IN the previous chapter, I have
treated of the introduction of sin into the world; its immediate effects upon
the transgressors; and of some of its remoter consequences upon their
posterity. We left Adam and his companion hid among the trees of the garden,
greatly alarmed at the voice of God; and overwhelmed with shame at the
condition to which they had reduced themselves. But, though hid, as they
supposed, they soon found the truth of the saying that is written, that
"there is not any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all
things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do"
(Heb. 4:13). When the Lord God called to Adam, he said, in answer to the
question, "Where art thou?" "I was afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself".
This was the truth as far as it went; but it was
not the whole truth. Fear, shame, and concealment are plainly avowed; but why
he was ashamed he was not ingenuous enough to confess. The Lord God, however,
knowing from the mental constitution He had bestowed upon him, that man could
not be ashamed unless his conscience was defiled by transgression of His law in
fact or supposition, directed His next inquiry so as at once to elicit a
confession of the whole truth. "Who told thee", said He, "that
thou wast naked?" Did I tell thee, or did any of the Elohim? Or,
"Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat?" Thou hast no cause to be afraid of Me, or ashamed of thine
appearance as I have formed thee; unless thou hast sinned against Me by
transgressing My law. Thou hast heard My voice, and stood upright and naked in
My presence before, and wert not ashamed; what hast thou done? Why coverest
thou thy transgression by biding thine iniquity in thy bosom? (Job 31:33)
But Adam, still unwilling to be blamed according
to his demerits, in confessing reflected upon the Lord God, and turned evidence
against Eve. "The woman", said he, "whom thou gavest to
be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." As much as to
say, If thou hadst not put her in my way, and I had been left to myself, I
should not have done it. It is she who is chiefly to blame; for she not only
ate herself, but tempted me.
The offence being traced to Eve, the Lord Elohim
said to her, "What is this that thou hast done?" But her
ingenuousness was no more conspicuous than Adam's. She confessed that she had
eaten, but excused herself on the ground of a deception having been practised
upon her by the serpent: "The serpent beguiled me", said she,
"and I did eat."
There is no evidence that the Serpent either
touched the tree, or ate of its fruit. Indeed, if he had he would have
committed no offence; for the law was not given to him, but to Adam and Eve
only; and "where there is no law there is no trangression". Besides,
Paul says Eve was the first in the transgression. The Lord God, therefore, did
not interrogate the Serpent as He had the others. He had, by his clumsy
interpretation of what he had seen and heard, corrupted Eve's mind from the
simplicity of faith, and obedience to the divine law; but he was incapable of
showing upon what moral grounds he had called in question its literality.
He thought they would not surely die; because he thought they
could as well eat of the tree of life as of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. He thought nothing of the immorality of the Lord God's solemnly declaring
a thing, and not performing it. Cognizance of the morality of thoughts and
actions was beyond the sphere of his mentality. With all his superior
shrewdness, he was neither responsible, nor able to give an account.
All the evidence in the case being elicited, the
Lord God proceeded to pass sentence upon the accused in the order of their
conviction. Being incriminated by Eve, and having, in effect, accused God of
lying, the Lord began with him, and said, "Because thou hast done
this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field;
upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed: He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel."
This sentence was both literal and allegorical,
like the rest of the things exhibited in the Mosaic account; being
"representations of the knowledge and the truth" (Rom. 2:20; Heb.
8:5; 9:9,23,24; 10:1; Rom. 5:14; Gal. 4:24). For the information of the
unlearned reader I remark, that to allegorize is to speak in such a way that
something else is intended than is contained in the words literally construed.
The historical allegory has a double sense, namely, the literal
and the figurative; and the latter is as real, as the former is
essential to its existence. Thus, the literal serpent was allegorical
of "sin in the flesh"; which is therefore figuratively styled the
serpent, etc., as before explained. The literal formation of Eve out of Adam's
side was allegorical of the formation of the church out of him, of whom Adam
was the figure; therefore, the church is the figurative Eve, and its temptation
illustrated by that of the literal one. The examples of this are almost
infinite. That of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar as allegorized by Paul in the text
below, is a beautiful illustration of the relation between the literal and the
figurative, as they are employed in the scriptures of truth. The discernment of
the due limit between them is acquired, not by rules, but by much and diligent
study of the word.
The literal is the exact construction of the
sentence as it reads, and is found in strict accordance with their natural
habit, and mutual antipathy between serpents and mankind. They go upon the
belly, and lick the dust; and by the deadly quality of their venom, or
"sting", they are esteemed more hateful than any other creatures. In
walking with a naked foot one would be bitten in the heel, whose
retaliation would be instinctively to bruise the reptile's head. This is
all perfectly natural; but what does it suggest?
Much that might be said upon the allegorical
meaning of this passage is already before the reader. I shall add, therefore,
by way of summary, the following palticulars: --
The allegorical reading of the text founded upon
these particulars is as follows: "I will put the enmity (Rom. 8:7) of that
mode of thinking thou hast elicited in Eve and her husband against My law,
between the powers that shall be hereafter, in consequence of what thou hast
done, and the faithful and unblemished corporation I shall constitute: and I
will put this enmity of the spirit against the flesh, and of the flesh against
the spirit (Gal. 5:16-17; 4:29), between all who obey the lusts of the flesh
which thou hast excited, and those of My institution who shall serve me: their
Chief shall bear away the world's sin (John 1:29) which thou hast originated,
and shall destroy all the works (1 John 3:8) that have grown out of it: and the
sin-power (John 19:10) shall wound him to death; but he shall recover it, and
accomplish the work I now preordain him to do."
THE PEACE AND SAFETY CRY.
"There is no peace to the wicked, saith God."
The allegorical signification of the sentence
became the plan of "the foundation of the world", under the altered
circumstances which sin had introduced. It constitutes the earth the arena of a
terrible strife between two hostile powers, which was not to terminate until
His law gained the ascendancy over the sin of the world, and but one sovereign
will be obeyed by the sons of men. The enmity He put between these parties was
not a mere unfriendly verbal disputation, but one which reeked of blood. It
began with the dispute which caused Abel to lose his life, and has continued
unto this day. For nearly 6,000 years has this enmity made the earth a field of
blood, and yet the war is not ended. The sin-power still lords it over the
world, and is marshalling its forces for a last decisive blow. The "powers
that be" have laid low the saints of God in all the countries of their
dominion; they have bruised them in the heel; and are now taking up their
positions, and preparing themselves to arbitrate their relative and future
destiny by the sword. They have forgotten, or are indifferent to, the
enormities of the past. They know not that the righteous blood they have shed
upon the earth cries loudly for vengeance in the ears of God. Truth, justice,
and equity their souls hate; and all that they I propose is to destroy the
liberty and happiness of mankind; and to make eternal their own vicious and
hateful rule.
But God is as just as He is full of goodness,
mercy, and truth. The death of his saints is precious in the sight of the Lord
and He will not permit them to go unavenged. The "powers that be"
can, therefore, no more perpetually exist than convicted robbers and murderers
can escape the punishment due to their crimes. The law of retribution to which
God has assigned the adjudication of their punishment says, "Give them
blood to drink, for they are deserving; because they have shed the blood of
saints and prophets" (Rev. 16:6); "Reward them even as they have
rewarded you, and double unto them double according to their works; in the cup
which they have filled, fill to them double." (Rev. 18:6)
But, though the scriptures of truth are so
explicit with respect to the blasphemous and felonious character of the
governments of the world; though they denounce the judgments of war,
pestilence, and famine upon the nations subject to them; though they declare
that the wicked are the Lord's sword to execute his judgments upon one another;
though they most emphatically and solemnly aver that God says "there shall
be no peace to the wicked" (Isa. 57:21); and though men see, and profess
to deplore, the whoredoms and witchcrafts of the Roman Jezebel, and the
enormities of the cruel tyrants who pour out their victims' blood like water to
uphold her: notwithstanding all this, there are multitudes of people who
pretend to take the Bible as the rule of their faith; who claim to be
"pious", and class themselves among the saints of the Lord: I say,
men of these pretensions, headed by political and spiritual guides, are
clamouring for the abolition of war, and the settlement of all international
differences by arbitration!
Such persons may be very benevolent, or very
covetous; but they are certainly not very wise. Their outcry about
"peace" evinces their ignorance of the nature of "sinful
flesh", and of the testimony of God; or, if cognizant of them, their
infidelity, and shallowness of mind. Before peace can be established in the
world, "the enmity" which God has put between good and evil, in word
and deed, must be abolished. Peace is to be deprecated as a calamity by the
faithful, so long as the Roman Jezebel and her paramours are found among the
living. "What peace, so long as her whoredoms and witchcrafts are so
many?" (2 Kings 9:22) Will they destroy the divisions among powers and
people, which God's truth is ever calculated to make where it is received in
whole or part? Arbitration indeed! And who are to be the arbitrators? The
popes, cardinals, priests, emperors, and kings of the nations? Can justice,
integrity, and good faith, proceed from such reprobates? Do the Quakers, and
financial, or acquisitive, reformers imagine that a righteous arbitration could
emanate from them upon any question in which the interests of nations as
opposed to theirs were concerned? Really, the conceit of pious infidelity is
egregiously presumptuous. If this peace mania be a specimen of "the
light within", alas! how great is the darkness of that place which
professes to be enlightened by it.
But the most absurd thing imaginable is that the
arbitrationists profess to advocate peace upon scriptural grounds! Because one
of the titles of the Lord is "the Prince of Peace", they argue that
war is displeasing to God: and that Jesus came to establish peace as the result
of preaching. But war is not displeasing to God any more than a rod is
displeasing to him that uses it for correction. God instituted war when he
put enmity between the serpent and the woman. It is a divine institution
for the punishment of the transgressors of His law; and a most beneficent one
too: for all the little liberty the world enjoys is attributable to the
controversy of the tongue, the pen, and the sword. What would have been the
fate of the thirteen trans-Atlantic Colonies, if they had been left to the
arbitrative justice of George the Third's contemporaries? The heel of spiritual
tyranny backed by the civil power, would have trampled upon them to this
moment. The weak who contend for liberty and truth, have everything to dread
from arbitration. With sword in hand, they may extort justice from the strong;
but, if under the necessity of expecting it at the conscience and tender
mercies of "the powers that be", the award will be a mockery of
justice, and an insult to the sufferings of the oppressed.
Yes, verily, the Lord Jesus is "the Prince
of Peace"; and therefore, no peace society can give peace to the world. It
is he alone who can establish "peace on earth and good will among
men"; for he only is morally fit and potentially competent to do it. The
peace of the arbitrationists is peace based upon the transgression of the
divine law; and the hostility of the covenanters to the gospel of the kingdom.
It is an impure peace; peace with the serpent power reigning over the
blood-stained earth. Such a peace as this avaunt! Eternal war is better for the
world than such a compromise with sin. The peace Messiah brings is "first
pure". It is a peace the result of conquest; the tranquility which
succeeds the bruising of the Serpent's head. It is consequent upon the
establishment of God's sovereignty over the nations, by the hand of him whom he
hath prepared to "break in pieces the oppressor", and let the
oppressed go free. "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance
of peace so long as the moon endures. His enemies shall lick the dust; all
nations shall serve him, and call him blessed." (Psalm 72:4,7,11,17; Rev.
11:18) Then shall he judge among them, and rebuke them, and speak peace to them
(Zech.
But the Father did not send Jesus with the idea
of bringing about this mighty revolution among the nations by preaching the
gospel; neither did He propose to effect it in the absence of His Son. When
he appeared in humiliation he came to take away peace from the earth, as
both his words and history prove. "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace
on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division. I am come to send fire upon the
earth; and what will I if it be already kindled?" (Luke 12:49,51) "I
come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set man at variance against
his nearest and dearest relations. So that man's foes shall be they of his own
household." This is the way the Prince of Peace spoke when on earth. The
doctrine he taught is distasteful to the natural mind; and, by the purity of
its principles, and astonishing nature of its promises, excites the enmity and
incredulity of the flesh. Loving sin and hating righteousness, the carnal mind
becomes the enemy and persecutor of those who advocate it. The enmity on the
part of the faithless is inveterate: and where they have the power, they stir
up war even at the domestic hearth. If the believer will agree to be silent, or
to renounce his faith, there will then be "peace and love" such as
the world, that "loves its own", is able to afford. But the true
believers are not permitted to make any compromise of the kind. They are
commanded to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the
saints" (Jude 3), and so long as they do this, they may lay their account
with tribulation of various kinds. There is a vast deal of this false peace and
spurious charity in the Protestant world. Men have become traitors to Christ,
and betray him with their lips. They say, "0 how we love the Lord!"
and were he here they would doubtless kiss him; but, like Judas, they have
colleagued with his enemies, and are as popular with the world as its god can
possibly desire.
The truth is, judging from their arguments, the
peace-mongers are not so man-loving as they pretend. The cry for peace is a
piece of ventriloquism emanating from the pocket. Their strongest argument
against war is based upon its cost. The taxes are burdensome because of the
extravagance and warlike habits of past governments. This pinches them in the
iron chest; and diminishes the profits of trade; and curtails the means of
indulging the lusts of their flesh, of their eyes, and the pride of life. It is
well these mammon-worshippers should feel the pinch. They are the enemies of
God, and oblivious of His slaughtered saints, and, therefore, richly deserving
of all the punishment the recklessness of "the powers" has entailed
upon the world, Those who escape the sword and the famine groan under the
expense of punishing the wicked at their own cost. Thus, the punishment
re-acts upon all classes. I say, these peace-criers are the enemies of God; for
with all their profession of piety, they are at peace with the world, and in
high esteem and friendship with it; and "whosoever", says the
scripture, "is a friend of the world is the enemy of God".
Look at the peace congress at Paris (opened in
Aug 1849), composed of popish priests, dissenting ministers, French
politicians, self-illuminati of the Quaker School, English radicals, American
priests of all colours, rationalists, infidels, etc., etc.,; all in such high
favour with the liberticide dynasty of France, as to be let into "Egypt
and Sodom" (Rev. 11:8) without passports, or custom-house scrutiny;
and to be fited by one of the state officials. In what way can the world show
its friendship to the Peace Society more palpably; or the Society its
reciprocity of feeling with the most godless and Christless portion of it? The
Peace Society is the world's beloved friend. The world wants peace, that it may
find a respite from the judgments of God for its iniquity; and that it may
enrich itself by commerce, and enjoy itself in all the good things of life. The
Society is the world's employee; its zealous, utopian missionary; and,
therefore, individually and collectively "the enemy of God".
Still, even out of so impious a speculation as
this Peace Society, "the wise who understand" (Dan.
We accept it as such. It is the cry of the world,
which echoes in tones of thunder in the ears of the true believers. It is a
cry, in the providence of God, which is a great "sign of the times";
announcing that "the Lord standeth at the door and knocks" (Rev.
3:20), and is about quickly and unexpectedly to appear (Rev. 16; 22:7,20). It
is the world's cry, as the cry of a woman in travail, which has been extorted
by sudden and tormenting pains. It blows a trumpet in the wise and
understanding ear, sounding the approach of "the day of the Lord as a thief
in the night"; for "so it cometh; and when they shall say,
PEACE and SAFETY; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as
travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape" (1 Thess
5:1-3). Such is the divine mission of the Quakers, and their allies the
Cobdenite Reformers. Not satisfied with Crying peace, they cry
"SAFETY" likewise. This is a peculiar feature of Cobdenism, which
urges the disbandment of regiments, and the dismantling of ships, on the
perverse presumption that danger there is none! Blind leaders of the blind! The
groans of nations ascending to heaven on every side; the kindling embers of war
smoking in
[
CAIN, ABEL, AND SETH.
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?"
The allegorical signification of the sentence
upon the Serpent kindled the first scintillation of hope in the human heart of
the appearance of One, who should deliver the world from all its ills, and
advance it to a higher state. The promise of such a personage, and of such a
consummation, was the nucleus of that "faith, which is the assured
expectation of things hoped for, and the conviction of things unseen"
(Heb. 11:1). The belief, and spiritualizing influence, of this hope, became the
ground of acceptance with God in the earliest times. Faith in this promise was
established as the principle of classification among the sons of Adam. Belief
in what He promises is belief in God; and its influence upon "the fleshy
tablet of the heart" is most edifying in its effect, making the subject of
it "a partaker of the divine nature". Atheism in its scriptural
import is not the denial of God's existence. None but a fool would say,
"There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). It is worse than this. It is to
believe that He exists, and yet to treat Him as a liar. To do this, is not to
believe His promises; and he that is faithless of these, is "without
God", -- i.e., an atheist in the world (Eph
In the beginning, this kind of atheism soon
manifested itself in the family of Adam. Cain, who was conceived in sin, true
to his paternity, was as faithless of God's word as the Serpent; while Abel
believed on God. Hence, the apostle says, "By faith Abel offered
unto God a fuller sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being
dead yet speaketh" (Heb. 11:4). This is an important intimation, importing
that no religious services are acceptable to God, which are not predicated on
the belief of His promises; "for without faith it is impossible to please
God" (Heb. 11:6).
This was, therefore, the ground of Cain's
reprobation. "The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto
Cain and his offering he had not respect". This made Cain fierce and
sullen. He refused to "bring the firstlings of the flock, and of the fat
thereof". He did not believe in its necessity, having no faith in the
remission of sins by the shedding of sacrificial blood (Heb. 9:22; 10:4-14);
nor in the fulfilment of God's promise concerning him, who, being "bruised
in the heel", or slain as Abel's accepted lamb, should arise, and
"bruise the Serpent's head", in destroying the works of sin (1
John 3:8). This is what Cain did not believe; and his faithlessness expressed
itself in neglecting to walk in "the way of the Lord." Nevertheless,
he continued "a professor of religion"; for "he brought of the
fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord". But the Lord paid no respect
to him or his offering; because, in neglecting the sacrifice, he had set up his
judgment against God; and in being faithless had in effect treated God as a
liar; for, saith the scripture, "he that believeth not God hath made him a
liar" (1 John 5:10).
But Cain's sullen anger against God could only
wound himself. His refusal to obey Him could not injure the Most High. He
insulted God with his "will-worship and voluntary humility" (Col.
2:18,23), and convicted himself as an evil-doer. Self-condemned and
impotent, he vented his rage against his brother, whom God respected and had
accepted. He was wroth against him: "because his own works were evil, and
his brother's righteous" (1 John
Thus was slain by a brother's hand the
protomartyr of the faith. A righteous man, respected and beloved of God. His
only offence was, that, in believing the promises of God and doing well, his
brother was reproved. The fleshly mind hates righteousness, and those who
practise it; so that between the two parties the truth and righteousness
of God (Matt.
She had many other sons, but none of them are
mentioned except Cain, Abel, and Seth. When, therefore, we are informed that
Seth was "appointed instead of Abel", and trace the posterity
of Seth terminating through a certain line in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of
God; we are taught that Cain lost his excellency by sin, and was therefore set
aside; and Abel provisionally appointed to be the progenitor of the seed, who
is to bruise the Serpent's headship over the world. But, Abel having been
bruised in the heel, it became necessary, in order to carry out the divine
purpose, and to answer allegorically the indications of the sentence upon the
Serpent, to appoint another son of Eve in the place of Abel. According to this
arrangement, Abel became the type of Jesus, wounded in the heel; but whose
sprinkled blood speaks better things than Abel's (Heb. 12:24), which cried only
for vengeance: while Seth typifies him in his re-appearance among the sons of
men to bruise sin under foot, and to exterminate in the course of his reign the
Serpent's seed from the face of the earth.
Notwithstanding his crime Cain was permitted to
live. But the seed of evil-doers never gets renown. Sooner or later their deeds
of villainy consign their names to reprobation. God hid His face from Cain, and
exiled him from the settlements in
Seth's descendants in the direct line ended in
Noah and Japheth at the time of the flood. His posterity, in this and the
collateral branches, multiplied considerably; but for a time constituted a
separate community from the progeny of Cain. During the lifetime of Enos, son
of Seth, "they began to call themselves by the name of the Lord", or
"sons of God" (Gen. 4:26; 6:2): while the faithless and
corrupt worshippers of the
THE ANTEDILUVIAN APOSTASY.
The Sethites and the Cainites stood related to
one another as the
It is probable that the precepts and example of
the sons of God had considerably modified the original impiety of the Cainites
so as to bring things to a similar state to that observable in our day. Sects,
between whom there were no more dealings in their beginning than between the
Jews and the Samaritans, are now so liberal that they agree to be silent upon
all controversial topics for which they once contended to the death, and to
recognize one another as brethren in the Lord! Thus, if they ever had the truth
they have suppressed it by a tacit compromise; and have become highly
respectable, and singularly amiable and polite: so that they "have need of
nothing", but to enjoy the good things of the world within their reach.
The Serpents had become so harmless, and even
pious, under the influence abroad, and were withal so fair to look upon, and so
enchanting in their ways, that the Sethites took them into their bosoms, and
cherished them with the affection of their own flesh.
"They saw", says Moses, "that the
daughters of men were fair; and they took wives of all they chose." This
was a fatal step. Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? The
sons of God corrupted themselves in marrying the daughters of Cain. Instead of
bringing them over to "the Way of the Tree of Life", they were
beguiled into "the Way of Cain" (Jude 11). For sons of God to
marry daughters of Belial is to jeopardize their fidelity to God. This practice
has ever been fruitful of apostasy.
Balaam was well aware of this; and knowing that
the only way to bring a curse upon Israel was to involve them in transgression.
He therefore taught Balak, the King of Moab, to tempt them with the fair
daughters of his people, as the readiest way of beguiling them into the worship
of their idols; which would cause God to hate them, and so facilitate their
conquest by the Moabites. The policy succeeded but too well for the honour and
happiness of Israel. Moses says, "They began to commit whoredom with the
daughters of Moab". The consequence of this licentiousness was that the
women invited Israel unto the sacrifices of their gods: and they did eat, and
bowed down to them. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor (Num. 25:1,2). And
the anger of the Lord was kindled against them so that He slew four and
twenty-thousand of them.
After the same example, the union of the Sethites
and Cainites was productive of the worst results. The offspring of this union
were "mighty men of renown", whose wickedness was great in the
earth" for "every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was
only evil continually" (Gen. 6:1-5). Their apostasy, however, was not
perfected without remonstrance on the part of God. There was one eminent man of
whom it was testified, that "he pleased God". He "walked with
God" in the way of the Tree of Life for three hundred years after the
birth of Methuselah. His name is Enoch. The spirit of prophecy was in him; and
the gigantic wickedness of the Antediluvians aroused him to reprove their
iniquity. Animated by the hope of the promise concerning the woman's seed, he
prophesied of the serpents of his own and future time, saying, "Behold,
the Lord cometh with myriads of his saints, to dispense justice towards all,
and to convict all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which
they have impiously committed; and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14,15). But his expostulation was
unheeded; and God graciously "translated him that he should not see
death" (Heb. 11:5,26); "thus rewarding him for his constancy, and giving
the faithful a notable illustration and earnest of "the recompense of
the reward", and the certainty of the punishment of the world.
Things went on from bad to worse; "for all
flesh had corrupted His Way upon the earth"; "and the earth was
filled with violence". Before, however, things had come to the worst the
Lord made another effort to reclaim the Antediluvians. He had resolved to put
an end to the wickediiess of man upon the earth; for, said He, "My
Spirit shall not always strive with him because he is but
flesh" (Psalm 78:39). This intimates a limit to His forbearance; that it
should have an end, but not immediately: for it is added, "Yet his days
shall be a hundred and twenty years".
Four hundred and eighty years before the announcement
of this determination, a son was born to Lamech, the grandson of Enoch, whom he
named Noah; that is, Comfort, saying, "This same shall comfort us
concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord
hath cursed". This was the hope of those who remained faithful of the sons
of Seth. They laboured in hope of a translation into a rest from their labours,
when the curse should be removed from the earth (Rev. 22:3). In process of
time, Noah was "warned of God of things not seen as yet". Noah
believed them; and "God by his spirit" in him, "went and
preached to the spirits (now) in prison," (1 Pet 3:19) that is, to the
Antediluvians "who were disobedient in the days of Noah". He warned
them of the coming flood, which would "destroy them from the earth";
and proved to them his own conviction of its certainty by "preparing an
ark for the safety of his own house; by the which he condemned the world, and
became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Heb. 11:7). But, his
faith thus made perfect by his works, made no salutary impression upon his
contemporaries. "They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not till the
flood came, and took them all away" (Matt. 24:38-39); leaving only eight
persons of the sons of Seth alive.
Thus was the mingled seed of Seth and Cain
exterminated from the earth. Cain's race became utterly extinct, and those only
of Seth remained, who were upright in their generations, and who walked with
God. The distinction of seeds was temporarily suspended. The generation of
vipers was extinct; but sin in the flesh survived -- a principle, destined in
after times to produce the most hideous and terrible results.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.
"Inherit the Kingdom prepared from the Foundation of the World."
As the woman had so wilfully sought the
gratification of her flesh, when the Lord God passed sentence upon her He made
it the ground of her punishment. "I will", said He, "greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children: and thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule
over thee." This being her portion as the consequence of sin, the reverse
would have been her condition, so long as her animal nature should have
continued unchanged, if she had remained obedient. She would have brought forth
children without pain, and would have had fewer of them; nor would she have
been deprived of that equality she enjoyed in the garden, and consequently she
would have escaped that degradation she has experienced in all the countries of
the world.
The punishment, however, was not inflicted simply
as an individual sorrow. The pain was personal, and the subjection likewise;
but the multiplication of woman's conception became necessary from the altered
circumstances of things; which were then being constituted for the ensuing
seven thousand years. In the war divinely instituted between the seeds of the
Serpent and the Woman, there would be a great loss of life. The population of
the world would be greatly thinned; besides which great havoc would be made by
pestilence, famine, and the ordinary diseases of the flesh. To compensate this
waste, and still to maintain an increase, so that the earth might be filled,
necessitated that part of woman's punishment involved in the multiplication of
the conception, which is a great domestic calamity under the Serpent-dominion
of sin.
We hear much in some parts of the world of the
political rights and equality of women with men; and of their preaching and
teaching in public assemblies. We need wonder at nothing which emanates from
the unenlightened thinking of sinful flesh. There is no absurdity too monstrous
to be sanctified by unspiritualized animal intellect. Men do not think
according to God's thinking, and therefore it is they run into the most
unscriptural conceits; among which may be enumerated the political and social
equality of women. Trained to usefulness, of cultivated intellect and with
moral sentiments purified and ennobled by the nurture and admonition of the
Lord's truth, women are "helps meet" for the Elohim; and much too
good for men of ordinary stamp. The sex is susceptible of this exaltation;
though I despair of witnessing it in many instances till "the Age to
come". But, even women of this excellency of mind and disposition, were it
possible for such to do so, would be guilty of indiscretion, presumption, and
rebellion against God's law, in assuming equality of rank, equality of rights,
and authority over man, which is implied in teaching and preaching. It is the
old ambition of the sex to be equal to the gods; but in taking steps to attain
it, they involved themselves in subjection to men. Preaching, and lecturing,
women are but species of actresses, who exhibit upon the boards for the
amusement of sinful and foolish men. They aim at an equality for which they are
not physically constituted; they degrade themselves by the exhibition, and in
proportion as they rise in assurance, they sink in all that really adorns a
woman.
The law, which forms a part of the foundation of
the world, says to the woman, "He shall reign over thee". The
nature of this subjection is well exhibited in the Mosaic law (Num. 30:3-15). A
daughter being yet in her youth in her father's house, could only make a vow
subject to his will. If he held his peace, and said nothing for or against, she
was bound by her word; but if when he heard it, he disallowed it, she was not
bound to perform; and the Lord forgave the failure of the vow. The same law
applied to a wife. A widow, or divorced woman, were both bound to fulfil;
unless their husbands had made them void before separation. If not, being
subject to God, they had no release.
This throws light upon the apostle's instructions
concerning women. "They are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith
the law." And "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over man, but
to be in silence". The reason he gives for imposing silence and
subjection, is remarkable. He adduces the priority of Adam's formation; and the
unhappy consequences of Eve's talkativeness and leadership in transgression; as
it is written, "Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not
deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim.
2:11-14) first. And then, as to their public ministrations, he says, "Let
women keep silence in the congregations; for it is not permitted unto them to
speak; but to be under obedience, as saith the law. And if they will learn any
thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to
speak in the congregation" (1 Cor. 14:34,35). It is true, that in another
place the apostle says, "Let the aged women be teachers of good things";
but then this teaching is not to be in the congregation, or in the brazen
attitude of a public oratrix. They are to exercise their gift of teaching
privately among their own sex, "that they may teach the young women to be
sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste,
keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God
(which they profess), be not blasphemed" (Tit. 2:4,5).
Christian women should not copy after the
god-aspiring Eve, but after Sarah, the faithful mother of Israel, who submitted
herself in all things to Abraham, "calling him lord" (Gen. 18:12).
Nor should their obedience be restricted to Christian husbands only. They
should also obey them "without the word"; that is, those who
have not submitted to it, in order that they may be won over to the faith when
they behold the chaste and respectful behaviour of their wives, produced by a
belief of the truth (1 Pet. 3:1-6).
Such are the statutory provisions enacted in the
world's constitution at the beginning, with respect to the position of women in
the body social and political. Any attempt to alter the arrangement is
rebellion against God, and usurpation of the rights of men to whom God has
subjected them. Their wisdom is to be quiet, and to make their influence felt
by their excellent qualities. They will then rule in the hearts of their
rulers, and so ameliorate their own subjection as to convert it into a
desirable and sovereign obedience.
A man should never permit the words of a woman to
intervene between him and the laws of God. This is a rock upon which myriads
have made shipwreck of the faith. Adam sinned in consequence of listening to
Eve's silvery discourse. No temptation has proved more irresistible to the
flesh than the enticing words of woman's lips. "They drop as a honeycomb,
and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, and
sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; and her steps take hold
on hell." (Prov. 5:3-5) Adam was a striking illustration of this truth, as
appears from the sentence pronounced upon him. "Because", said the
Lord God, "thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is
the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat
the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou
return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and
unto dust shalt thou return." Thus, having passed sentence upon the
serpent, the woman, and the man, the Lord appointed them a new law, and
expelled them from the garden He had made.
These three sentences, and the New Law,
constitute the foundation of the world. This is a phrase which occurs in
various passages of the Bible. It occupies a prominent place in the following
text: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world" (Matt. 25:34). The words in the Greek are more literally
rendered, signify, from laying the world's foundation. The globe is the
platform; the world that which is constituted, or built, upon it; and the
Builder is God; for "he that built all things is God" (Heb. 3:4).
Now, the world was not built out of nothing. The materials had been prepared by
the work of the six days; and by the moral phenomena of the fall. At this
crisis, there appeared a natural system of things, with two transgressors, in
whom sin had enthroned itself; and who were endued with the power of
multiplying such as themselves to an unlimited extent. This population, then,
was either to act for itself under the uncontrolled dominion of sin; or, things
must be so constituted as to bring it into order and subjection to the
sovereignty of God. The result of the former alternative would have been to
barbarize mankind, and to fill the earth with violence. This is demonstrated by
what actually occurred before the flood when the divine constitution of things
was corrupted and abolished by the world. Man when left to himself never
improves. God made man upright; but look at the wretched specimens of
humanity which are presented in those regions where God has left them to their
natural tendency, under the impulse of their uncontrolled propensities. Man
thus abandoned of God, degenerates into an ignorant savage, ferocious as the
beasts of prey.
If the Lord God had renounced all interest in the
earth, this would have been the consummation of His work. Man by his vices
would have destroyed his own race. But, though transgression upon transgression
marked his career, "God so loved the world" (John 3:16), that He
determined that it should not perish, but should be rescued from evil in spite
of itself. This He purposed to do in such a way as to make man reflect the
divine nature in his character: and to display his own wisdom, glory, and power
in the earth. But chance could not bring this to pass. Human life, therefore,
was not to be a mere chapter of accidents; but the result of a well-digested
and unvarying plan. Things, then, were to be arranged according to this
purpose; so that in their original constitution should be contained the
rudiments of a "glorious manifestation"; which, as a grain of
mustard seed, should so unfold themselves under the fostering hand of God as to
become "a tree, which is the greatest among herbs" (Matt. 13:31,32),
in whose branches the family of man might be refreshed.
In the acorn, it is said, can be traced by aid of
the microscope the branches of the future oak. So in "the Rudiments of the
World" are traceable the things of the future Kingdom of God. These
rudiments, or elements, are exhibited in the sentences upon the serpent, the
woman, and the man; and in that institution styled, "The Way of the Tree
of Life". Out of these things was afterwards to arise the Kingdom of God;
so that in constituting them, a foundation was laid upon which "the
world to come should be built; even that world of which Abraham was constituted
the heir (Rom. 4:13); and which, when finished at the end of six days of a
thousand years each, will manifest the woman's Seed triumphant over the Serpent-power;
resting from his work in the Sabbatism which remains for the people of God
(Heb. 4:3,8,9,11).
The things laid, or fixed, in the rudimental
constitution of the world, may be summarily stated in the following
particulars: --
To these things was established a divine
antagonism, by which they might be controlled; and a system of things
elaborated in conformity with the purpose of God. This part of the foundation
may be stated as:
The action and re-action of these agencies upon
one another was to produce:
That the crisis of the fall was the period of
laying the foundation of the world, in its civil, social, and spiritual
relations, appears from the use of the phrase in the apostolic writings. The
Lord Jesus, speaking of what was about to come upon the generation then living
in Judea, said, "The blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of
the world shall be required of this generation"; and to show to what
period of the world he referred, he added by way of explanation, "from the
blood of Abel" (Luke 11:50-51), the prophet of his day. The phrase is also
applied by the apostle to the work of the six days; that is, as the basis, or
substratum, in or upon which the social and political system was constituted.
There is further proof of the judgment of the transgressors being the
institutional foundation of the world, in the words, "all that dwell upon
the earth shall do homage to him", the ten-horned papal Beast, "whose
names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the laying
of the world's foundations" (Rev. 13:8). By this is signified that,
when the Lord God appointed coats of skins to cover the man's and woman's
shame, lambs were slain, which they were taught to understand were
representative of the Seed, who should be slain for the sins of all the
faithful; and with whose righteousness they should be clothed, after the type
of their covering by the skins of their sacrifices. Thus, from the institution
of sacrifice in Paradise till the death of Jesus on the cross, he was typically
slain; and the accepted worshippers, being full of faith in the divine
promise, like Abel and Enoch, understood to what the slaughtered lambs
referred. Their names were consequently written in the remembrance of God (Mal.
3:16; Rev. 17:8; 20:12; 21:27), as inheritors of the kingdom; whose foundation
was commenced in Paradise, and has been preparing ever since, that when
finished it may be manifested "in Eden the garden of the Lord",
THE CONSTITUTION OF SIN.
"The creature was made subject to "'vii, not willingly, but by reason
of him who subjected it in hope."
The introduction of sin into the world
necessitated the constitution of things as they were laid in the beginning. If
there had been no sin there would have been no "enmity"
between God and man; and consequently no antagonism by which to educe good out
of evil. Sin and evil are as cause and effect. God is the author of evil, but
not of sin; for the evil is the punishment of sin. "I form the light, and
create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all
these things." (Isa. 45:7) "Shall there be evil in a city, and the
Lord hath not done it?" (Amos 3:6) The evil then to which man is subjected
is the Lord's doing. War, famine, pestilence, flood, earthquake, disease, and
death, are the terrible evils which God inflicts upon mankind for their
transgressions. Nations cannot go to war when they please, any more than they
can shake the earth at their will and pleasure; neither can they preserve
peace, when He proclaims war. Evil is the artillery with which He combats the
enemies of His law, and of His saints; consequently, there will be neither
peace nor blessedness for the nations, until sin is put down, His people
avenged, and truth and righteousness be established in the earth.
This is the constituted order of things. It is
the constitution of the world; and as the world is sin's dominion, or the
kingdom of the adversary, it is the constitution of the kingdom of sin.
The word sin is used in two principal
acceptations in the scripture. It signifies in the first place, "the
transgression of the law"; and in the next, it represents that
physical principle of the animal nature, which is the cause of all its
diseases, death, and resolution into dust. It is that in the flesh "which
has the power of death" and it is called sin, because the
development, or fixation, of this evil in the flesh, was the result of
transgression. Inasmuch as this evil principle pervades every part of the
flesh, the animal nature is styled "sinful flesh," that is, "flesh
full of sin"; so that sin, in the sacred style, came to stand for the
substance called man. In human flesh "dwells no good thing"
(Rom. 7:17,18); and all the evil a man does is the result of this principle
dwelling in him. Operating upon the brain, it excites the
"propensities", and these set the "intellect" and
"sentiments" to work. The propensities are blind, and so are the intellect
and sentiments in a purely natural state; when therefore, the latter operate
under the sole impulse of the propensities, "the understanding is darkened
through ignorance, because of the blindness of the heart" (Eph. 4:18). The
nature of the lower animals is as full of this physical evil principle as the
nature of man; though it cannot be styled sin with the same
expressiveness; because it does not possess them as the result of their own
transgression; the name, however, does not alter the nature of the thing.
A defective piece of mechanism cannot do good
work. The principle must be perfect, and the adaptation true, for the working
to be faultless. Man in his physical constitution is imperfect; and this
imperfection is traceable to the physical organization of his flesh, being based
on the principle of decay and reproduction from the blood; which, acted upon by
the air, becomes the life of his flesh. All the phenomena which pertain to this
arrangement of things are summed up in the simple word sin; which is,
therefore, not an individual abstraction, but a concretion of relations in all
animal bodies; and the source of all their physical infirmities. Now, the
apostle says, that the flesh thinks, that is, the brain, as all who think are
well assured from their own consciousness. If, then, this thinking organ be
commanded not to do what is natural for it to do under blind impulse, will it
not naturally disobey? Now this disobedience is wrong, because what God
commands to be done is right, and only right; so that "by his law is the
knowledge of sin"; and this law requiring an obedience which is not
natural, flesh is sure to think in opposition to it. The philosophy of
superstition is -- religion in harmony with the thinking of the flesh;
while true religion is religion in accordance with the thoughts of God as
expressed in His law. Hence, it need excite no astonishment that religion and
superstition are so hostile and that all the world should uphold the latter;
while so few are to be found who are identified with the religion of God. They
are as opposite as flesh and spirit.
Sin, I say, is a synonym for human nature. Hence,
the flesh is invariably regarded as unclean. It is therefore written,
"How can he be clean who is born of a woman?" (Job 25:4) "Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." (Job 14:4) "What
is man that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman that he should
be righteous? Behold, God putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are
not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, who
drinketh iniquity like water?" (Job 15:14-16) This view of sin in the
flesh is enlightening in the things concerning Jesus. The apostle says,
"God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor.
5:21); and this he explains in another place by saying, that "He sent his
own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh" (Rom. 8:3) in the offering of his body once (Heb.
10:10,12,14). Sin could not have been condemned in the body of Jesus, if it had
not existed there. His body was as unclean as the bodies of those for whom he
died; for he was born of a woman, and "not one" can bring a clean
body out of a defiled body; for "that", says Jesus himself, "which
is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6).
According to this physical law, the Seed of the
woman was born into the world. The nature of Mary was as unclean as that of
other women; and therefore could give birth only to "a body"
like her own, though especially "prepared of God" (Heb. 10:5).
Had Mary's nature been immaculate, as her idolatrous worshippers contend, an
immaculate body would have been born of her; which, therefore, would not have
answered the purpose of God; which was to condemn sin in the flesh; a thing
that could not have been accomplished, if there were no sin there.
Speaking of the conception and preparation of the
Seed, the prophet as a typical person, says, "Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5). This is
nothing more than affirming that he was born of sinful flesh; and not of the
pure and incorruptible angelic nature.
Sinful flesh being the hereditary nature of the
Lord Jesus, he was a fit and proper sacrifice for sin; especially as he was
himself "innocent of the great transgression", having been obedient
in all things. Appearing in the nature of the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:16-18),
he was subject to all the emotions by which we are troubled; so that he was
enabled to sympathize with our infirmities (Heb. 4:15), being "made in all
things like unto his brethren". But, when he was "born of the
Spirit", in the quickening of his mortal body by the spirit (Rom. 8:11),
he became a spirit; for "that which is born of the spirit is spirit".
Hence, he is "the Lord the Spirit", incorruptible flesh and bones.
Sin in the flesh is hereditary; and entailed upon
mankind as the consequence of Adam's violation of the Eden law. The "original
sin" was such as I have shown in previous pages. Adam and Eve
committed it; and their posterity are suffering the consequence of it. The
tribe of Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec many years before Levi was born. The
apostle says, "Levi, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham".
Upon the same federal principle, all mankind ate of the forbidden fruit, being
in the loins of Adam when he transgressed. This is the only way men can by any
possibility be guilty of the original sin. Because they sinned in Adam,
therefore they return to the dust from which Adam came -- says the apostle,
"in whom all sinned". [This marginal reading of the A.V.
cannot be sustained. The Revised Version has struck it out.] There is much
foolishness spoken and written about "original sin". Infants are made
the subjects of a religious ceremony to regenerate them because of original
sin; on account of which, acoording to Geneva philosophy they are liable to the
flames of hell for ever! If original sin, which is in fact sin in the flesh,
were neutralized, then all "baptismally regenerated" babes ought to
live for ever, as Adam would have done had he eaten of the Tree of Life after
he had sinned. But they die; which is a proof that the "regeneration"
does not "cure their souls"; and is, therefore, mere theological
quackery.
Mankind being born of the flesh, and of the will
of man, are born into the world under the constitution of sin. That is, they
are the natural born citizens of Satan's kingdom. By their fleshly birth, they
are entitled to all that sin can impart to them. What creates the
distinction of bodies politic among the sons of Adam? It is constitution, or
covenant. By constitution, then, one man is English, and another American. The
former is British because he is born of the flesh under the British
constitution. In this case, he is worthy of neither praise nor blame. He was
made subject to the constitution, not willingly, but by reason of them who
chose that he should be born under it. But when he comes of age, the same man
may become an American. He may put off the old man of the political flesh, and
put on the new man, which is created by the constitution of the United States;
so that by constitution, he becomes an American in every particular but the
accident of birth. This will be exact enough to illustrate what I am about to
say.
There are two states or kingdoms, in God's
arrangements, which are distinguished by constitution. These are the Kingdom of
Satan and the Kingdom of God. The citizens of the former are all sinners;
the heirs of the latter are saints. Men cannot be born heirs by the will
of the flesh; for natural birth confers no right to God's Kingdom. Men might be
born sinners before they can become saints; even as one must be born a
foreigner before he can be an adopted citizen of the States. It is
absurd to say that children are born holy, except in the sense of their being
legitimate. None are born holy, but such as are born of the Spirit into the
Kingdom of God. Children are born sinners or unclean, because they are born of
sinful flesh; and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh", or sin.
This is a misfortune, not a crime. They did not will to be born sinners. They
have no choice in the case; for it is written, "The creature was made
subject to the evil, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected it in
hope" (Rom. 8:20). Hence, the apostle says, "By Adam's
disobedience the many were made sinners" (Rom. 5:19); that is, they
were endowed with a nature like his, which had become unclean, as the result of
disobedience; and by the constitution of the economy into which they were
introduced by the will of the flesh, they were constituted transgressors before
they were able to discern between right and wrong.
Upon this principle, he that is born of sinful
flesh is a sinner as he that is born of English parents is an English child.
Such a sinner is an heir of all that is derivable from sin. Hence, new-born
babes suffer all the evil of the peculiar department of Satan, or sin's
kingdom, to which they belong. Thus, in the case of the Amalekites, when the
divine vengeance fell upon them, the decree was -- "Utterly destroy all
that they have, and spare them not but slay both man and woman, infant and
suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 Sam 15:3). The destruction
of "infants and sucklings" is especially commanded in divers parts of
scripture. Not because they were responsible transgressors; but, on the same
principle that men not only destroy all adult serpents that come in their way,
but the thread-like progeny also; for in these is the germ of venomous and malignant
reptiles. Had God spared the infants and sucklings of the Canaanitish nations,
when they had attained to manhood, even though they had been trained by Israel,
they would have reverted to the iniquities of their fathers. Even Israel itself
proved a stiff-necked and perverse race, notwithstanding all the pains bestowed
upon their education by the Lord God; how much more perverse would such a seed
of evil serpents as the Canaanitish offspring have turned out to be?
It is a law of the flesh that "like produces
like". Wild and truthless men reproduce themselves in their sons and
daughters. The experiment has been tried on Indian infants. They have been
taken from their parents, and carefully educated in the learning and
civilization of the white man; but when they have returned to their tribe as
men, they have thrown off the habits of their patrons, and adopted the
practices of savage life. The same tendency is seen in other animals. Hatch the
eggs of the wild turkey under a tame one; and as soon as they are able to shift
for themselves they will leave the poultry yard, and associate with the wild
species of the woods. So strong is habit, that it becomes a law to the flesh,
when continued through generations for a series of years.
But men are not only made, or constituted sinners
by the disobedience of Adam, but they become sinners even as he, by actual
transgression. Having attained the maturity of their nature, they become
accountable and responsible creatures. At this crisis, they may be placed by
the divine arranging in a relation to His word. It becomes to them a Tree of
Life (Prov. 3:18), inviting them to "take, and eat, and live for
ever". If, however, they prefer to eat of the world's forbidden fruit,
they come under the sentence of death in their own behalf. They are thus doubly
condemned. They are "condemned already" to the dust as natural born
sinners; and, secondarily, condemned to a resurrection to judgment for
rejecting the gospel of the kingdom of God: by which they become obnoxious to
"the SECOND Death" (Rev. 20:14).
Thus men are sinners in a twofold sense; first,
by natural birth and next, by transgression. In the former sense, it is
manifest they could not help themselves. They will not be condemned to the
Second Death because they were born sinners; not to any other pains and
penalties than those which are the common lot of humanity in the present life.
They are simply under that provision of the constitution of sin which says,
"Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return". Now, if the Lord
God had made no other arrangement than that expressed in the sentence upon the
woman and the man, they and all their posterity in all their generations would
have incessantly gone to dust and there have remained for ever. "The wages
of sin is death." Sinful flesh confers no good thing upon its offspring;
for holiness, righteousness, incorruptibility, and life for ever are not
hereditary. None of these are inherent in animal flesh. Sinners can only
acquire them by a conformity to the law of God; who offers them freely to all
who thirst after the water of life eternal (Rev. 22:17; Isa. 55:1-3).
THE CONSTITUTION OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS.
"Constituted the righteousness of God in Christ."
The former things being admitted, if men would be
righteous in God's esteem, they must become such by constitution also.
The "good actions" of a pious sinner are mere "dead works";
for the actions of a sinner to be of any worth in relation to the future state,
he must be "constituted righteous"; and this can only be by his
coming under a constitution made and provided for the purpose. A stranger and
foreigner from the commonwealth of the States, can only become a fellow-citizen
with Americans, by taking the oath of abjuration, fulfilling the time of his
probation, and taking the oath of allegiance according to the provisions of the
constitution.
Now, the Kingdom of God has a constitution as
well as the Kingdom of Satan, or that province of it styled the United States.
Before sinners come under it, they are characterized as "without Christ,
being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God (atheists) in the
world" (Ephes 2:12,13,19). They are termed "far off",
"strangers and foreigners" "walking in the vanity of their mind,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through
the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart"
(Eph. 4:17,18). But, mark the sacred style descriptive of sinners after they
have been placed under the constitution of Israel's Commonwealth, which is the
Kingdom of God, "You that were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ"; "through him you have access by one spirit to the Father;
and are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God" -- "fellow-heirs, and of the same body,
and partakers of God's promise in Christ by the gospel"
(Eph. 3:6). In this remarkable contrast is discoverable a great change in state
and character predicated of the same persons. How was this
transformation effected? This question is answered by the phrase, "In
Christ by the gospel". The "in" expresses the
state; the "by" the instrumentality by which the state and
character are changed.
As the constitution of sin hath its root in the
disobedience of the First Adam, so also hath the constitution of righteousness
root in the obedience of the Second Adam. Hence, the apostle says, "As
through one offence (sentence was pronounced) upon all men unto condemnation;
so also through one righteousness (sentence was pronounced) upon all men (that
is, Jews and Gentiles) unto a justification of life. For as through the
disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners; so also
through the obedience of the one the many shall be constituted righteous"
(Rom. 5:18,19). The two Adams are two federal chiefs; the first being
figurative of the second (v. 14) in these relations. All sinners are in the
first Adam; and all the righteous in the second, only on a different principle.
Sinners were in the loins of the former when he transgressed; but not in the
loins of the latter, when he was obedient unto death; therefore, "the
flesh profiteth nothing". For this cause, then, for sons of Adam to become
sons of God, they must be the subjects of an adoption, which is attainable only
by some divinely appointed means.
The apostle then brings to light two sentences,
which are co-extensive, but not co-etaneous in their bearing upon mankind. The
one is the sentence of condemnation, which consigns "the many",
both believing Jews and Gentiles, to the dust of the ground; the other is a
sentence which affects the same "many", and brings them out of the
ground again to return thither no more. Hence, of the saints it is said,
"The body is dead because of sin; but the spirit (gives) life because of
righteousness" (Rom. 8:10,11); for "since by man came death, by a man
also came a resurrection of dead persons. For as in Adam they all die, so also
in Christ shall they all be made alive. But every one in his own order: Christ
the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming"
(1 Cor. 15:21-23). It is obvious that the apostle is not writing of all the
individuals of the human race; but only of that portion of them that become the
subject of "a justification of life". It is true, that all men
do die; but it is not true that they are all the subjects of justification.
Those who are justified are "the many", who are sentenced to live for
ever. Of the rest we shall speak hereafter.
The sentence to justification of life is through
Jesus Christ, In being made a sacrifice for sin by the pouring out of his blood
upon the cross, he was set forth as a blood-sprinkled mercy seat to all
believers of the gospel of the kingdom, who have faith in this remission of
sins through the shedding of his blood. "He was delivered for our
offences, and raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25); that is,
for the pardon of those who believe in the gospel; as it is written,
"He that believeth the gospel and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark
16:15,16). Hence, "the obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:5) is made
the condition of righteousness; and this obedience implies the existence of a
"law of faith", as attested by that of Moses, which is "the
law of works" (Rom. 3:27,21). The law of faith says to him who
believes the gospel of the kingdom, "Be renewed, and be ye every one of
you baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins" (Acts
2:38).
Here is a command which meets a man as a dividing
line between the State of Sin and the State of Righteousness. The
obedience of faith finds expression in the name of Jesus as "the
mercy seat through faith in his blood". Hence the apostle says to the
disciples in Corinth, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators,
idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners; shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye were washed, sanctified,
and made righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the spirit
of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Thus, the spirit, which is put for the gospel
of the kingdom and name, renewed these profligates; the divine law and
testimony attested by the spirit with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles,
and gifts (Heb. 2:3,4), and believed with a full assurance of conviction that
worked in them by love to will and to do -- caused them to be "washed
in the name", to be "sanctified in the name", and to
be "made righteous in the name of Jesus Christ".
It must be clear to any man, unspoiled by a vain
and deceitful philosophy, that to be washed in a name is impossible, unless the
individual have faith in the name, and be subjected to the use of a fluid
in some way. Now when a man is "washed in the name of Jesus Christ",
there are three witnesses to the fact, by whose testimony everything is
established. These are the spirit, the water, and the blood, and they all agree
in one statement. Jesus Christ was made manifest by water at his baptism
(John 1:31); and by blood in his death; and by the spirit in his
resurrection therefore, the spirit who is the truth, and the water, and
the blood, or the truth concerning the Messiahship, sacrificial character, and
resurrection of Jesus, are constituted the witnesses who bear testimony to a
man's being the subject of "the righteousness of God" (Rom. 1:17;
3:21,22,25,26) set forth in the gospel of His Kingdom. The testimony of these
witnesses is termed "the witness of God", which every believer of the
Kingdom and Name hath as "the witness in himself" (1 John
5:6-10).
Water, then, is the medium in which the washing
occurs. But, although water is so accessible in all parts of the world where
the gospel has been preached, it is one of the most difficult things under
heaven to use it so as to wash a man in the name of Jesus Christ.
What! says one, is it difficult to get a man to be dipped in water as a
religious action? No; it is very easy. Thousands in society go into the water
on very slender grounds. But going into the water, and having certain words
pronounced over the subject, is not washing in the name. The difficulty lies,
not in getting men to be dipped, but in first getting them to believe
"the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus
Christ" (Acts 8:12); or "the exceeding great and precious
promises", by the faith of which they can alone become the "partakers
of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). Without faith in these things, there
is no true washing, no sanctification, or purification, from moral defilement,
and no constitution of righteousness by the name of Jesus for the sons of men;
for, says the scripture. "without faith it is impossible to please God"
It was the renewing efficacy of the exceeding
great and precious promises of God assuredly believed, that changed the gay and
profligate Corinthians into "the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints"; of whom it is testified that "hearing, they believed and
were baptized" (Acts 18:8). Now, to these baptized believers he writes,
and tells them that "God made Jesus, who knew not sin, to be sin
(that is, sinful flesh) for them, that they might be constituted God's
righteousness in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21); so that, being introduced into
Him (for an individual cannot be in a federal person unless introduced into
Him) the crucified and resurrected Jesus became "the Lord their
righteousness" (Jer. 23:6); as it is written, "Of Him, Corinthians,
are ye IN Christ Jesus, who of God was constituted for us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30) So that,
whosoever is in him, is said to be "complete in him" ; in whom
he is circumcised "in putting off THE BODY OF THE SINS of the
flesh"; that is, all past sins; being buried with Christ in the
baptism, in which also he rises with him through the belief of the power of God
evinced in raising him from among the dead (Col. 2:10-12).
Now, because the unconstituted, or unrighteous,
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the law is revealed which says, "Ye
must be born again"; for says the King, "Except a man be born
again he cannot behold the kingdom of God". This saying is unintelligible
to men whose thinking is guided by the flesh. They cannot comprehend "how
these things can be": and, though they profess to be "teachers
of Israel", "Masters of Arts", and "Bachelors", and
"Doctors of Divinity", and of "Canon and Civil Law", they
are as mystified upon the subject of "the new birth" as Nicodemus himself.
But to those who understand "the word of the kingdom" these
"heavenly things" are distinguished by the obviousness and simplicity
of truth. To be born again, as the Lord Jesus expounds it, is to be "born
of the water and the spirit" as it is written, "Except a man be born out
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"
(John 3:3-10). This is surely very explicit and very intelligible; who can
misunderstand it, unless it be against his will to receive it?
The New Birth, like the old one of the flesh, is
not an abstract principle, but a process. It begins with the begettal and ends
with the having been born. A son of God is a character, which is developed out
of the "incorruptible seed" (1 Pet. 1:23) of God, sown into the fleshy
table of the heart (Matt. 13:19). When this seed, or word of the Kingdom, is
received, it begins to work in a man until he becomes a believer of the truth.
When things have come to this pass, he is a changed man. He has acquired a new
mode of thinking; for he thinks in harmony with the thoughts of God as revealed
in His law and testimony. He sees himself, and the world around him, in a new
light. He is convinced of sin; and experiences an aversion to the things in
which he formerly delighted. His views, disposition, temper, and affections are
transformed. He is humble, child-like, teachable, and obediently disposed; and
his simple anxiety is to know what God would have him to do. Having ascertained
this, he does it; and in doing it is "born out of the water".
Having been begotten by the Father by the word of truth (James 1:18), and born
of water, the first stage of the process is completed. He is constitutionally
"in Christ".
When a child is born, the next thing is to train
him up in the way he should go, that when he is old he may not depart from it.
This is also the arrangement of God in relation to those who are born out of
water into His family on earth. He disciplines and tries them, that He may
"exalt them in due time". Having believed the gospel and been baptized,
such a person is required to "walk worthy of the vocation", or
calling, "wherewith he has been called" (Eph. 4:1), that by so doing
he may be "accounted worthy" of being "born of spirit",
that he may become "spirit", or a spiritual body; and so enter the
kingdom of God, crowned with "glory, honour, incorruptibility, and
life" (Rom. 2:7). When, therefore, such a believer comes out of the
ground by a resurrection from among the dead, the spirit of God, worked by the
Lord Jesus, first opens the grave, and forms him in the image, and after the
likeness of Christ and then gives him life. He is then an incorruptible and
living man, "equal to the angels"; and like them capable of
reflecting the glory of Him that made him. This is the end of the process. He is
like Jesus himself, the great exemplar of God's family, born out of water by
the moral power of the truth; and out of the grave by the physical power of
spirit; but all things of God through Jesus Christ the Lord.
In the way described, sinners are transformed
into saints; and it is the only way; their conversion being the result of the
transforming influence of "the testimony of God". Those who are
ignorant of "the law and the testimony", and who yet claim to be
saints, and "teachers of divine mysteries", may demur in toto
to this conclusion, because "in saying this thou condemnest us also".
But truth knows no respect of persons; and while the oracles of God declare,
that men are "renewed by knowledge", and "alienated from the
life of God through ignorance", I feel entrenched impregnably in the
position here assumed. According to the constitution of the human intellect,
the knowledge of truth must precede the belief of it. There is no exception to
this. If cases be cited as exceptions, the faith is spurious, and not that with
which God is pleased. It is credulity; the faith of opinion, such as
characterizes the spiritual philosophy of the age.
Lastly, the act demanded of a renewed
sinner by the constitution of righteousness, that he may be inducted into Christ,
and so "constituted the righteousness of God in him", is a burial
in water into death. The energy of the word of truth is twofold. It makes a
man "dead to sin" and "alive to God". Now, as
Christ died to sin once and was buried, so the believer, having become dead to
sin, must be buried also; for after death, burial. The death and burial of the
believer is connected with the death and burial of Christ by the individual's
faith in the testimony concerning them. Hence, he is said to be "dead with
Christ", and to be "buried with Christ"; but, how buried? "By
baptism into death", saith the scripture.
But is this all? By no means; for the object of
the burial in water is not to extinguish animal life; but, by preserving it to
afford the believer scope to "walk in newness of life", moral and
intellectual. He is, therefore, raised up out of the water. This action
is representative of his faith in the resurrection of Jesus; and of his hope,
that as he had been planted with him in the similitude of his death, he shall
hereafter be also in the likeness of his resurrection (Rom 6:3-11), and so
enter the kingdom of God. To such persons the scripture saith, "Ye are all
sons of God in Christ Jesus through the faith"; and the
ground of this honourable and divine relationship is assigned in these words:
"For as many of you as have been baptized INTO Christ
have put on Christ; and if ye be Christ's, then are ye the seed
of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26-29).
They have thus received the spirit of adoption by which they can address God as
their Father who is in heaven.
THE TWO PRINCIPLES.
"With the mind I myself serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the Law
of Sin."
Although a sinner may have been "delivered
from the power of darkness", or ignorance, and have been "translated
into" (Col. 1:13) the hope of "the Kingdom of God and of his
Christ" (Rev. 11:15), by faith in the divine testimony and baptism into
Christ -- yet, if he turn his thoughts back into his own heart, and note the
impulses which work there, he will perceive a something that, if he were to
yield to it, would impel him to the violation of the divine law. These impulses
are styled "the motions of sins" (Rom. 7:5). Before he was
enlightened, they "worked in his members", until they were manifested
in evil action, or sin; which is termed, "bringing forth fruit unto
death", The remote cause of these "motions" is that physical
principle, or quality, of the flesh, styled indwelling sin, which returns the
mortal body to the dust; and that which excites the latent disposition is the
law of God forbidding to do thus and so; for, "I had not known sin, but by
the law".
Now, while a righteous man feels this law
involuntarily at work in his members, the law of sin, or of nature within him;
he also perceives there a something which condemns "the motions of
sins", and suppresses them; so that they shall not impel him to do what he
ought not to do. The best of men -- and I quote Paul as an illustration of the
class -- are conscious of the co-existence of these hostile principles within
them. "I find", says he, "a law that, when I would do good, evil
is present with me". Yes; the principle of evil and the principle of
good are the two laws which abide in the saints of God so long as they
continue subject to mortality.
The reader is invited to re-peruse pages
eighty-nine and ninety (the section entitled "The Carnal Mind" in
chapter 3) on the subject of these laws, as it will prevent repetition in this
place.
The law of sin and death is hereditary,
and derived from the federal sinner of the race; but the law of the mind is an
intellectual and moral acquisition. The law of sin pervades every
particle of the flesh; but in the thinking flesh it reigns especially in the
propensities. In the savage, it is the only law to which he is subject; so that
with his flesh, he serves only the law of sin and death. This is to him "the
light within"; which is best illustrated by the darkness of Egypt,
which might be felt. It was this internal light which illuminated "the
princes of the world, who crucified the Lord of glory". It shined forth in
the philosophy of Plato, and in the logic of Aristotle, who walked in it while
"dwelling in the land of the shadow of death" (Isa. 9:2) and it is
"the light within" all babes who are born of blood, of the will of
the flesh, and of man under the constitution of sin, in all countries of the
world.
Now, the scripture saith, "The commandment
of God is a lamp; and his law is light" (Prov. 6:23); so that the prophet
says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
(Psa. 119:105). And to this agrees the saying of the apostle, that the sure
word of prophecy is "a light that shineth in a dark place" (2 Pet.
1:19). Now, Isaiah testifies, that the Word is made up of God's law and
testimony, and that those who do not speak according to it, have no light in
them (Isa. 8:20). This is the reason that the savage has no light in him;
because he is intensely ignorant of the law of God. Light does not emanate from
within; for sin, blood, and flesh can give out none. It can only reflect it
after the fashion of a mirror. The light is not in the mirror; but its surface
is so constituted that when light falls upon it, it can throw it back, or
reflect it, according to the law of light, that the images of objects are seen
on the surface, whence the light proceeding from the objects is last reflected
to the eye. Neither is light innate in the heart. This is simply a tablet;
a polished tablet, or mirror, in some; but a tarnished, rusty tablet in others.
It is called "the fleshy tablet of the heart". It was polished in the
beginning, when God formed man after His likeness; but sin, "the god of
this world", hath so tarnished it that there are but few who reflect His
similitude.
No; it is a mere conceit of the fleshly mind that
man is born into the world with the light within; which requires only to be
cherished to be sufficient to guide him in the right way. God only is the
source of light; He is the glorious illuminator of the moral universe; and He
transmits His enlightening radiance through the medium, sometimes of angels,
sometimes of prophets, and at others through that of His Son and the apostles,
by His all-pervading Spirit. Hence it is that the scripture saith, "God is
light", whose truth "enlightens the eyes". But what is the
truth? It is "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ", who is the
polished incorruptible fleshly mirror, which reflects the Image of God -- an
image, at present, but obscurely impressed upon the fleshy tablets of our
hearts; because we know only in part, perceiving things by the eye of faith,
until hope shall disappear in the possession of the prize.
God, then, is the source of light; the
gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus is the light; and Christ is the
medium through which it shines; hence he is styled THE SUN OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS; also, "the true light, which enlighteneth every man, that
cometh into the world"; "a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of his people Israel". Now, the enlightening of every man is thus
explained by the apostle: "God", saith he, "who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, is he who hath shined into our (the saints')
hearts, with the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). But "every man" is not
enlightened by this glorious knowledge; for to some it is hid. The tablets of
their hearts are so corroded and encrusted with opaque and sordid matter that
they are destitute of all reflecting power. Light will not shine in a black
surface. Hence, saith the apostle, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to
them that are lost: in whom the god of the world hath blinded the minds of them
who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine
into them" (2 Cor. 4:3,4). He darkens the tablets of their hearts by
"the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches" (Matt.
13:22); and thus prevents them from opening their ears to hear the words of
eternal life.
If a man have light, then, it is very evident
that it is acquired from without, and not an hereditary spark within.
When the Lord Jesus appeared in Israel "he shined in the darkness".
This nation was so darkened by the propensities and human tradition, that they
did not perceive the light when it shined among them; "the darkness
comprehended it not" (John 1:5). If this were the condition of Israel, how
intensely dark must have been the world at large. Still, the Gentile mind was
not so totally eclipsed as that of the savage. The nations of the Four Empires
had been greatly mixed up with the Israelites in their history; so that the
light of their law must have been considerably diffused among them; though not
given to them for their obedience. Hence, "the work of the law was written
upon their hearts" to some extent; and created in them "a conscience,
by the thoughts of which they accused or excused one another" (Rom.
2:14,15).
This shining of the truth in the darkness of the
nations was considerably increased by the apostolic labours; for "their
sound went into all the land, and their words unto the end of the
habitable" (or Roman Empire) (Rom. 10:18). Now, although this light was
almost extinguished by the apostasy, lamps were still kept burning in its
presence (Rev. 11:4); so that the eclipse was not so total that the darkness of
the Gentile mind was reduced to a savage state. When the scriptures were again
disseminated in the tongues of the nations in the sixteenth century, the light
of truth began again to stream in upon them. The scriptures were then like a
book just fallen from heaven. The world was astonished at their contents; but
"comprehended them not". Men discussed it, tortured it, perverted it,
fought about it; until the stronger party established the foundation of the
world as at present constituted.
This world, called "Christendom", is
much after the order of things in the days of Jesus. Were he to appear now, he
would "shine in the darkness" as when among the Jews. These professed
to know God, while in works they denied Him. Their clergy said, "We see";
but Jesus characterized them as "blind leaders of the blind";
therefore, "their sin remained". They boasted in the law; yet through
breaking it, dishonoured God. They professed to be more conscientious and pious
than Jesus; but he charged them with being hypocrites and serpents. They
strained out gnats, and swallowed camels; and gave tithe of mint and cummin,
and despoiled the fatherless and the widow. And, "like priest, like
people". They crowded to the synagogues and the temple in splendid
apparel. The bejewelled worshippers exhibited themselves in conspicuous seats;
while the poor stood, or if seated, sat on footstools near the door. They made
a great show of piety, sang the psalms of David with holy rapture, devoutly
listened to the reading of the law and the prophets; and expelled Jesus and his
apostles with great fury from their midst, when they showed the meaning of
them. With the worship of God they combined the worship of Mammon. They heaped
up gold and silver, and apparel till it was moth eaten; oppressed the hirelings
in his wages; and ground the faces of the poor.
Such was the state of "the church" when
Jesus and his apostles were members of it; and such is its condition now that
"he standeth at the door, and knocks". "The Church"
of the 20th century (by which I understand, not the "One Body"
(Eph. 4:4); but that thousand-headed monster presented by the ecclesiastical
aggregate of "Christendom") is that Laodicean antitype which is
neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, and which saith, "I am rich, and
increased in goods, and have need of nothing; but knows not that it is
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17); the
sputa once "spewed out of the Lord's mouth". Its eyes are blinded by
the god of the world. Its zeal for faction: its devotion to Mammon; its
ignorance of the scriptures; and its subjection to the dogmas and commandments
of men -- have made its heart fat, its ears heavy, and closed its eyes.
"The people of the Lord, the people of the Lord are we!" ascends as
its cry to heaven from myriads of throats; but in the tablets of their hearts
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ's kingdom and name finds no surface
of reflection. Many who mean well lament "the decline of spirituality in
the Churches"; but they fail to perceive the cause. The scriptures have
fallen into comparative disuse among them. They are superseded by shallow
speculations -- mere unintelligible pulpit disquisitions, the contradictory
thinking of the flesh, trained to excogitate the creedism of the community that
glorifies itself in the orator of its choice. The gospel is neither believed
nor preached in the churches. In fact, it is hid from their eyes; and the
time is come to break off the wild olive branch for its saplessness; to cut off
these churches for their unbelief (Rom. 11:20,22,25).
The principle, or spirit, that works in these
children of disobedience, is neither the law of sin as exhibited in the savage;
nor the law of God as it appears in the genuine disciples of Christ. It is a
blending of the two; so as to make of none effect (Matt. 15:6,9) the little
truth believed, as far as inheriting the
The "intellect" and "sentiments"
of the apostle's brain, constituting "the fleshly tablet of his
heart", had been inscribed by the Spirit of the living God, in a way that
all believers are not the subject of. He was inspired; and consequently
received much of "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" by
divine suggestion, or revelation (Gal.
This new mode of thinking and feeling
created in a true believer by the divine law and testimony, is variously
designated in scripture. It is styled "a clean heart and a right
spirit" (Psa. 51:10); "a new spirit" and "a heart of
flesh" (Ezek. 11:19); the "inward man" (2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 7:22);
"new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17); "the new man created in
righteousness and true holiness"; and "renewed unto knowledge after
the image of him that created him" (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10); the
"hidden man of the heart" (1 Pet. 3:4); and so forth. This new and
hidden man is manifested in the life, which is virtuous as becomes the gospel.
He delights in the law of the Lord, and speaks often of His testimonies. He
denies himself of all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and walks soberly,
righteously and godly in the world. His hope is the glorious manifestation of
Jesus Christ, with the crown of righteousness, even glory, honour, and
immortality, promised to all who look for him, and "love his
appearing", and desire his kingdom (Titus 2:11-14; 2 Tim. 4:1,8: Heb.
9:28). Nevertheless, the law of sin, through the weakness of the flesh, fails
not to remind him of imperfection. Being delivered from the fear of death, he
looks forward to it as to the period of his change, knowing that, when he falls
asleep in the dust, he will afterwards be delivered from the principle of evil
by a resurrection to incorruptibility and unalloyed existence in the Paradise
of God.