lord destroyed them by fire and brimstone, from the Lord out of heaven." (Com. in loc. )

(On Matthew 10:22)
"He who holds fast faith, and a good conscience, to the end, till the punishment threatened against this wicked people be poured out, he shall be saved, preserved from the destruction that shall fall upon the workers of iniquity. This verse is commonly understood to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem.. it is also true, that they who do not hold fast faith and a good conscience till death, have no room to hope for an admission into the kingdom of God." (Com. in loc.)

(On Matthew 11:23)
"The word hell, used in the common translation, conveys now an improper meaning of the original word : because hell is only used to signify the place of the damned. But as the word hell comes from the Anglo-Saxon helan, to cover, or hide, hence the tyling or slating of a house is called, in some parts of England, (particularly Cornwall,) heling, to this day; and the covers of books, (in Lancashire,) by the same name; so the literal import of the original word hades was formerly well expressed by it. Here it means a state of the utmost woe, and ruin and desolation, to which these impenitent cities should be reduced. This prediction of our Lord was literally fulfilled: for in the wars between the Romans and the Jews, these cities were totally destroyed, so that no traces are now found of Bethsaida, Chorazin, or Capernaum.' Com. in loc. Ver. 24. ' The calamities which shall come upon thee for rejecting my miracles, shall be more dreadful than those which befell Sodom." (Expos. in loc. )

(On Matthew 12:31)
"Neither in this world, &c. Though I follow the common translation, yet I am fully satisfied the meaning of the words is, neither in this dispensation, viz., the Jewish, nor in that which is to come, viz., the Christian. Olam ha-bo, the world to come, is a constant phrase for the times of the Messiah, in the Jewish writers. The sin here spoken of by our Lord ranks high in the catalogue of presumptuous sins, for which there was no forgiveness under the Mosaic dispensation. See Num. xv. 30, 31; xxxv. 31 ; Lev. xx. 10 ; 1 Sam. ii. 25. When our Lord saith that such a sin hath no forgiveness, is he not to be understood as meaning that the crime shall be punished under the Christian dispensation as it was under the Jewish, viz., by the destruction of the body ? And is not this the same mentioned 1 John i. 7, called there the sin unto death, i. e., a sin that was to be punished by the death of the body, while mercy might be extended to the soul ? The punishment for presumptuous sins, under the Jewish law, to which our Lord evidently alludes, certainly did not extend to the damnation of the soul, though the body was destroyed ; therefore I think that, though there was no such forgiveness to be extended to this crime as to absolve the man from the punishment of temporal death, yet, on repentance, mercy might be extended to the soul; and every sin may be repented of under the gospel dispensation." (Com. in loc. )

(On Matthew 13:25)
"Secondly, he seems to refer to the state of the Jewish people: God had sowed them, at first, wholly a right seed, but now they were become utterly degenerate, and about to be plucked up and destroyed by the Roman armies, which were the angels or messengers of God’s justice, whom he had commissioned to sweep these rebellious people from the face of the land. Thirdly, he seems to refer also to the state in which the world shall be found, when he comes to judge it. The righteous and the wicked shall be permitted to grow together, till God comes to make a full and final separation."

(On Matthew 16:27-28)
"Ver. 27. ' This seems to refer to Dan. vii. 13, 14 ; " Behold one like the Son of man came — to the ancient of days — and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him." This was the glorious Mediatorial kingdom which Jesus Christ was now about to set up, by the destruction of the Jewish nation and polity, and the diffusion of his gospel through the whole world. If the words be taken in this sense, the angels or messengers may signify the apostles and successors in the sacred ministry, preaching the gospel in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is very likely that the words do not apply to the final judgment, to which they are generally referred ; but to the wonderful display of God's grace and power after the day of Pentecost.'

Ver. 28. ' This verse seems to confirm the above explanation, as our Lord evidently speaks of the establishment of the Christian church, after the day of Pentecost, and its final triumph after the destruction of the Jewish polity; as if he had said, "Some of you, my disciples, shall continue to live till these things take place." The destruction of Jerusalem, and the Jewish economy, which our Lord predicts, took place about forty-three years after this ; and some of the persons now with him doubtless survived that period, and witnessed the extension of the Messiah's kingdom ; and our Lord told them these things before, that when they came to pass they might be confirmed in the  faith, and expect an exact fulfilment of all the other promises and prophecies which concerned the extension and support of the kingdom of Christ." (Com. in loc.)

(On Matthew 21:41-44)
"Ver. 41. 'He will miserably destroy those wicked men. So, according to this evangelist, our Lord caused them to pass that sentence upon themselves, which was literally executed about forty years after.'
Ver. 44. ' He, whether Jew or Gentile, who shall not believe in the Son of God, shall suffer grievously in consequence ; but on whomsoever the stone (Jesus Christ) falls in the way of judgment, he shall be ground to powder; it shall make him so small, as to render him capable of being dispersed as chaff by the wind. This seems to allude, not only to the dreadful crushing of the Jewish state by the Romans, but also to that general dispersion of the Jews through all the nations of the world, which continues to the present day." (Com. in loc.)

(On Matthew 22:2-14)
"From this parable it appears plain, (1.) That the king means the great God. (2.) His son, the Lord Jesus. (3.) The marriage, his incarnation, or espousing human nature, by taking it into union with himself. (4.) The marriage feast, the economy of the gospel, during which men are invited to partake of the blessings purchased by, and consequent on, the incarnation and death of our blessed Lord. (5.) By those  who had been bidden or invited, ver. 3, are meant the Jews in general, who had this union of Christ with human nature, and his sacrifice for sin, pointed out by various rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices under the law ; and who, by all the prophets, had been constantly invited to believe in, and receive the promised Messiah. (6.) By the servants, we are to understand the first preachers of the gospel, proclaiming salvation to the Jews. John the Baptist and the seventy disciples, (Luke x. 1,) may be here particularly intended. (7.) By the other servants, ver. 4, the apostles seem to be meant, who, though they were to preach the gospel to the whole world, yet were to begin at Jerusalem, (Luke xxiv. 47,) with the first offers of mercy. (8.) By their making light of it, &c. ver. 5, is pointed out their neglect of this salvation, and their preferring secular enjoyments, &c. to the kingdom of Christ. (9.) By injuriously using some, slaying others, of his servants, ver. 6, is pointed out the persecution raised against the apostles, by the Jews, in which some of them were martyred. (10.) By sending forth his troops, ver. 7, is meant the commission given to the Romans against Judea, and burning up their city, and the total destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the son of Vespasian, which happened about forty-one years after." (Com. in loc.)

(On Matthew 24:2)
"There shall not be left here one stone— These seem to have been the last words he spoke as he left the temple, into which he never afterwards entered; and, when he got to the mount of Olives, he renewed the discourse. From this mount, on which our Lord and his disciples now sat, the whole of the city, and particularly the temple, were clearly seen. This part of our Lord’s prediction was fulfilled in the most literal manner. Josephus says, War, book vii. c. 1: "Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the whole city and temple, te polin apasan kai ton newn kataskeptein, except the three towers, Phaselus, Hippicus, and Mariamne, and a part of the western wall, and these were spared; but, for all the rest of the wall, it was laid so completely even with the ground, by those who dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited." Maimonides, a Jewish rabbin, in Tract. Taanith, c. 4, says, "That the very foundations of the temple were digged up, according to the Roman custom." His words are these: "On that ninth day of the month Ab, fatal for vengeance, the wicked Turnus Rufus, of the children of Edom, ploughed up the temple, and the places round about it, that the saying might be fulfilled, Zion shall be ploughed as a field." This Turnus, or rather Terentius Rufus, was left general of the army by Titus, with commission, as the Jews suppose, to destroy the city and the temple, as Josephus observes. The temple was destroyed 1st. Justly; because of the sins of the Jews. 2dly. Mercifully; to take away from them the occasion of continuing in Judaism: and 3dly. Mysteriously; to show that the ancient sacrifices were abolished, and that the whole Jewish economy was brought to an end, and the Christian dispensation introduced." (Commentary on Matthew 24 in loc).

(On Matthew 24:40)
"The meaning seems to be, that so general should these calamities be, that no two persons, wheresoever found, or about whatsoever employed, should be both able to effect their escape; and that captivity and the sword should have a complete triumph over this unhappy people." (Com. in loc.)

(On Luke 21:24)
"To St. Matthew's account, St. Luke adds, chap. xxi, They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The number of those who fell by the sword was very great. ELEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND perished during the siege. Many were slain at other places, and other times. Besides those many of every age, sex, and condition, were slain in the war, who are not reckoned; but, of those who are reckoned, the number amounts to upwards of 1,357,000, which would have appeared incredible, if their own historian had not so particularly enumerated them. See Josephus, WAR, book ii, c. 18,20; book iii. c. 2,7,8,9,; book iv. c. 1,2,7,8,9; book vii. c. 6,9,11; and Bp. Newton, vol ii. p. 288-290.

"Many were also lead away captives into all nations. There were taken at Jopata, 1,200. At Tarichea, 6,000 chosen young men, who were sent to Nero; Many besides these were taken in Jerusalem; so that, as Josephus says, the number of the captives taken in the whole war amounted to 97,000. Those above seventeen years of age were sent to the works in Egypt; but most were distributed through the Roman provinces, to be destroyed in their theatres by the sword, and the wild beasts; and those under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves. Eleven thousand in one place perished for want. At Caesarea, Titus, like a thorough-paced infernal savage, murdered 2,500 Jews, in honour of his brother's birthday; and a greater number at Berytus in honour of his father's. See Josephus WAR, b. vii. c. 3.3.1. Some he caused to kill each other; some were thrown to the wild beasts; and others burnt alive. And all this was done by a man who was styled, The darling of mankind! Thus were the Jews miserably tormented, and distributed over the Roman provinces; and continued to be distressed and dispersed over all the nations of the world to this present day. Jerusalem also was, according to the prediction of our Lord, to be trodden down by the Gentiles." (Adam Clarke's Commentary, pp. 232-233)

(On Matthew 24:14)
"[And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world] But, notwithstanding these persecutions, there should be a universal publication of the glad tidings of the kingdom, for a testimony to all nations. God would have the iniquity of the Jews published everywhere, before the heavy stroke of his judgments should fall upon them; that all mankind, as it were, might be brought as witnesses against their cruelty and obstinacy in crucifying and rejecting the Lord Jesus. In all the world, en (heb 1722) holee (grk 3650) tee (grk 3588) oikoumenee (grk 3625). Perhaps no more is meant here than the Roman empire; for it is beyond controversy that pasan (grk 3956) teen (grk 3588) oikoumeneen (grk 3625), <Luke 2:1>, means no more than the whole Roman empire: as a decree for taxation or enrolment from Augustus Caesar could have no influence but in the Roman dominions; but see the note at <Luke 2:1>. Tacitus informs us, Annal. l. 15, that, as early as the reign of Nero, the Christians were grown so numerous at Rome as to excite the jealousy of the government; and in other parts they were in proportion. However, we are under no necessity to restrain the phrase to the Roman empire, as, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Gospel was not only preached in the lesser Asia, and Greece, and Italy, the greatest theatres of action then in the world; but was likewise propagated as far north as SCYTHIA; as far south as ETHIOPIA; as far east as PARTHIA and INDIA; and as far west as SPAIN and BRITAIN. On this point, Dr. Newton goes on to say, That there is some probability that the Gospel was preached in the British nations by Simon the apostle; that there is much greater probability that it was preached here by Paul; and that there is an absolute certainty that it was planted here in the times of the apostles, before the destruction of Jerusalem. See his proofs. Dissert. vol. 2 p. 235, 236. edit. 1758. Paul himself speaks, <Col. 1:6,23>, of the Gospel's being come into ALL THE WORLD, and preached TO EVERY CREATURE under heaven. And in his Epistle to the Romans, <Matt. 10:18>, he very elegantly applies to the lights of the church, what the psalmist said of the lights of heaven. Their sound went into ALL THE EARTH, and their words unto the END of the WORLD. What but the wisdom of God could foretell this? and what but the power of God could accomplish it? [Then shall the end come.] When this general publication of the Gospel shall have taken place, then a period shall be put to the whole Jewish economy, by the utter destruction of their city and temple. (Commentary, in loc.)

(On Matthew 24:29)
"Immediately after the tribulation, &c. Commentators generally understand this, and what follows, of the end of the world and Christ's coming to judgment: but the word immediately shows that our Lord is not speaking of any distant event, but of something immediately consequent on calamities already predicted: and that must be the destruction of Jerusalem...

"In the prophetic language, great commotions upon the earth are often represented under the notion of commotions and changes in the heavens: -

"The fall of Babylon is represented by the stars and constellations of heaven withdrawing their light, and the sun and moon being darkened. See Isa. xiii. 9,10.

"The destruction of Egypt, by the heaven being covered, the sun enveloped with a cloud, and the moon withholding her light. Ezek. xxxii. 7,8.

"The destruction of the Jews by Antioch Epiphanes, is represented by casting down some of the host of heaven, and the stars to the ground. See Dan. viii. 10.

"And this very destruction of Jerusalem is represented by the Prophet Joel, chap. ii. 30,31, by showing wonders in heaven and in earth - Darkening the sun, and turning the moon into blood. This general mode of describing these judgments leaves no room to doubt the propriety of its application in the present case" (Clarke, on Matt 24:29)

(On Matthew 24:30)
"Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man. The plain meaning of this is, that the destruction of Jerusalem will be such a remarkable instance of divine vengeance, such a signal manifestation of Christ's power and glory, that all the Jewish tribes shall mourn, and many will, in consequence of the manifestation of God, be led to acknowledge Christ and his religion. By.. of the land, in the text, is evidently meant here, as in several other places, the land of Judea and its tribes, either its then inhabitants, or the Jewish people wherever found." (On Matt 24:30)

(On John 7:34)
"Verse 34. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me— When the Roman armies come against you, you will vainly seek for a deliverer. But ye shall be cut off in your sins, because ye did not believe in me"

(On John 20:17)
"Verse 17.  Touch me not.  Cling not to me.  Apromai  has this sense in Job 31:7, where the Septuagint use it for the Hebrew dabak, which signifies to CLEAVE, CLING, STICK, OR BE GLUED TO.  From Matthew 28:9, it appears that some of the women held him by the feet and worshipped him.  This probably Mary did; and our Lord seems to have spoken to her to this effect:  'Spend no longer time with me now: I am not going immediately to heaven -- you will have several opportunities of seeing me again:  but go and tell my disciples, that I am, by and by, to ascend to my Father and God, who is your Father and God also.  Therefore, let them take courage.'"

(On Matthew 25:1)
"Then shall the kingdom of heaven: The state of the Jews and professing Christians, or the state of the visible church at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and in the day of judgment; for the parable appears to relate to both these periods." (Com. in loc.)

(On Luke 19:11-27)
"Those — enemies — bring hither; the Jews, whom I shall shortly slay by the sword of the Romans." (Com. in loc.)

(On Acts 13:46)
"Beware — lest that come upon you, &c. 'If you reject these benefits, now freely offered to you in this preaching of Christ crucified, you may expect such judgments from the hand of God as your forefathers experienced, when, for their rebellion and their contempt of his benefits, their city was taken, their temple destroyed, and themselves either slain by the sword, or carried into captivity. It is evident that St. Paul refers to Hab. i. 5 — 10, and in those verses the desolation by the Chaldeans is foretold. Never was there a prophecy more correctly and pointedly applied. Those Jews did continue to slight the benefits offered to them by the Lord, and they persevered. What was the consequence ? The Romans came, took their city, burnt their temple, slew upwards of a million of them, and either carried or sold the rest of them into captivity. How exactly was the prophecy in both cases fulfilled !" (Com. in loc.)

(On Romans 9:22)
"As the Jews of the apostle's time had sinned, after the similitude of the Egyptians, hardening their hearts, and abusing his goodness, after every display of his long-suffering kindness, — being now fitted for destruction, they were now ripe for punishment ; and that power which God was making known for their salvation, having been so long and so much abused and provoked, was now about to show itself in their destruction as a nation. But, even in this case, there is not a word of their final damnation; much less, that either they, or any others, were, by a sovereign decree, reprobated from all eternity, and that their very sins, the proximate cause of their punishment, were the necessary effect of that decree which had, from all eternity, doomed them to endless torments. As such a doctrine could never come from God, so it never can be found in the words of his apostle." (Com. in loc.)

(On 1 Corinthians 16:22)
"Does not the apostle refer to the last verse in the Bible ? Lest I come and smite the land with a curse. And does he not intimate that the Lord was coming to smite the Jewish land with that curse, which took place a very few years after, and continues on that gainsaying and rebellious people to the present day ? What the apostle has said was prophetic, and indicative of what was about to happen to that people. God was then coming to inflict punishment upon them. He came, and they were broken and dispersed." (Note in loc.)

(On I Thessalonians 5:9)
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath. So then it appears that some were appointed to wrath,.. to punishment; on this subject there can be no dispute. But who are they? When did this appointment take place? And for what cause? If we look carefully at the apostles' words, we shall find all these difficulties canish. It is very obvious that, in the preceding verses, the apostle refers simply to the destruction of the Jewish polity, and to the terrible judgments which were about to fall on the Jews as a nation; therefore, they are the people who were appointed to wrath; and they were thus appointed, not from eternity, nor from any indefinite or remote time, but from the time in which they utterly rejected the offers of salvation made to them by Jesus Christ and his apostles..." (On I Thess 5:9)

(On Hebrews 12:25-29)
"Not the earth only, but also heaven: probably referring to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and the total abolition of the political and ecclesiastical constitution of the Jews, the one being signified by the earth, the other by heaven; for the Jewish state and worship are frequently thus termed in the prophetic writings. For our God is a consuming fire: the apostle quotes Deut. iv. 24, and by doing so he teaches us this great truth — that sin under the gospel is as abominable in God's sight, as it was under the law, and that the man who does not labor to serve God with the principle, and in the way already prescribed, will find that fire to consume him which would otherwise have consumed his sins." (Com. in loc.)

(On James 5:8)
The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
ηγγικε. Is at hand. He is already on his way to destroy this wicked people, to raze their city and temple, and to destroy their polity for ever; and this judgment will soon take place." (in loc.)

(On Revelation 1:7)
"By this the Jewish People are most evidently intended, and therefore the whole verse may be understood as predicting the destruction of the Jews; and is a presumptive proof that the Apocalypse was written before the final overthrow of the Jewish state. (6:971.)

(On Revelation 6:12-17)
"All these things may literally apply to the final destruction of Jerusalem, and to the revolution which took place in the Roman empire, under Constantine the Great. Some apply them to the day of judgment, but they do not seem to have that awful event in view." (Com. in loc.)

(On The Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9)
"The whole of this prophecy from the times and corresponding events has been fulfilled to the very letter." (Clarke's Commentary, note on Daniel 9)

(On The Significance of A.D.70)
"Their ecclesiastical polity ceased with the destruction of their city and temple by the Romans, A. D. 70; at which time the Gospel had been preached through the known world by the apostles, ‘his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth;’ Acts 2:8; Romans 10:18."

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

ABOUT ADAM CLARKE

Adam Clarke's treatise on entire sanctification follows “Adam Clarke: Holiness Saint And Scholar.” If you know little about Adam Clarke beyond the fact that he authored “Clarke's Commentary,” you might enjoy reading the following sketch about him before reading his treatise on entire sanctification.

ADAM CLARKE: HOLINESS SAINT AND SCHOLAR

The name of Adam Clarke is synonymous with biblical scholarship and rightly so. His Commentary and Critical Notes on the entire Bible was completed in 1826 and it represented more than 30 years of intense research and writing. Other scholars have written commentaries on the whole Bible, but Clarke's is a thesaurus of biblical, oriental, philosophical, and classical learning unequaled by any other. When it is recalled that all this work was done while Clarke was a busy, itinerant Wesleyan preacher who never had an hour's secretarial help in his life, it, together with all his other publications, indicates a prodigious literary achievement.

Clarke was a Wesleyan scholar and an ardent, convinced expositor of scriptural holiness. No appreciation of the holiness heritage can ignore Adam Clarke. Following the Wesley brothers and John Fletcher, Clarke's is the next name in that illustrious line of holiness preachers and scholars from John Wesley to the present. It is altogether fitting that we should highlight Adam Clarke's contribution to the theology of scriptural holiness. Before looking at his teaching in some detail, a brief sketch of his life and work is necessary.

Adam Clarke was born in the county of Londonderry, North Ireland, in 1760 and was converted in 1779 through hearing a Methodist preacher. Three years later he left home to attend Wesley's school in Kingswood, Bristol, England. Five weeks later he was appointed to his first preaching circuit and for the next 50 years he was a self-taught Wesleyan preacher who, among other academic accomplishments, made himself master of at least 10 languages, ancient and modern.

He served on 24 Methodist circuits in England and Ireland, worked for 3 years in the Channel Islands, was three times president of the English Methodist Conference and four times president of the Irish Methodist Conference. He devoted hundreds of working hours to the newly founded British and Foreign Bible Society and 10 years of painstaking editing and collating of state papers. This latter work was a colossal undertaking. It required the most exact examination, deciphering, and classification of British State Papers from 1131 to 1666. The research was carried on in 14 different locations, including the Tower of London, London's Westminster Archives, and Cambridge University Library. In 1808 the University of Aberdeen conferred on Adam Clarke the honorary degree of LL.D., the university's highest academic honor.

As well as his Commentary, Clarke's publications ran to 22 volumes, including his Memorials of the Wesley Family, Reflections on the Being and Attributes of God, The Manners of the Ancient Israelites, 4 volumes of sermons, 3 volumes of miscellanea titled Detached Pieces, a volume on Christian Missions, A Concise View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, and A Bibliographical Dictionary. Clarke's literary output was phenomenal when it is recalled that he was a full-time itinerant preacher.

A glance at the record of the 24 Methodist circuits he served between 1782 and 1832 shows that his longest domicile in one place was four years, yet his moving from place to place approximately every two years does not seem to have interfered with his reading, writing, and publication. He was elected a member of six of the most learned societies of his day, including the Antiquarian Society, the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Royal Irish Academy. In spite of all the distinctions given to him, Clarke remained a loyal Wesleyan preacher and a devout, humble believer. Learning I love,” he once wrote, “learned men I prize; with the company of the great and the good I am often delighted. But infinitely above all these and all other possible enjoyments, I glory in Christ--in me living and reigning and fitting me for His heaven.”

Clarke was a preacher of rare power and gifts and, particularly in his latter years, he preached to crowded churches. To his pulpit ministry he brought all the warmth of his Celtic upbringing and all the vast resources of his encyclopaedic learning. Essentially a textual preacher, he made little formal preparation before he entered the pulpit--a method that we lesser mortals should not emulate! “I cannot make a sermon before I go into the pulpit,” he confessed to his friend, Robert Carr Brackenbury, “therefore, I am obliged to hang upon the arm and the wisdom of the Lord. I read a great deal, write very little, but strive to study.” “I ... strive to study”--that was the secret of Clarke's success both as a preacher and a writer.

A veritable Briareus in his many accomplishments, he explored every available avenue of knowledge, especially the linguistic, the scientific, and the historical. Advising a young Methodist preacher about his studies, Clarke averred: “A Methodist preacher should know everything. Partial knowledge on any branch of science or business is better than total ignorance.... The old adage of 'Too many irons in the fire' contains an abominable lie. You cannot have too many--poker, tongs, and all, keep them all going.” It was advice he followed himself before giving it to others. Visiting Liverpool in the north of England in 1832, he contracted the deadly Asiatic cholera and died from it at his London home on August 26.

Adam Clarke was a holiness preacher and scholar. He was enthusiastically committed to Methodist doctrine and experience and particularly to Wesley's understanding of Christian perfection. In a sermon preached from Phil. 1:27-28 titled “Apostolic Preacher,” he explained Christian holiness:

“The whole design of God was to restore man to his image, and raise him from the ruins of his fall; in a word, to make him perfect; to blot out all his sins, purify his soul, and fill him with all holiness, so that no unholy temper, evil desire, or impure affection or passion shall either lodge or have any being within him. This and this only is true religion, or Christian perfection; and a less salvation than this would be dishonourable to the sacrifice of Christ and the operation of the Holy Ghost.... Call it by what name we please, it must imply the pardon of all transgression and the removal of the whole body of sin and death.... This, then, is what I plead for, pray for, and heartily recommend to all true believers, under the name of Christian perfection.”

Preaching on Eph. 3:14-21 Clarke interpreted the phrase “filled with all the fulness of God” as descriptive of the experience of full salvation. “To be filled with God is a great thing, to be filled with the fulness of God is still greater; to be filled with all the fulness of God is greatest of all. It is . . . to have the heart emptied of, and cleansed from, all sin and defilement, and filled with humility meekness, gentleness, goodness . . . and love to Go and man.”

Clarke knew that some Christians were opposed to the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification because they think no man can be fully saved from sin in this life.... They hold out death as the complete deliver from all corruption and the final destroyer of sin as if were revealed in every page of the Bible! Whereas there is not one passage in the sacred volume that says any such thing! Were this true, then death, far from being the last enemy, would be the last and best friend, and the greatest of all deliverers.... It is the blood of Jesus alone that cleanseth from all unrighteousness.”

Another familiar argument against Christian perfection was the assertion that indwelling sin humbles believers and keeps them penitent. Clarke replied: “Pride is of the essence of sin . . . and the root whence all moral obliquity flows. How then can pride humble us? . . . The heart from which it [pride] is cast out has the humility, meekness and gentleness of Christ implanted in its stead.”

To the further argument that a Christian is surely humbled by the sense of indwelling sin, Clarkereplied: “I grant that they who see and feel and deplore their indwelling sin, are humbled. But is it the sin that humbles? No. It is the grace of God that shows and condemns the sin that humbles us.... We are never humbled under a sense of indwelling sin till the Spirit of God drags it to the light and shows us not only its horrid deformity, but its hostility to God; and He manifests it that He may take it away.”

Preaching some 30 years after Wesley died, Clarke saw this glorious doctrine exemplified by a host of professing Methodists. Replying to the objection that this teaching produced self-righteousness in its professors, Clarke testified: “No person that acts so has ever received this grace. He is either a hypocrite or a self-deceiver. Those who have received it . . . love God with all their heart, they love even their enemies.... In the splendor of God's holiness they feel themselves absorbed.... It has been no small mercy to me that in the course of my religious life, I have met with many persons who professed that the blood of Christ had saved them from all sin, and whose profession was maintained by an immaculate life; but I never knew one of them that was not of the spirit above described. They were men of the strongest faith, the purest love, the holiest affections, the most obedient lives and the most useful in society.”

Adam Clarke wrote and preached and exegeted the doctrine of entire sanctification with all his command of scripture, linguistic expertise, and wide theological reading, but there is one characteristic of his presentation that deserves more attention. He not only believed it was a scriptural doctrine and that it was theologically sound--he enforced it and explained it and defended it with all the passion of an evangelist. Whenever he touched the subject, he had as his dominant concern not only that Christians would believe it and be persuaded of its veracity, but that they might personally claim the experience, enter into it, live it, enjoy it, and testify to it.

“If men would but spend as much time in fervently calling upon God (i.e. to fully sanctify them) as they spend in decrying this doctrine, what a glorious state of the church should we soon witness! . . . This moment we may be emptied of sin, filled with holiness and become truly happy.... The perfection of the gospel system is not that it makes allowance for sin, but that it makes an atonement for it, not that it tolerates sin, but that it destroys it.... Let all those who retain the apostolic doctrine . . . press every believer to go on to perfection, and expect to be saved, while here below, into the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus.... Art thou weary of that carnal mind which is enmity to God? Canst thou be happy whilst thou art unholy? Arise, then, and be baptized with a greater effusion of the Holy Ghost.... Reader, it is the birthright of every child of God to be cleansed from all sin, to keep himself unspotted from the world, and so to live as never more to offend his Maker. All things are possible to him that believeth, because all things are possible to the infinitely meritorious blood and energetic Spirit of the Lord Jesus.”

It is surely not out of place to note that the doctrine that Adam Clarke advocated so fervently found rich expression in his own life. Henry Moore, close confidant of both John Wesley and Adam Clarke, said of the latter: “Our Connection, I believe, never knew a more blameless life than that of Dr. Clarke.”

In view of Clarkee's clear and enthusiastic exposition of Christian perfection, it is not a little surprising that the most serious criticism of his teaching has come from the “holiness movement.” Clarke emphasized almost exclusively the instantaneous phase of sanctification and quite neglected the growth phase. “In no part of the scriptures are we directed to seek holiness gradatim. We are to come to God as well for an instantaneous and complete purification from all sin as for an instantaneous pardon. Neither the gradatim pardon or the seriatim purification exists in the Bible.”

Clarke's teaching is further described as throwing “off center” John Wesley's “theological balance.” But this criticism is quite misleading. It quotes only one brief passage from the chapter titled “Entire Sanctification” in Samuel Dunn's anthology of Clarke's teaching, titled Christian Theology. That chapter is a compilation from a number of Clarke's writings on Christian holiness, and the full text of the originals needs to be studied before such a sweeping judgment is made on three sentences. In the given extract Clarke is speaking exclusively of entering into the blessing, a grace as instantaneous as justification. Wesley taught this identical truth and to say that Clarke's  reiteration of it jeopardized the Wesleyan “theological balance” is quite wide of the mark. And why not quote the very next sentence from Clarke? “It is when the soul is purified from all sin that it can properly grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And why ignore an earlier passage? “He who continues to believe, love and obey will grow in grace and continually increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The life of a Christian is a growth.”

Clarke's  teaching on entire sanctification is thoroughly Wesleyan; in fact Clarke more nearly follows John Wesley here than any of his contemporary, and later, Methodist theologians--John Fletcher, Richard Watson, W. B. Pope, etc.. Clarke argues, as Wesley did, that in a moment the believer's heart may be cleansed from all sin and filled with God's fullness. Following this crisis of grace there is continuous growth in the entirely sanctified life. This is what authentic Wesleyanism has always taught. Those who want to criticize Clarke here really must go back to the original full text of his writings rather than passing premature judgment on isolated extracts. Far from throwing Wesley's teaching “off center,” Clarke reinforced, reemphasized, and revitalized Wesley's “grand depositum”--and for that reason, and others, Adam Clarke inspires holiness preachers today.

Source: “The Preacher's Magazine,” by Herbert McGonigle Professor of

Church History, British Isles Nazarene College, Manchester, England

ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION

By Dr. Adam Clarke

The word “sanctify” has two meanings. 1. It signifies to consecrate, to separate from earth and common use, and to devote or dedicate to God and his service. 2. It signifies to make holy or pure.

Many talk much, and indeed well, of what Christ has done for us:

but how little is spoken of what he is to do in us! and yet all that he has done for us is in reference to what he is to do in us. He was incarnated, suffered, died, and rose again from the dead; ascended to heaven, and there appears in the presence of God for us. These were all saving, atoning, and mediating acts for us; that he might reconcile us to God; that he might blot out our sin; that he might purge our consciences from dead works; that he might bind the strong man armed --take away the armor in which he trusted, wash the polluted heart, destroy every foul and abominable desire, all tormenting and unholy tempers; that he might make the heart his throne, fill the soul with his light, power, and life; and, in a word, “destroy the works of the devil.” These are done in us; without which we cannot be saved unto eternal lie. But these acts done in us are consequent on the acts done for us: for had he not been incarnated, suffered, and died in our stead, we could not receive either pardon or holiness; and did he not cleanse and purify our hearts, we could not enter into the place where all is purity: for the beatific vision is given to them only who are purified from all unrighteousness: for it is written, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Nothing is purified by death;--nothing in the grave; nothing in heaven. The living stones of the temple, like those of that at Jerusalem, are hewn, squared, and cut here, in the church militant, to prepare them to enter into the composition of the church triumphant.

This perfection is the restoration of man to the state of holiness from which he fell, by creating him anew in Christ Jesus, and restoring to him that image and likeness of God which he has lost. A higher meaning than this it cannot have; a lower meaning it must not have. God made man in that degree of perfection which was pleasing to his own infinite wisdom and goodness. Sin defaced this divine image; Jesus came to restore it. Sin must have no triumph; and the Redeemer of mankind must have his glory. But if man be not perfectly saved from all sin, sin does triumph, and Satan exult, because they have done a mischief that Christ either cannot or will not remove. To say he cannot, would be shocking blasphemy against the infinite power and dignity of the great Creator; to say he will not, would be equally such against the infinite benevolence and holiness of his nature. All sin, whether in power, guilt, or defilement is the work of the devil; and he, Jesus, came to destroy the work of the devil; and as all unrighteousness is sin, so his blood cleanseth from all sin, because it cleanseth from all unrighteousness.

Many stagger at the term perfection in Christianity; because they think that what is implied in it is inconsistent with a state of probation, and savors of pride and presumption: but we must take good heed how we stagger at any word of God; and much more how we deny or fritter away the meaning of any of His sayings, lest he reprove us, and we be found liars before him. But it may be that the term is rejected because it is not understood. Let us examine its import.

The word “perfection,” in reference to any person or thing signifies that such person or thing is complete or finished; that it has nothing redundant, and is in nothing defective. And hence that observation of a learned civilian is at once both correct and illustrative, namely, “We count those things perfect which want nothing requisite for the end whereto they were instituted.” And to be perfect often signifies “to be blameless, clear, irreproachable;” and according to the above definition of Hooker, a man may be said to be perfect who answers the end for which God made him; and as God requires every man to love him with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself; then he is a perfect man that does so; he answers the end for which God made him; and this is more evident from the nature of that love which fills his heart: for as love is the principle of obedience, so he that loves his God with all his powers, will obey him with all his powers; and he who loves his neighbor as himself will not only do no injury to him, but, on the contrary, labor to promote his best interests. Why the doctrine which enjoins such a state of perfection as this, should be dreaded, ridiculed, or despised, is a most strange thing; and the opposition to it can only be from that carnal mind that is enmity to God; “That is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” And had I no other proof that man is fallen from God, his opposition to Christian holiness would be to me sufficient.

The whole design of God was to restore man to his image, and raise him from the ruins of his fall; in a word, to make him perfect; to blot out all his sins, purify his soul, and fill him with holiness; so that no unholy temper, evil desire, or impure affection or passion shall either lodge or have any being within him; this and this only is true religion or Christian perfection; and a less salvation than this would be dishonorable to the sacrifice of Christ, and the operation of the Holy Ghost; and would be as unworthy of the appellation of Christianity,” as it would be of that of “holiness or perfection.” They who ridicule this are scoffers at the word of God; many of them totally irreligious men, sitting in the seat of the scornful. They who deny it, deny the whole scope and design of divine revelation and the mission of Jesus Christ. And they who preach the opposite doctrine are either speculative Antinomians, or pleaders for Baal.

When St. Paul says he “warns every man, and teaches every man in all wisdom, that he may present every man PERFECT in Christ Jesus,” he must mean something. What then is this something? It must mean “that holiness without which none shall see the Lord.” Call it by what name we please, it must imply the pardon of all transgression, and the removal of the whole body of sin and death; for this must take place before we can be like him, and see him as he is, in the effulgence of his own glory. This fitness, then, to appear before God, and thorough preparation for eternal glory, is what I plead for, pray for, and heartily recommend to all true believer, under the name of Christian perfection. Had I a better name, one more energetic, one with a greater plenitude of meaning, one more worthy of the efficacy of the blood that bought our peace, and cleanseth from all unrighteousness, I would gladly adopt and use it. Even the word “perfection” has, in some relations, so many qualifications and abatements that cannot comport with that full and glorious salvation recommended in the gospel, and bought and sealed by the blood of the cross, that I would gladly lay it by, and employ a word more positive and unequivocal in its meaning, and more worthy of the merit of the infinite atonement of Christ, and of the energy of his almighty Spirit; but there is none in our language; which I deplore as an inconvenience and a loss.

Why then are there so many, even among sincere and godly ministers and people, who are so much opposed to the term, and so much alarmed at the profession? I answer, Because they think no man can be fully saved from sin in this life. I ask, where is this in unequivocal words, written in the New Testament? Where, in that book is it intimated that sin is not wholly destroyed till death takes place, and the soul and the body are separated? Nowhere. In the popish baseless doctrine of purgatory, this doctrine, not with more rational consequences, is held: this doctrine allows that, so inveterate is sin, it cannot be wholly destroyed even in death; and that a penal fire, in a middle state between heaven and hell, is necessary to atone for that which the blood of Christ had not cancelled; and to purge from that which the energy of the almighty Spirit had not cleansed before death.

Even papists could not see that a moral evil was detained in the soul through its physical connection with the body; and that it required the dissolution of this physical connection before the moral contagion could be removed. Protestants, who profess, and most certainly possess, a better faith, are they alone that maintain the deathbed purgatory; and how positively do they hold out death as the complete deliverer from all corruption, and the final destroyer of sin, as if it were revealed in every page of the Bible! Whereas, there is not one passage in the sacred volume that says any such thing. Were this true, then death, far from being the last enemy, would be the last and best friend, and the greatest of all deliverers: for if the last remains of all the indwelling sin of all believers is to be destroyed by death, (and a fearful mass this will make,) then death, that removes it, must be the highest benefactor of mankind. The truth is, he is neither the cause nor the means of its destruction. It is the blood of Jesus alone that cleanseth from all unrighteousness.

It is supposed that indwelling sin is useful even to true believers, because it humbles them and keeps them low in their own estimation. A little examination will show that this is contrary to the fact. It is generally, if not universally allowed that pride is of the essence of sin, if not its very essence; and the root whence all moral obliquity flows. How then can pride humble us? Is not this absurd? Where is there a sincere Christian, be his creed what it may, that does not deplore his proud, rebellious, and unsubdued heart and will, as the cause of all his wretchedness; the thing that mars his best sacrifices, and prevents his communion with God? How often do such people say or sing, both in their public and private devotions,--

“But pride, that busy sin,

Spoils all that I perform!” 
 

Were there no pride, there would be no sin; and the heart from which it is cast out has the humility, meekness, and gentleness of Christ implanted in its stead.

But still it is alleged, as an indubitable fact, that “a man is humbled under a sense of indwelling sin.” I grant that they who see and feel, and deplore their indwelling sin, are humbled: but is it the sin that humbles? No. It is the grace of God, that shows and condemns the sin that humbles us. Neither the devil nor his work will ever show themselves. Pride works frequently under a dense mask, and will often assume the garb of humility. How true is that saying, and of how many is it the language!

“Proud I am my wants to see,

Proud of my humility.” 
 

And to conceal his working, even Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light! It appears then that we attribute this boasted humiliation to a wrong cause. We never are humbled under a sense of indwelling sin till the Spirit of God drags it to the light, and shows us, not only its horrid deformity, but its hostility to God; and he manifests it, that he may take it away: but a false opinion causes men to hug the monster, and to contemplate their chains with complacency!

It has been objected to this perfection, this perfect work of God in the soul, that “the greater sense we have of our own sinfulness, the more will Christ be exalted in the eye of the soul: for, if the thing were possible that a man might be cleansed from all sin in this life, he would feel no need of a Saviour; Christ would be undervalued by him as no longer needing his saving power.” This objection mistakes the whole state of the case. How is Christ exalted in the view of the soul? How is it that he becomes precious to us? Is it not from a sense of what he has done for us, and what he has done in us? Did any man ever love God till he had felt that God loved him? Do we not “love him because he first loved us?” Is it the name JESUS that is precious to us? or JESUS the Saviour saving us from our sins? Is all our confidence placed in him because of some one saving act? or, because of his continual operation as the Saviour? Can any effect subsist without its cause? Must not the cause continue to operate in order to maintain the effect? Do we value a good cause more for the instantaneous production of a good and important effect, than we do for its continual energy, exerted to maintain that good and important effect? All these questions can be answered by a child. What is it that cleanseth the soul and destroys sin? Is it not the mighty power of the grace of God? What is it that keeps the soul clean? Is it not the same power dwelling in us? No more can an effect subsist without its cause, than a sanctified soul abide in holiness without the indwelling Sanctifier. When Christ casts out the strong-armed man, he takes away that armor in which he trusted, he spoils his goods, he cleanses and enters into the house, so that the heart becomes the habitation of God through the Spirit. Can then a man undervalue that Christ who not only blotted out his iniquity, but cleansed his soul from all sin; and whose presence and inward mighty working constitute all his holiness and all his happiness? Impossible! Jesus was never so highly valued, so intensely loved, so affectionately obeyed, as now. The great Saviour has not his highest glory from his atoning and redeeming acts, but from the manifestation of his saving power.

“But the persons who profess to have been made thus perfect are proud and supercilious, and their whole conduct says to their neighbor, 'Stand by, I am holier than thou.' “ No person that acts so has ever received this grace. He is either a hypocrite or a self-deceiver. Those who have received it are full of meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering: they love God with all their hearts--they love even their enemies; love the whole human family, and are servants of all. They know they have nothing but what they have received. In the splendor of God's holiness they feel themselves absorbed. They have neither light, power, love, nor happiness, but from their indwelling Saviour. Their holiness, though it fills the soul, yet is only a drop from the infinite ocean. The flame of their love, though it penetrate their whole being, is only a spark from the incomprehensible Sun of righteousness. In a spirit and in a way which none but themselves can fully comprehend and feel, they can say or sing,--

“I loathe myself when God I see, And into nothing fall:

Content that Christ exalted be;

And God is all in all.” 
 

It has been no small mercy to me, that, in the course of my religious life, I have met with many persons who professed that the blood of Christ had saved them from all sin, and whose profession was maintained by an immaculate life; but I never knew one of them that was not of the spirit above described. They were men of the strongest faith, the purest love, the holiest affections, the most obedient lives, and the most useful in society. I have seen such walking with God for many years: and as I had the privilege of observing their walk in life, so have I been privileged with their testimony at death, when their sun appeared to grow broader and brighter at its setting; and, though they came through great tribulation, they found that their robes were washed and made white through the blood of the Lamb. They fully witnessed the grand effects which in this life flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification; namely, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance in the same to the end of their lives. O God! let my death be like that of these righteous I and let my end be like theirs! Amen.

It is scarcely worth mentioning another objection that has been started by the ignorant, the worthless, and the wicked. “The people that profess this, leave Christ out of the question; they either think that they have purified their own hearts, or that they have gained their pretended perfection by their own merits.” Nothing can be more false than this calumny. I know that people well in whose creed the doctrine of “salvation from all sin in this life “ is a prominent article. But that people hold most conscientiously that all our salvation, from the first dawn of light in the soul to its entry into the kingdom of glory, is all by and through Christ. He alone convinces the soul of sin, justifies the ungodly, sanctifies the unholy, preserves in this state of salvation, and brings to everlasting blessedness. No soul ever was or can be saved but through his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and passion, his death and burial, his glorious resurrection and ascension, and continued intercession at the right hand of God.

If men would but spend as much time in fervently calling upon God to cleanse by the blood that which He has not cleansed, as they spend in decrying this doctrine, what a glorious state of the church should we soon witness! Instead of compounding with iniquity, and tormenting their minds to find out with how little grace they may be saved, they would renounce the devil and all his works, and be determined never to rest till they had found that He had bruised him under their feet, and that the blood of Christ had cleansed them from all unrighteousness. Why is it that men will not try how far God will save them? nor leave off praying and believing for more and more, till they find that God has held his hand? When they find that their agonizing faith and prayer receive no farther answer, then, and not till then, they may conclude that God will be no farther gracious, and that He will not save to the uttermost them who come to him through Christ Jesus.

But it is farther objected, that even St. Paul himself denies this doctrine of perfection, disclaiming it in reference to himself: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after,” Phil. iii. 12. This place is mistaken: the apostle is not speaking of his restoration to the image of God; but to completing his ministerial course, and receiving the crown of martyrdom; as I have fully shown on my notes on this place, and to which I must beg to refer the reader. There is another point that has been produced, at least indirectly, in the form of an objection to this doctrine: “Where are those adult, those perfect Christians? We know none such; but we have heard that some persons professing those extraordinary degrees of holiness have become scandalous in their lives.”

When a question of this kind is asked by one who fears God, and earnestly desires his salvation, and only wishes to have full evidence that the thing is attainable, that he may shake himself from the dust and arise and go out, and possess the good land--it deserves to be seriously answered. To such I would say, There may be several, even in the circle of your own religious acquaintance, whose evil tempers and unholy affections God has destroyed; and having filled them with is own holiness, they are enabled to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves. But such make no public professions: their conduct, their spirit, the whole tenor of their life, is their testimony. Again: there may be none such among your religious acquaintance, because they do not know their privilege, or they unfortunately sit under a ministry where the doctrine is decried; and in such congregations and churches holiness never abounds; men are too apt to be slothful, and unfaithful to the grace they have received; they need not their minister's exhortations to beware of looking for or expecting a heart purified from all unrighteousness; striving or agonizing to “enter in at the strait gate” is not pleasant work to flesh and blood; and they are glad to have anything to counten