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THE  LIBRARY 

of 
VICTORIA  UNIVERSITY 

Toronto 


ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED; 


OR, 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  SO-CALLED 
PL  YMO  UTH  BRE  THREN 


AND 


1-5Y  DANIEL  STEELE,  D.  D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  DIDACTIC  THEOLOGY  IN  BOSTON  UNIVERSITY. 

Author  of  "People's  Commentary''  "Love  Enthroned,''''  "Mile-Stone 
Papers,"  etc. 


WITH  INTRODUCTION  TO  CANADIAN  READERS  BY 

X.  BURWASH,  S.T.D., 
PRESIDENT   OF   VICTORIA   COLLEGE. 


TORONTO: 

WILLIAM  BRIGGS,  78  &  80  KING  STREET  EAST. 
MONTREAL:  C.  W.  COAXES.        HALIFAX:  S.  F.  HUESTIS. 


6X 


Sft7 "'      ^.^B379 


EMAAANUEl 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1887 

BY  MCDONALD,  GILL  &  co., 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOT?. 
INTRODUCTION  TO  CANADIAN  READKRS  ...  3 

INTRODUCTION 5 

PREFACE  23 


CHAPTER  I. 
ANTINOMIANISM  DKFINED  81 


CHAPTER  II. 
ANTING  MI  ANISM. —  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  37 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN  52 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN  (Continued)        .        .          77 


CHAPTER  V. 
ANTING  MIAN  FAITH  IOC 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT  121 


CHAPTER  VII. 
ETERNAL  LIFE  XON-FORFEITABLE  132 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII!. 
HOLINESS  IMPUTED  148 


CHAPTER  IX. 
PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY,  on  LAST  THINGS        .        162 


CHAPTER  X. 
THE  PROPHETIC:  CONFIDENCE  REVIEWED    .  193 


CHAPTER  XI. 
DIFFICULTIES  OF  LITERALISM  204 


CHAPTER  XII. 
PREDESTINAUIAN  BASIS  214 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

EXEQETICAL    ABSURDITIES  .  .  .  ,  .  223 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  THOUSAND  YEARS      .        .        2% 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  CHURCH  NOT  THE  KINGDOM   .  246 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

ELECT  NUMBER  OF  THE  GENTILES  256 


Introduction  to  Canadian  Readers. 


THIS  work,  by  the  Rev.  DANIEL  STEELE,  D.D., 
Professor  of  Didactic  Theology  in  Boston  University, 
is  a  very  timely  book.  An  Antinomian  view  of  the 
Atonement,  an  Antinomian  definition  of  faith,  and 
an  equally  Antinomian  view  of  the  agencies  by 
which  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  is  to  be  advanced  to 
its  final  glory,  are  the  curse  of  a  large  part  of  our 
modern  evangelization.  Dr.  Steele  has  well  named 
this  error  "  Antinomianism  Revived,"  for  in  every 
century  since  the  Reformation  it  has  made  its  ap 
pearance.  It  constituted  the  chief  enemy  of  true 
religion  with  which  Wesley  and  Fletcher  were  called 
to  contend,  thwarting  more  than  any  other  the 
mission  of  Methodism  to  spread  Scriptural  Holiness 
over  the  land.  In  the  work  before  us  Dr.  Steele 
has,  in  a  very  popular  style,  and  with  the  clearest 
and  most  trenchant  logic,  set  before  us,  (1)  The 


4  INTRODUCTION    TO    CANADIAN    READERS. 

nature  of  this  error  ;  (2)  A  comprehensive  and  valu 
able  sketch  of  its  past  history ;  (3)  A  very  full  exposi 
tion  of  its  modern  organized  form  as  Plymouthism ; 
(4)  A  careful  examination  of  its  three  fundamental 
errors  as  to  Faith,  the  Atonement,  and  the  absolutely 
irrevocable  character  of  the  believer's  title  to  eternal 
life ;  (5)  A  most  valuable  chapter  on  the  Antinomian 
doctrine  of  imputed  Holiness ;  and  finally,  (6)  a  very 
complete  discussion  of  the  Eschatology,  or  Second 
Advent  Doctrine,  which  accompanies  this  Gospel, 
falsely  so  called.  We  regard  this  entire  system  of 
teaching  as  one  of  the  greatest  enemies  with  which 
Christianity  is  called  to  contend  to-day,  inasmuch  as 
it  creates  weakness  from  within,  which  is  far  more 
dangerous  than  can  be  any  attack  from  without.  In 
combating  this  heresy,  our  younger  ministry  will  find 
in  Dr.  Steele's  book  an  invaluable  storehouse  of  in 
formation  and  argument,  giving  them  the  gist  of  the 
keen  logic  with  which  Wesley  and  Fletcher  met  this 
error  in  their  day,  but  admirably  adapted  to  the  new 
guise  in  which  it  appears  in  our  time. 

N.  BURWASH. 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  arguments  of  this  book  are  directed, 
mainly,  against  the  doctrines  inculcated  by  the 
so-called  Plymouth  Brethren.  We  shall  attempt 
little  more,  in  this  introduction  which  we  are 
asked  to  write,  than  to  answer  the  question, 
"  Who  are  the  Plymouth  Brethren  f  " 

They  are  a  sect  (if  it  be  proper  to  call  those 
a  sect  who  repudiate  all  sects)  popularly  known 
as " Darbyites,"  "Brethren,"  "Plymouth  Breth 
ren,"  etc.  They  originated  in  England  nearly 
sixty  years  ago,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
John  Darby. 

Mr.  Darby  was  born  in  England,  of  wealthy 
parents.  He  was  educated  for  the  law,  and 
commenced  its  practice.  But  his  subsequent 
conversion  changed  his  whole  course  of  life. 
He  was  impressed  that  it  was  his  duty  to  enter 

5 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

the  ministry.  His  father,  learning  of  his  pur 
pose,  became  violently  opposed  to  it,  and  not 
being  able  to  dissuade  him  from  it,  actually  dis 
inherited  him.  But  a  wealthy  uncle  adopted 
him,  and  at  his  decease  left  him  an  ample  for 
tune. 

Mr.  Darby  having  finished  his  theological 
studies,  was  ordained,  and  admitted  to  the  min 
istry  of  the  Established  Church.  But  he  did 
not  long  continue  in  fellowship  with  that  church. 
Not  being  able  to  understand  the  doctrine  of 
apostolic  succession,  he  rejected  it,  and  with 
drew  from  the  Establishment  and  denounced  it 
as  an  illegitimate  church. 

Having  severed  his  connection  with  what  he 
regarded  an  apostate  church,  he  went  in 
search  of  the  true  one,  not  doubting  as  yet  but 
what  such  a  church  could  be  found.  But  Mr. 
Darby  never  found  his  ideal  church. 

Such  as  were  of  his  way  of  thinking  were 
urged  to  band  themselves  together  and  wait  until 
Christ  should  make  His  personal  advent,  which 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

they  confidently  anticipated  would  speedily 
occur.  The  first  band  of  this  faith  was  formed 
in  Ireland.  But  it  was  in  Plymouth,  England, 
that  the  Brethren  met  with  the  greatest  favor. 
Here  their  members  soon  numbered  some  fifteen 
hundred.  So  marked  was  their  success  in  Ply 
mouth,  that  they  were  called  "  Plymouth  Breth 
ren."  It  is  proper  to  say,  that  they  have  never 
assumed  this  name,  nor,  in  fact,  any  other, 
except  "  Brethren."  Nor  do  we  know  that 
they  seriously  object  to  it. 

Great  success  attended  the  labors  of  the 
"  Brethren,"  and  bands  were  formed  in  London, 
Exeter,  and  several  other  places.  Many  per 
sons  of  wealth  united  with  them,  and  contrib 
uted  considerable  sums  of  money  to  aid  in 
spreading  the  new  faith. 

About  this  time  they  established  their  first 
periodical,  entitled  the  Christian  Witness,  Mr. 
Darby  being  its  chief  contributor. 

It  was  not  long  before  their  violent  attacks 
on  the  church  drew  upon  them  the  opposition 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  English  clergy.  And  so  well  directed 
and  ably  conducted  was  that  opposition,  that 
the  spread  of  the  new  faith  was  not  only  seri 
ously  checked,  but  their  numbers  were  greatly 
reduced. 

In  1838,  or  near  that  time,  Mr.  Darby  left 
England  for  the  Continent.  He  first  visited 
Paris,  where  he  remained  for  a  time,  without 
seeing  much  fruit  of  his  labor.  But  in  Switz 
erland,  which  he  next  visited,  he  found  a  more 
inviting  field. 

Some  time  before  Mr.  Darby's  visit  to  Switz 
erland,  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  had  com 
menced  successful  operations  in  Lausanne,  and 
quite  a  number  of  the  members  of  the  State 
Church  had  withdrawn  and  united  with  them, 
creating  no  little  stir  among  the  people. 

Among  the  new  proselytes  to  Methodism  were 
some  who  still  held  to  the  doctrine  of  predesti 
nation,  and  rejected  the  Wesleyan  doctrine  of 
Christian  perfection.  It  was  claimed  that,  un 
der  these  circumstances,  those  who  held  the 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

doctrine  of  predestination,  and  still  adhered  to 
the  Methodists,  had  received  but  half  the  truth. 
These  differences  of  religious  opinion  extended 
to  the  Methodists  of  Vevay,  producing  no  little 
disturbance  among  the  members  there. 

With  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  the  new 
faith,  an  influential  member  of  the  State  Church 
at  Lausanne,  invited  Mr.  Darby  to  come  there 
and  fight  the  Methodists.  He  went,  and  by 
his  preaching,  and  the  publication  of  a  book 
entitled,  The  Doctrine  of  the  Wesley ans  Regard 
ing  Perfection,  and  their  use  of  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures,  he  succeeded  in  so  far  bewildering  the 
uninstructed  people,  that  the  greater  part  of 
them  abandoned  their  faith,  and  either  returned 
to  the  State  Church,  or  united  with  the  dis 
senters. 

Mr.  Darby  seemed  to  have  still  more  in  his 
plan.  He  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  on  the 
prophecies,  entitled,  Views  Regarding  the  Actual 
Expectation  of  the  Church,  and  the  Prophe 
cies  which  Establish  it.  These  lectures  were 


10  LNT11ODUCTION. 

largely  attended,  and  produced  a  profound  im 
pression  upon  all  classes.  They  were  subse 
quently  published  in  French,  German,  and 
English,  and  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Darby's 
published  works.  In  the  estimation  of  the 
author,  at  least,  they  lifted  the  veil  which  had 
long  covered  the  prophecies. 

Mr.  Darby's  influence  with  the  people  is  said 
to  have  been  so  great  that  the  regular  ministry 
was  almost  entirely  ignored,  and  he  became 
the  accepted  prophet.  In  fact,  his  publications 
had  the  effect  to  turn  the  people,  as  a  whole,, 
from  the  ministry. 

It  was  his  custom  to  administer  the  sacra 
ment  every  Sabbath  indiscriminately  to  church 
men  and  dissenters,  which  practice  earned  for 
him  the  reputation  of  being  a  large-hearted 
Christian,  anxious  to  make  the  church  one. 

When  Mr.  Darby  had  sufficiently  drawn  the 
people  to  himself,  he  was  prepared,  it  would 
seem,  to  make  known  to  them  his  plans  more 
fully.  These  were,  to  draw  out  of  the  State 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

Church  its  best  members,  and  unite  them  with 
others,  and  so  form  a  circle  of  perfectly  free 
congregations,  without  any  organization,  and  to 
make  himself,  it  was  claimed,  the  centre  of  the 
whole. 

To  accomplish  this  end,  a  series  of  "  fly- 
sheets,"  or  tracts,  were  issued  at  Geneva  and 
Lausanne,  which  clearly  revealed  Mr.  Darby's 
plan.  In  one  of  these  tracts,  entitled,  "Aposta- 
cy  of  the  Economy,"  he  laid  the  axe  at  the  root 
of  the  tree,  leaving  the  whole  Christian  Church, 
so  far  as  he  was  able,  a  shapeless  wreck.  In  an 
other  tract, "  On  the  Foundation  of  the  Church," 
he  attacked  the  Dissenters,  denying  the  right 
to  form  a  church.  In  still  another,  "  Liberty  to 
preach  Jesus  possessed  of  every  Christian,"  he 
denied  the  existence  of  any  priestly  office  in 
the  church,  except  the  universal  priesthood  of 
believers.  The  church  having  come  to  an  end, 
the  ordained  ministry,  or  priesthood,  went  with 
it.  No  man,  nor  body  of  men,  Mr.  Darby 
claimed,  had  any  right  to  such  an  office,  and  to 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

,,     » 

assume  any  such  right  was  proof  of  the  corrup 
tion  and  ruin  of  the  whole  system.  In  another 
tract,  entitled  "  The  Promise  of  the  Lord," 
based  on  Matt,  xviii.  20,  is  given  the  shibboleth 
of  the  Darbyite  gatherings.  Finally,  a  tract 
entitled,  "  Schism  "  was  issued,  in  which  all  who 
hesitated  to  take  part  in  these  gatherings  were 
denominated,  "  Schismatics." 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  the  work  of 
demolition  progressed  with  great  rapidity  The 
church  is  first  demolished.  Mr.  Darby  does  not 
allow  even  a  poor  Dissenter  to  organize  a  new 
one,  no  matter  how  good  it  might  be.  Next,  the 
Gospel  ministry  is  swept  away,  and  should  any 
one  set  up  a  claim  to  such  an  office,  he  would 
give  the  clearest  evidence  of  his  corruption. 
In  this  way  the  world  is  left  without  a  church 
and  without  a  ministry ;  and  the  only  substi 
tute  furnished  is  a  few  Darbyite  gatherings, 
which  are  without  form  and  without  responsi 
bility.  From  Switzerland  they  spread  into 
France,  and  gathered,  after  a  time,  several  con- 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

gregations  iii  Paris,  Lyons,  Marseilles,  and  oth 
er  places.  A  French  periodical  was  established 
for  the  propagation  of  their  principles,  and  a 
land  of  seminary  was  started  for  training  Mis 
sionaries. 

That  secessions  should  occur  where  no  orga 
nizations  exist,  and  where  all  organizations  are 
utterly  repudiated,  seems  strange.  But  it  was 
not  possible  for  persons,  who  could  readily  ac 
cept  such  radical  views  as  Mr.  Darby  enunci 
ated,  to  be  long  held  by  them.  This  is  pre 
eminently  true  of  the  Plymouth  Brethren. 

A  division  soon  took  place  under  the  leader 
ship  of  Mr.  B.  "W.  Newton.  It  originated  in 
England,  but  extended  to  the  Continent.  Mr. 
Newton,  it  is  claimed,  held  with  Irving  that 
Christ  was  not  sinless.  This  notion  was  ear 
nestly  repelled  by  most  of  the  Darby ites,  and 
the  obnoxious  Newton  was  formally  expelled 
by  Mr.  Darby.  We  will  not  stop  to  inquire 
how  Mr.  Darby  could  have  consistently  ex 
pelled  a  man  from  his  society,  when  he  ignored 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

and  utterly  repudiated  all  organizations.  The 
Newton  heresy  extended  into  Vevay,  where 
considerable  trouble  followed.  The  "  Breth 
ren  "  there  split  into  two  factions ;  and  this 
was  soon  followed  by  several  other  societies. 

Another  division  took  place  in  England,  in 
which  Mr.  George  Miiller,  of  Bristol,  was  the 
most  prominent  actor.  Other  divisions  have 
taken  place. 

In  America  there  are  several  schools  of  the 
Plymouth  Brethren.  Mr.  Darby  is  utterly  ig 
nored  by  some  of  them.  While  the  old  man 
was  still  living  they  went  so  far  as  to  represent 
him  as  a  second  "  Diotrephes,  who  loveth  to 
have  the  pre-eminence "  (3  John  9).  They 
insinuated  that  Mr.  Darby,  the  father  of  them 
all,  had  very  far  fallen  from  original  Dar- 
byism;  at  least,  this  would  be  naturally  in 
ferred  from  the  manner  in  which  they  treated 
him.  We  have  in  Boston,  and  other  places, 
two  classes,  or  schools,  of  the  Plymouth  Breth 
ren. 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

The  religious  views  of  the  Plymouth  Breth 
ren  are  fully  set  forth,  by  Dr.  Steele,  in  the  fol 
lowing  pages.  They  are  Antinomians  of  the 
straitest  sect.  Everything  but  pure  Darbyism 
belongs  to  this  world.  There  is  nobody  right 
but  themselves.  The  church  is  fallen,  and  can 
not  be  reformed,  and  our  only  duty  is  to  go  out 
of  her.  Anything  which  looks  like  church  pros 
perity  is,  with  the  Plymouth  Brethren,  a  delu 
sion.  "The  year-books  of  Christianity,"  says 
Mr.  Darby,  "  are  the  year-books  of  hell." 

One  of  their  writers,  speaking  of  the  church, 
says :  "  It  is  a  corrupt  mysterious  mixture,  a 
spiritual  malformation,  the  master-piece  of 
Satan,  the  corrupter  of  the  truth  of  God."  "  It 
is  that  thing  which  Satan  has  made  of  profess 
ing  Christianity.  It  is  worse,  by  far,  than  Ju 
daism  ;  worse  by  far  than  all  the  darkest  forms 
of  Paganism," 

The  New  Birth,  with  a  Plymouth  Brother,  is 
not  a  change  of  our  old  nature,  but  the  forma 
tion  of  a  new  man  who  is  distinguished  in  all 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

things  from  the  old  —  has  his  own  customs, 
wishes,  aims,  feelings  and  necessities  —  and 
these  are  spiritual,  heavenly,  and  Divine.  The 
old  man,  instead  of  being  absolutely  crucified 
and  put  to  death,  was  only  crucified  in  Christ 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  while,  in  fact,  he 
actually  lives  and  grows,  often  worse  and  worse, 
to  the  end  of  life.  In  response  to  a  question 
we  once  put  to  Mr.  Darby,  he  said,  his  nature, 
or  old  man,  had  been  growing  worse  and  worse 
ever  since  he  had  believed  in  Christ.  But  he 
paid  no  attention  to  that,  as  he  was  saved  in 
Christ  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  old  man 
—  the  carnal  mind.  One  of  their  number  puts 
it  thus  :  "  The  believer's  state  can  never  corres 
pond  with  his  standing."  The  seventh  and 
eighth  of  Romans  exist  in  the  same  heart,  and 
at  the  same  time. 

Mr.  Mclntosh,  their  most  venerated  authority, 
says :  "  Flesh  is  flesh,  nor  can  it  ever  be  made 
aught  else  but  flesh.  The  Holy  Ghost  did  not 
come  down  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  to  improve 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

nature,  or  do  away  the  fact  of  its  incurable  evil, 
but  to  baptize  believers  into  one  body,  and  con 
nect  them  with  their  living  head  in  Heaven." 

Perfect  holiness,  with  the  Brethren,  is  one 
and  the  same  with  justification.  It  is,  or  was, 
a  finished  work  of  God.  It  is  in  no  sense  per 
sonal  in  ourselves,  but  in  Christ,  and  accom 
plished  when  He  died  on  the  cross.  It  can 
never  be  diminished  nor  increased.  No  sin 
committed  by  a  justified  person  can  in  the  least 
affect  his  justification.  The  soul's  standing 
must  ever  remain  as  pure  as  Christ  Himself. 
He  may  get  drunk  like  Noah,  commit  murder 
and  adultery  like  David,  curse  like  Peter,  or 
lie  like  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  and  his  standing 
is  no  more  affected  by  it  than  was  Stephen's 
when  under  a  shower  of  stones,  with  his  face 
shining  like  that  of  an  angel. 

One  of  their  writers  gives  the  following  de 
scription  of  a  good  man :  — 

"  The  good  man  feels  that  when  he  is  pre 
senting  to  God  his  prayer  and  his  praises  and 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

other  holy  things,  that  many  vain  and  foolish 
thoughts  often  come  unbidden,  as  the  unclean 
fowls  came  down  upon  the  sacrifice  which  Abra 
ham  had  laid  in  order  to  be  offered  to  God 
(Gen.  xv.  11)  ;  and  he  feels  that  his  sacrifice  is 
sadly  spoiled ;  and  he  asks,  '  Can  the  pure  God 
accept  such  impure  sacrifices  as  I  now  bring 
and  lay  on  His  altar  ? '  There  is  so  much  of 
self  and  sin  in  our  holiest  things  that  our  very 
tears  need  washing,  and  our  very  repentance 
towards  God  needs  to  be  repented  of.  In  each 
of  our  hearts  there  is  a  fountain  of  black,  filthy 
waters ;  and  when  we  think  we  are  about  to 
present  a  gift  pure  and  clean  to  God,  the  stream 
bursts  forth,  and  the  gifts  we  thought  would  be 
so  clean  and  pure  are  besmeared  with  vile  effu 
sions  of  our  own  corrupt  heart.  And  we  often 
think  that  Satan  empties  much  of  the  horrible 
filth  of  hell  into  our  hearts,  making  each  of 
them  into  a  sewer  for  the  foul  waters  of  the 
abyss  of  despair  to  run  through." 

Can  anything  worse  than  this  be  said  of  the 
most  wicked  man  living  ?  Satan  can  do  no 
worse  than  to  empty  the  "  horrible  filth  of  hell 
into  his  heart,"  and  make  him  a  "  sewer  for  the 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

foul  waters  of  the  abyss  of  despair  to  run 
through."  This  is  the  best  thing  the  Gospel  of 
the  Plymouth  Brethren  can  do  for  poor,  fallen, 
human  nature.  And  yet,  strange  to  say,  this 
same  man,  who  is  filled  with  the  "  horrible  filth 
of  hell,"  and  is  a  "  sewer  for  the  foul  waters  of 
the  abyss  of  despair  to  run  through,"  is,  at  the 
same  time,  pure  as  Christ  is  pure.  Here  are 
his  words :  — 

"He  who  is  our  Great  High  Priest  before 
God  is  pure  without  a  stain.  God  sees  Him  as 
such,  and  He  stands  for  us  who  are  His  people, 
and  we  are  accepted  in  Him.  His  holiness  is 
ours  by  imputation.  Standing  in  Him  we  are 
in  the  sight  of  God,  holy  as  Christ  is  holy,  and 
pure  as  Christ  is  pure.  God  looks  at  our  rep 
resentative,  and  He  sees  us  in  Him.  We  are 
complete  in  Him  who  is  our  spotless  and  glori 
ous  Head." 

Here  is  full-fledged  Antinomianism. 

The  Plymouth  Brethren  profess  to  have  no 
creed  but  the  Bible.  They  condemn  all  who 
avow  a  creed,  as  putting  human  opinions  in  thg 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

place  of  the  Word  of  God.  And  yet  they 
seem  to  have  a  well-defined  creed,  and  put  it 
forth  with  great  persistency.*  They  denounce 
all  commentaries  on  the  Scriptures  as  mislead 
ing  ;  and  yet  Mr.  Darby  has  written  commenta 
ries  quite  extensively  on  the  Bible,  to  say  noth 
ing  of  Mr.  Mclntosh,  whom  they  regard  as 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  inspired. 

They  do  not  labor  for  sinners,  but  for  the 
members  of  the  various  churches,  as  if  they 
were  in  more  peril  than  the  outside  world. 
They  may  be  seen  around  revival  meetings  with 
tracts  in  hand,  containing  antagonistic  senti 
ments,  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  new  con 
verts,  for  the  purpose  of  mystifying  them,  and 
drawing  them  away  from  Christ  and  salvation, 


•To  find  out  whether  they  were  a  sect,  that  is,  a  fragment  cutting 
itself  off  from  the  general  Church  of  Christ,  the  author  of  this  vol 
ume  once  asked  Mr.  Darby  whether  he  would  be  permitted  to  par 
take  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with  them,  if  ho  should  present  bimself. 
Mr.  Da1  by  replied  that  he  would  bo  cllowed  10  partake,  provided 
he  should  correctly  answer  certain  doctrinal  questions.  The  other 
"Brethren ''  present  strongly  dissented  from  such  liberty,  and  inti 
mated  close  communion.  Hence,  while  denouncing  all  schisms  and 
sects,  they  are  a  sect  of  the  straightest  and  most  exclusive  kind. 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

and  in  this  way  make  proselytes  to  their  faith, 
not  from  the  world,  but  from  the  churches. 

We  bid  all  a  hearty  God-speed  who  are  work 
ing  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  And  did  we  be 
lieve  that  souls  are  made  better  by  accepting 
the  dogmas  of  the  Plymouth  Brethren,  we 
should  most  heartily  say :  "  Go  on,  and  the 
Lord  bless  you."  But  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
their  teachings  are  evil,  and  only  evil.  It 
makes  chaos  of  order,  and  deceives  souls  by 
assuring  them  that  they  are  in  Christ,  while 
they  are  full  of  corruption. 

Dr.  Steele  has  done  a  valuable  service  for  all 
the  churches;  for  Plymouthism  successful, 
means  the  churches  depleted.  While  they  may 
hold  some  views  in  common  with  some  of  the 
evangelical  churches,  their  main  purpose  is  to 
undermine  the  churches,  and  foster  a  spirit  that 
would  lay  waste  every  church  in  Christendom. 
We  firmly  believe  that  this  book  will  greatly 
aid  in  arresting  tliis  growing  tide  of  error. 

W.  MCDONALD. 


PREFACE. 

IT  is  no  secret  that  the  author  of  this  book 
believes  in  a  large  Gospel,  an  evangel  co-exten 
sive  with  the  present  needs  of  the  depraved 
offspring^  of  Adam ;  yea,  more :  he  believes 
that  where  sin  hath  abounded,  grace  doth  here 
and  now  much  more  abound  to  those  believers 
who  insist  that  Christ  is  a  perfect  Saviour  from 
inbred  sin,  through  the  efficacy  of  His  blood,  in 
procuring  the  indwelling  Comforter  and  Sancti- 
fier.  He  unhesitatingly  proclaims  and  testifies 
to  all  the  world  that  Jesus  Christ  can  make 
clean  the  inside,  as  well  as  the  outside  of  His 
vessels  unto  honor ;  that  heart-purity  is  real 
and  inwrought,  and  not  a  stainless  robe,  con 
cealing  unspeakable  moral  filthiness  and  lep 
rosy.  He  believes  with  St.  John  against  the 
Gnostics,  that  if  any  man  asserts  that  he  has 

23 


24 

by  nature  no  defiling  taint  of  depravity,  no 
bent  toward  acts  of  sin,  and  hence,  that  he 
does  not  need  the  blood  of  atonement,  that  he 
is  self- deceived,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him; 
but  if  he  will  confess  his  lost  condition,  God  is 
faithful  and  just,  not  only  to  forgive,  but  also 
to  cleanse  from  all  sin,  "  actual  and  original " 
(Bengel).  He  is  bold  to  assert  that  we  are 
living  in  the  days  when  Ezekiel's  prophecy  is 
fulfilled:  "I  will  sprinkle  clean  water  upon 
you,  and  ye  shall  be  clean;  from  ALL  your 
filthiness  and  from  ALL  your  idols  I  will 
cleanse  you ;  I  will  put  my  spirit  within  you, 
and  cause  you  to  walk  in  my  statutes,"  —  a 
case  of  evangelical  legalism,  — "  and  ye  shall 
keep  my  judgments,  and  do  them.  I  will  also 
save  you  from  all  your  uncleannesses  "  ;  and  in 
the  days  when  the  words  of  Jehovah,  by  the 
lips  of  Moses,  are  verified  in  the  experience  of 
a  multitude  of  believers  :  "  The  Lord  thy  God 
will  circumcise  thy  heart,  and  the  heart  of  thy 
seed,  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine 


PREFACE.  25 

heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  that  thou  mayest 
live."  He  finds  St.  Paul's  inspired  unfoldings 
of  the  Gospel  germs,  dropped  by  Christ,  to  be 
the  exact  fulfilment  and  realization  of  these 
predictions,  when  the  Apostle  asserts  that  "  our 
old  man  is  crucified  with  him  "  —  that  is,  in  the 
same  manner,  and  with  as  deadly  an  effect  — 
"  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  destroyed  "  — 
"  put  out  of  existence  "  (Meyer)  ;  so  that  every 
advanced  believer  may  truthfully  assert,  "  it 
is  no  longer  I  that  live "  (.B.  V.  Am.  Com 
mittee). 

He  is  confident  that  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus  does  now  "make  us  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,"  although  it 
does  not,  this  side  of  the  grave,  deliver  us  from 
errors,  ignorances,  and  such  innocent  infirmities 
as  St.  Paul  gloried  in  without  detriment  to  his 
saintly  character.  Believing,  as  the  author  is 
not  ashamed  to  confess  with  tongue  and  type 
and  telegraph  and  telephone,  in  a  genuine 
CHRISTIAN  PERFECTION  —  a  Scriptural  term 


26  PREFACE. 

which  cannot  be  used  "  without  raising  the  pity 
or  indignation  of  one-half  of  the  religious 
world,  some  making  it  the  subject  of  their  pious 
sneers  "  —  he  views  with  sorrow  the  resurrec 
tion  of  that  spurious  perfection  which  wrought 
disastrous  effects  in  past  generations,  consisting 
in  an  imaginary  perfect  and  inalienable  stand 
ing  in  Christ  wholly  independent  of  moral  con 
duct  and  character,  the  outcome  of  which  must 
inevitably  be,  in  many  cases,  the  rejection  of 
God's  law  as  the  rule  of  life,  and  a  sad  lower 
ing  of  the  standard  of  Christian  morality.  It 
is  an  evil  omen  when  Christian  teachers  make 
eloquent  pleas  for  the  flesh,  and  fallaciously 
construct  ingenious  Scriptural  arguments  for 
indwelling  sin.  So  long  as  the  believer  dwells 
in  the  body,  such  preaching,  instead  of  inspiring 
unspeakable  abhorrence  for  sin,  deadens  men's 
sensibility  to  its  dreadful  nature  and  leads  them 
"  to  speak  of  the  corruptions  of  their  hearts  in 
as  unaffected  and  airy  a  manner,  as  if  they 
talked  of  freckles  upon  their  faces,  and  to  run 


PREFACE.  27 

down  their  sinful  nature  only  to  apologize  for 
their  sinful  practices ;  or  to  appear  great  profi 
cients  in  self-knowledge,  and  court  the  praise 
due  to  genuine  humility." 

We  have  noted  the  fact  that  a  school  of  pop 
ular  evangelists  have  espoused  the  doctrines 
which  lie  at  the  base  of  Antinomianism,  and 
that  they  are  zealously  inculcating  these  pecu 
liar  tenets  in  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa 
tions  and  summer  schools.  We  have  done  what 
we  could,  by  articles  in  our  Christian  periodi 
cals,  to  warn  the  public  of  the  certain  evil  re 
sults  which  will  ensue  when  these  doctrines  de 
scend  from  the  few  Christian  teachers  who,  by 
well-established  Christian  habits,  are  fortified 
against  their  pernicious  tendency,  to  the  multi 
tudes  of  weak  believers  who  may  be  ensnared 
to  their  moral  ruin  by  the  pleasing  doctrine 
that  one  act  of  faith  in  Christ  secures  a  perpet 
ual  exemption  from  condemnation,  and  a  life 
long  license  for  walking  in  the  flesh. 

Some  teachers  of  this  doctrine  may  live  in 


28  PREFACE. 

harmony  with  the  purest  ethical  precepts  of 
Christ,  under  what  Joseph  Cook  calls  "  heredi 
tary  momentum,"  and  a  personal  experience  of 
salvation  in  former  years,  before  embracing 
their  present  theological  errors.  But  what  will 
be  the  legitimate  fruit  in  those  who  give  full 
credence  to  a  theoretical  error  lying  so  near  to 
conduct  and  character,  and  who  are  without  the 
safeguards  of  which  we  have  just  spoken  ? 

From  our  knowledge  of  the  human  heart  we 
forebode  many  shipwrecks  of  moral  character. 
Men  generally  live  below  their  creeds  ;  few  rise 
above  them.  Illustration:  A  preacher  riding 
on  top  of  an  omnibus,  in  London,  addressed 
words  of  reproof  to  a  tipsy  man  by  his  side, 
who  was  using  very  improper  language,  and 
warned  him  as  a  transgressor  of  the  law  of  God. 
"  Oh,"  said  the  man,  "  it  is  not  by  works,  it  is  by 
faith,  and  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  of 
course  I  shall  be  saved."  Here  is  a  man,  a 
sample  of  myriads,  who  are  living  in  wilful  sin, 
dreaming  of  final  salvation  on  the  ground  of  a 


PREFACE.  29 

barren,  fruitless,  speculative  belief  that  Jesus 
Christ  died  for  their  salvation,  a  faith -which  no 
more  reforms  the  conduct  and  transforms  the 
character,  than  faith  in  the  existence  of  the  sea- 
serpent. 

The  fatal  mistake  is  in  ignoring  the  Scrip 
tural  test  of  saving  faith,  evangelical  works.  It 
is  true  that  the  penitent  believer  seeking  the 
pardon  of  sin  is  justified  by  faith  only.  But  it 
is  also  true  that  in  the  day  of  Judgment  the 
same  person  will  be  judged  by  works  only, 
works  which  attest  the  genuineness  of  his  faith 
(Jer.  xvii.  10 ;  xxxii.  19 ;  Ezek.  vii.  3,  27  ;  xviii. 
20,  30  ;  1  Cor.  iii.  8,  13-15 ;  2  Cor.  v.  10 ;  Gal. 
vi.  5-8;  especially  Matt.  xxv.  31-46). 

It  is  due  to  the  Christian  public  that  I  should 
acknowledge  my  sense  of  incompetency  for  the 
proper  handling  of  this  subject.  I  have  long 
waited  for  some  eminent  theologian  to  lift  up 
his  voice  in  refutation  of  a  system  of  error 
which  is  industriously  promoted  by  persons 
whose  zeal  is  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  At 


30  PREFACE. 

length  I  have  yielded  to  the  importunity  of 
many  Christian  men  to  expose  the  character 
and  tendencies  of  that  system  of  doctrines 
against  which  this  book  is  prayerfully  directed. 

I  have  made  a  free  use  of  that  great  armory 
of  weapons  —  "  Fletcher's  Checks  to  Antino- 
mianism."  Sometimes  I  have  quoted  sentences 
unchanged,  noting  them  with  quotation  marks. 
But  frequently  these  marks  could  not  be  used 
by  reason  of  the  alterations  which  I  have  made, 
either  to  abridge,  to  modernize,  or  to  eliminate 
some  personal  allusion. 

In  my  quotations  from  the  writings  of  the 
Plymouth  Brethren  and  their  sympathizers,  I 
have  endeavored  to  give  the  exact  idea  of  the 
writer  as  gathered  from  the  context. 

Whoever  of  my  Christian  friends  may  be 
grieved,  I  trust  that  the  great  day  will  reveal 
that  truth  has  not  been  wounded,  but  rather 
cleared  of  errors  and  set  forth  in  the  robes  of 
her  native  beauty. 


ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 


CHAPTER   I. 

ANTINOMIANISM  DEFINED. 

REV.  J.  FLETCHER  says,  "  An  Antinomian  is 
a  professor  of  Christianity,  who  is  antinomos, 
against  the  law  of  Christ,  as  well  as  against  the 
law  of  Moses.  He  allows  Christ's  law  to  be  a 
rule  of  life,  but  not  a  rule  of  judgment  for 
believers,  and  thus  he  destroys  that  law  at  a 
stroke,  as  a  law ;  it  being  evident  that  a  rule 
by  the  personal  observance  or  non-observance 
of  which  Christ's  subjects  can  never  be  acquit 
ted  or  condemned,  is  not  a  law  for  them. 
Hence  he  asserts  that  Christians  shall  no  more 
be  justified  before  God  by  their  personal  obedi- 


32  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

ence  to  the  law  of  Christ,  than  by  their  per 
sonal  obedience  to  the  ceremonial  law  of  Moses. 
Nay,  he  believes  that  the  best  of  Christians 
perpetually  break  Christ's  law ;  that  nobody 
ever  kept  it  but  Christ  Himself ;  and  that  we 
shall  be  justified  or  condemned  before  God,  in 
the  great  day,  not  as  we  shall  personally  be 
found  to  have  finally  kept  or  broken  Christ's 
law,  but  as  God  shall  be  found  to  have,  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  arbitrarily  laid,  or 
not  laid,  to  our  account,  the  merit  of  Christ's 
keeping  His  own  law.  Thus  he  hopes  to  stand 
in  the  great  day,  merely  by  what  he  calls/ 
'Christ's  imputed  righteousness';  excluding 
with  abhorrence,  from  our  final  justification, 
the  evangelical  worthiness  of  our  own  personal, 
sincere  obedience  of  repentance  and  faith,  —  a 
precious  obedience  this  which  he  calls  '  dung, 
dross,  and  filthy  rags-'  just  as  if  it  were  the 
insincere  obedience  of  self-righteous  pride,  and 
Pharisaic  hypocrisy.  Nevertheless,  though  he 
thus  excludes  the  evangelical,  derived  worthi- 


ANTINOMIAN1SM  DEFINED.  83 

ness  of  the  works  of  faith,  from  our  eternal 
justification  and  salvation,  he  himself  does 
good  works,  if  he  is  in  other  respects  a  good 
man.  Nay,  in  this  case,  he  piques  himself  on 
doing  them,  thinking  he  is  peculiarly  obliged  to 
make  people  believe  that,  immoral  as  his  senti 
ments  are,  they  draw  after  them  the  greatest 
benevolence  and  the  strictest  morality."  This 
reminds  us  of  the  testimony  of  a  Univer- 
salist  woman,  "  That  she  had  come  three  miles 
to  attend  this  prayer-meeting,  so  as  to  show 
that  the  Universalists  are  as  pious  as  the 
Orthodox." 

But  there  are  multitudes  carelessly  following 
the  stream  of  corrupt  nature  who  are  crying 
out,  not  against  the  unholiness,  but  against  the 
"  legality,  of  their  wicked  hearts,  which  still 
suggest  that  they  must  do  something,  in  order 
to  attain  eternal  life."  They  decry  that  evan 
gelical  legality  which  all  true  Christians  are  in 
love  with  —  a  cleaving  to  Christ  by  that  kind 
of  faith  which  works  righteousness  —  a  follow- 


34  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

ing  Him  as  He  went  about  doing  good,  and  a 
showing  by  St.  James'  works  that  we  have  St. 
Paul's  faith. 

The  consistent  Antinomian  —  that  is,  one 
whose  practice  accords  with  his  theory  —  is 
loud  in  his  proclamation  of  a  finished  eternal 
salvation,  the  blotting  out  of  his  sins,  past, 
present  and  future,  on  the  Cross  eighteen  hun 
dred  years  ago,  without  respect  to  his  own  con 
duct,  character,  or  works.  His  salvation  is  so 
finished  that  no  sins  can  ever  blot  his  name 
out  of  the  Book  of  Life.  He  thinks  that  the 
Son  of  God  magnified  the  law  that  we  might 
vilify  it;  that  He  made  it  honorable,  that  we 
might  make  it  contemptible ;  that  He  came  to 
fulfil  it,  that  we  might  be  discharged  from  ful 
filling  it,  according  to  our  capacity.  He  has 
no  sympathy  with  David's  confession  :  "  I  love 
Thy  commandments  above  gold  and  precious 
stones :  I  will  always  keep  Thy  law,  yea,  for 
ever  and  ever :  I  will  walk  at  LIBERTY,  for  [ 
seek  Thy  precepts." 


AJSTINOMIANISM   DEFINED.  35 

In  short,  the  creed  of  the  Antinoraian  is  this  : 
I  was  justified  when  Christ  died,  and  my 
faith  is  simply  a  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  I 
have  always  been  saved  —  a  realization  of  what 
was  done  before  I  had  any  being ;  that  a  be 
liever  is  not  bound  to  mourn  for  sin,  because  it 
was  pardoned  before  it  was  committed,  and 
pardoned  sin  is  no  sin ;  that  God  does  not  see 
sin  in  believers,  however  great  sins  they  com 
mit  ;  that  by  God's  laying  our  iniquities  upon 
Christ,  He  became  as  completely  sinful  as  I, 
and  I  as  completely  righteous  as  Christ.  More 
over,  I  believe  that  no  sin  can  do  a  believer  any 
ultimate  harm,  although  it  may  temporarily 
interrupt  communion  with  God.  I  must  not 
do  any  duty  for  my  own  salvation.  This  is 
included  in  the  new  covenant,  which  is  all  of 
it  a  promise,  having  no  condition  on  my  part. 
It  is  a  paid  up,  non-forfeitable,  eternal-life  in 
surance  policy.  Since  the  new  covenant  is  not 
properly  made  with  us,  but  with  Christ  for  us, 
the  conditions,  repentance,  faith,  and  obedience. 


36  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

are  not  on  our  side,  but  on  Christ's  side,  who 
repented,  believed,  and  obeyed,  in  such  a  way 
as  to  relieve  us  from  these  unpleasant  acts. 
Hence  it  is  folly  to  search  for  inward  marks  of 
grace,  and  it  is  a  fundamental  error  to  make 
sanctification  an  indispensable  evidence  of  justi 
fication  —  an  error  which  dampens  the  joys  of 
him  who  takes  Christ  for  his  sanctification,  and 
plunges  him  into  needless  alarms  and  distresses." 


CHAPTER  II. 

ANTINOMIANISM.  —  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 

THEOLOGICAL  errors  move  in  cycles,  some 
times  of  very  long  periods.  They  resemble 
those  comets  of  unknown  orbits  which  occa 
sionally  dash  into  our  solar  system ;  but  they 
are  not  as  harmless.  Often  they  leave  moral 
ruin  in  their  track.  Since  all  Christian  truth 
is  practical,  and  aims  at  the  moral  transforma 
tion  of  men,  all  negations  of  that  truth  are 
deleterious;  they  not  only  obscure  the  truth 
and  obstruct  its  purifying  effect,  but  they 
positively  corrupt  and  destroy  souls.  This  is 
specially  true  of  errors  which  release  men  from 
obligation  to  the  law  of  God.  After  St.  Paul 
had  demonstrated  the  impossibility  of  justifica 
tion  by  works  compensative  for  sin,  and  had 
established  the  doctrine  of  justification  through 

37 


38  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

a  faith  in  Christ  which  works  by  love  and 
purifies  the  heart,  there  started  up  a  class  of 
teachers  who  drew  from  Paul's  teachings  the 
fallacious  inference  that  the  law  of  God  is 
abolished  in  the  case  of  the  believer,  who  is 
henceforth  delivered  from  its  authority  as  the 
rule  of  life.  Hence  they  became,  what  Luther 
first  styled,  Antinomians  (Greek  anti,  against, 
and  nomos,  law).  We  infer  from  Rom.  iii.  8,  31 ; 
vi.  1 ;  Eph.  v.  6 ;  2  Peter  ii.  18,  19,  and  James 
ii.  17-26,  in  which  warnings  are  given  against 
a  perversion  of  the  truth  as  an  excuse  for  licen 
tiousness,  that  Antinomianism,  in  its  grosser 
form,  found  place  in  the  primitive  church.  All 
along  the  history  of  the  Church,  a  revival  of 
the  cardinal  doctrine  of  justification,  by  faith 
only,  has  been  followed  by  a  resurrection  of 
Antinomianism,  which  Wesley  defines  as  "  the 
doctrine  which  makes  void  the  law  through 
faith."  Those  who  aver  that  ultra-Calvinism 
is  the  invariable  antecedent  of  Antinomianism, 
would  be  unwilling  to  accept  the  necessary  in- 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  39 

ference  that  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  an 
ultra-Calvinist ;  yet  it  is  true  that  the  doctrines 
of  Calvinism  can  be  logically  pushed  to  that 
conclusion.  It  is  also  true  that  other  forms  of 
doctrine  which  emphasize  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
as  the  sole  ground  of  acceptance  with  God,  are 
more  or  less  liable  to  have  the  tares  of  Antino- 
mianism  spring  up  in  their  field. 

The  root  of  this  error  lies  in  a  false  view  of 
the  mediatorial  work  of  Christ,  that  He  per 
forms  for  men  the  obedience  which  they  ought 
to  perform,  and  that  God  can  justly  demand 
nothing  further  from  the  delinquents.  It  is 
claimed  that  Christ's  perfect  virtues  are  reck 
oned  to  the  believer  in  such  a  way  as  to  excuse 
him  for  their  absence ;  His  chastity  compensat 
ing  for  the  absence  of  that  moral  quality  in  the 
believer.  Hence,  adultery  and  murder  in  King 
David,  being  compensated  by  the  purity  aud 
benevolence  of  Jesus  imputed  to  him  in  the 
mind  of  God,  did  not  mar  David's  standing  us 
righteous  before  God. 


40  AXTIXOMLLSfISM  REVIVED. 

Theologians  who  state  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  with  proper  safeguards,  are  careful 
to  limit  its  vicarious  efficacy  to  the  passive  obe 
dience  of  the  Son  of  God,  His  sufferings  and 
death.  His  active  obedience  constitutes  no  part 
of  His  substitutional  work.  The  germ  of 
Antinomianism  is  found  in  the  inclusion  of  the 
latter  in  the  atonement.  It  is  true  that  the 
God-man  was  actively  obedient  to  the  Father's 
will,  but  this  obedience  was  personal,  and  not 
mediatorial.  Hence,  every  one  justified  through 
faith  in  the  shed  blood  of  Christ,  is  under  obli 
gation  to  render  personal  obedience  to  God's 
law.  In  this  respect  Jesus  cannot  be  his  proxy 
or  representative. 

Says  Bishop  Hopkins:  "Though  Christ's 
bearing  the  punishment  of  the  law  by  death 
does  exempt  us  from  suffering,  yet  His  obeying 
of  the  law  does  not  excuse  obedience  to  the 
law.  He  obeyed  the  law  as  a  covenant  of 
works  —  we  only  as  a  rule  of  righteousness." 

It  should  be  said  that  the  Gnostic  sects  were 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH.  4.1 

Antinomian  on  other  grounds.  They  held  that 
their  spiritual  natures  could  not  contract  moral 
pollution,  whatever  their  moral  conduct  might 
be,  sin  inhering  only  in  matter.  As  a  piece  of 
gold  retains  its  purity  while  encompassed  by 
the  filth  of  the  swine-sty,  so  the  soul  keeps  pure 
amid  the  grossest  sins.  This  species  of  Anti- 
nomianism  was  not  limited  to  those  who  pro 
fessed  faith  in  Christ.  It  was  adopted  by  all 
who  held  that  all  evil  inheres  in  •  uncreated 
matter. 

Modern  Universalism  is  only  another  form  of 
Antinomianism.  It  is  the  expectation  of  salva 
tion  through  Christ,  without  obedience  to  either 
the  law  or  the  Gospel. 

Christianity  was  very  early  disfigured  by  an- 
tinomianism,  a  doctrinal  and  practical  error 
which  opposes  itself  to  God's  law  even  in  the 
evangelical  form  in  which  it  was  defined  by  His 
adorable  Son,  "  Thou  shalt  love  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  This 
had  been  the  burden  of  Christ's  preaching,  with 


42  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  hint  that  His  own  life  was  to  be  given,  as  a 
ransom  for  many,  and  to  secure  grace  to  enable 
them  to  fulfil  God's  law.  The  apostles,  by 
precept  and  example,  powerfully  enforced  their 
Lord's  doctrine  and  practice.  Their  lives  are 
true  copies  of  their  exhortations.  It  is  hard  to 
say  which  excite  men  most  tQ/  believe  and 
obey,  their  seraphic  sermons  or  their  saintly 
lives.  Success  crowned  their  labors.  Both  Ju 
daism  and  paganism  heard  the  thunder  of  their 
words  of  faith  and  fell  prostrate  beneath  the 
lightning  of  their  works  of  love.  But  before 
all  is  lost,  Satan  hastens  to  "  transform  himself 
into  an  angel  of  light."  In  this  disguise  he  in 
stills  speculativ e  faith,  instead  of  a  saving  faith 
which  works  by  love,  purifies  the  heart,  and 
overcomes  the  world ;  he  pleads  for  loose  living, 
puts  the  badge  of  contempt  upon  the  daily 
cross,  and  gets  multitudes  of  Laodiceans  and 
Gnostics  into  his  snare.  Sad  and  sure  is  the 
result.  Genuine  works  of  faith  are  neglected ; 
idle  works  of  men's  invention  are  substituted 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  43 

for  those  of  God's  commandments ;  and  fallen 
churches,  gliding  downward  through  the  smooth 
way  of  antinomianism,  return  to  the  covert  way 
of  Phariseeism,  or  to  the  broad  way  of  infidel- 
ity. 

Such  was  the  distressing  outlook  upon  the 
church  when  Luther  arose.  True  faith  was  de 
throned  by  superstitious  fancy,  and  works  were 
will  nigh  choked  by  the  thorns  of  this  baneful 
error.  Luther  swung  the  sharp  scythe  of  re 
form  over  northern  Europe,  and  he  might  have 
mowed  a  broad  swath  through  Italy  and  Rome 
itself,  if  he  had  not  at  the  same  time  scattered 
the  dragons  teeth  of  antinomianism,  which 
sprang  up  around  his  German  home  an  army 
of  armed  men.  The  balance  of  evangelical 
precepts  had  not  been  preserved  in  preaching 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  by  faith  only,  without 
adding  that  this  faith  is  genuine  only  when  it 
buds,  blossoms,  and  bears  the  fruitage  of  holy 
character. 

Our  Lord's  sermon  upon  the  Mount,  was  ex- 


44  ANTESTOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

plained  away,  and  St.  James'  Epistle  was  wished 
out  of  the  Bible  as  an  "  epistle  of  straw,"  and 
not  of  the  precious  stones  of  Gospel  truth.  The 
practicable  law  of  Christ,  styled  the  law  of  lib 
erty,  because  of  the  ease  with  which  it  could 
be  kept  by  a  regenerate  soul  entirely  sanctified 
through  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  was 
perpetually  confounded  with  that  impracticable 
Christless  law  of  Edenic  innocence  ;  and  the 
avoidable  penalties  of  the  former  were  injudic 
iously  represented  as  one  with  the  dreadful 
curse  of  the  latter,  or  with  the  abrogated  cere 
monies  of  Mosaism.  Then  the  law  of  Christ 
demanding  purity  and  love  was  publicly  wedded 
to  the  devil,  and  poor  bewildered  Protestants 
were  taught  to  defy  and  scoff  at  both.  From 
such  a  seed-sowing  the  dreadful  harvest  waved 
over  Germany.  Lawless  believers,  under  the 
name  of  Ana-Baptists,  arose  fancying  them 
selves  the  dear  elect  people  of  God,  reasoning 
thus :  "  First,  the  earth  belongs  to  the  saints, 
and,  secondly,  we  are  the  saints."  All  things 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  45 

were  theirs.  They  were  complete  in  Christ, 
and  absolutely  sure  of  salvation  by  reason  of 
their  standing  in  Him.  They  went  about  in 
religious  mobs  to  deliver  people  from  legal 
bondage,  and  bring  them  into  G-ospel  liberty,— 
a  liberty  to  despise  all  laws,  Divine  and  human, 
and  to  do  every  one  what  was  right  in  his  own 
eyes.  Luther  was  alarmed  and  shocked.  He 
hastened  from  his  concealment  in  the  castle  of 
the  Wartburg,  to  check  a  movement  which  was 
disgracing  the  Reformation.  But  the  mischief 
was  done :  the  thistle-seed  had  been  broadcast 
over  Germany.  The  only  proper  remedy  he 
did  riot  perseveringly  apply :  salvation,  not  by 
the  merit  of  works,  but  by  the  works  of  faith, 
as  a  condition,  and  as  a  proof  of  its  genuine 
ness  in  the  great  day.  Men  are  now  justified 
from  the  guilt  of  sin  by  a  work  producing  faith. 
They  will  be  justified  in  the  day  of  judgment 
only  on  the  testimony  of  faith-produced  works. 
Nevertheless,  Luther  learned  wisdom  enough 
to  abandon  the  root  of  the  mischief  when  he 


46  ATINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

drew  up,  or,  rather,  indorsed,  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  in  which  are  these  remarkable 
words  :  "  We  teach  touching  repentance,  that 
those  who  have  sinned  after  baptism  may  ob 
tain  the  forgiveness  of  sins  as  often  as  they  are 
converted,"  etc.  Again :  "  We  condemn  the 
Anabaptists,  who  say  that  those  who  have  been 
once  justified  can  no  more  lose  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

This  antidote  of  Gospel  truth,  clearly  and 
frequently  enforced,  might  have  stopped  the 
spread  of  Antinomianism.  But  Luther  did  not 
insist  upon  it ,  vascillated,  and  sometimes 
seemed  even  to  contradict  it.  When  Calvin 
arose,  though  he  seldom  went  the  length  of 
some  of  his  followers  in  the  next  century  in 
speculative  Antinomianism,  yet  he  laid  excel 
lent  foundations  for  it  in  his  un-Scriptural  and 
unguarded  doctrine  of  absolute  decrees,  and  of 
the  necessary,  final  perseverance  of  backsliding 
believers. 

We  have  hinted  that  Antinomianism  has  had 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH.  47 

its  cycles  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  Its 
full  development,  since  the  Reformation,  is  due 
to  John  Agricola  (1492-1566),  one  of  the  early 
coadjutors  of  Luther,  some  of  whose  expres 
sions,  as  to  justification  and  the  law,  in  the 
heat  of  his  great  controversy  with  Rome,  were 
hasty,  extravagant,  and  quite  Antinomian. 
These  utterances  Agricola  developed  into  a 
system  so  extreme,  and  so  subversive  of 
Christian  morals,  that  he  published  in  1537 
these  words  :  "  Art  thou  steeped  in  sin  —  an 
adulterer  or  a  thief?  If  thou  believest,  thou 
art  in  salvation.  All  who  follow  Moses  must 
go  to  the  devil;  to  the  gallows  with  Moses." 
This  was  the  kind  of  tares  sown  in  Luther's 
field  by  a  professed  friend.  Luther  attacked 
him  violently,  calling  him  a  fanatic,  and  other 
hard  names.  After  Agricola's  death,  Amsdorf 
and  Otto  advocated  his  doctrines,  and  main 
tained  that  good  works  are  an  obstacle  to  salva 
tion.  Similar  sentiments  were  preached  in 
England  in  the  days  of  Oliver  Cromwell.  But 


48  AOTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

it  remained  for  Dr.  Crisp,  (1600-1642),  a  rector 
of  the  Church  of  England,  to  give  this  error  its 
full  development  in  Anglican  theology,  from 
the  seed-corn  of  high  Galvanism.  The  follow 
ing  sentiments  abound  in  his  sermons :  "  The 
law  is  cruel  and  tyrannical,  requiring  what  is 
naturally  impossible."  "  The  sins  of  the  elect 
were  so  imputed  to  Christ,  as  that,  though  He 
did  not  commit  them,  yet  they  became  actually 
His  transgressions,  and  ceased  to  be  theirs. 
The  feelings  of  conscience  which  tell  them  that 
sin  is  theirs,  arise  from  a  want  of  knowing  the 
truth.  It  is  but  the  voice  of  a  lying  spirit  in 
the  hearts  of  believers  that  saith  they  have  yet 
sin  wasting  their  conscience,  and  lying  as  a 
burden  too  heavy  for  them  to  bear.  Christ's 
righteousness  is  so  imputed  to  the  elect,  that 
they,  ceasing  to  be  sinners,  are  as  righteous  as 
He  was,  and  all  that  He  was.  An  elect  person 
is  not  in  a  condemned  state  while  an  unbe 
liever  ;  and  should  he  happen  to  die  before  God 
calls  him  to  believe,  he  would  not  be  lost. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  49 

Repentance  and  confession  of  sin  are  not  neces 
sary  to  forgiveness.  A  believer  may  certainly 
conclude  before  confession,  yea,  as  soon  as  he 
hath  committed  sin,  the  interest  he  hath  in 
Christ,  and  the  love  of  Christ  embracing  him." 

This  doctrine  completely  destroys  the  dis 
tinction  between  right  and  wrong,  and  removes 
all  motives  to  abstain  from  sin.  It  boasts  in 
the  perseverance  of  the  saints,  while  it  believes 
in  no  saint  but  one,  that  is,  Jesus,  and  neglects 
to  persevere.  Several  vigorous  theologians 
opposed  this  baneful  doctrine,  the  chief  of 
whom  were  Baxter  and  Williams,  who,  after 
heroic  efforts  and  no  small  suffering,  finally 
triumphed. 

The  next  revival  of  Antinomianism  in  the 
Church  of  England  and  among  the  dissenters, 
was  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  was  met 
most  courageously  by  John  Wesley,  the  apostle 
of  experimental  godliness  and  of  Christian  per 
fection,  and  by  the  seraphic  John  Fletcher, 
whose  writings,  says  Dr.  Dolliuger,  "are  the 


50  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

most  important  theological  productions  which 
issued  from  Protestanism  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century."  His  reasoning  is  co 
gent,  his  imagination  vivid,  his  style  clear  and  in 
cisive,  and  the  momentum  of  his  arguments  is  so 
irresistible  that  he  swept  the  field,  driving  Anti- 
nomianism  out  of  England  during,  at  least,  two 
generations.  His  "Checks"  stand  to-day  un 
answered  and  unanswerable.  No  man  can  read 
them  with  candor  and  continue  to  deny  the 
obligation  of  believers  to  strict  obedience  to 
the  law  of  God ;  that  inwrought  holiness  is  the 
requirement  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  there  is  no 
sharp  contrast  between  it  and  the  law. 

A  thorough  study  of  these  "  Checks,"  by  the 
ministry  in  our  times,  would  wonderfully  stim 
ulate  their  spiritual  life,  tone  up  their  theology, 
and  furnish  them  with  the  weapons  for  the  con 
flict  with  the  cycle  of  Antinomian  error  which 
is  now  upon  the  Church. 

The  agency  through  which  this  heresy,  en 
tombed  by  Fletcher,  lias  had  its  resurrection, 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH.  51 

is  the  so-called  Plymouth  Brethren,  whose 
peculiar  tenets  will  be  described  in  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  m. 

THE     PLYMOUTH   BKETHEEN. 

WHAT  are  the  Plymouth  Brethren  ?  This  is 
a  question  which  many  people  are  asking.  An 
old  lady  at  Hamilton  camp-meeting  Last  year, 
hearing  the  writer  comment  on  one  of  their 
doctrines,  indignantly  left  the  audience,  ex 
claiming,  "I  have  heard  enough  of  the  Ply 
mouth  Brethren  and  Beecher,  too  !  "  She  was 
thinking  of  the  Plymouth  Church  in  Brooklyn. 

The  Plymouth  Brethren  originated  in  Dub 
lin,  Ireland,  about  the  year  1830,  and  almost 
simultaneously  in  Plymouth,  England.  In  the 
latter  place  they  increased  so  rapidly  that  they 
once  numbered  1,500.  Hence  they  are  called 
by  outsiders  Plymouth  Brethren.  Although 
they  do  not  repudiate  the  word  "  Plymouth,'' 

52 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BEETHREN.       53 

they  style  themselves  "  The  Brethren."  Their 
leading  mind,  if  not  their  original  founder, 
who  died  a  few  years  ago  at  an  advanced  age,  is 
John  Darby.  Hence  they  are  sometimes  called 
Darbyites.  The  movement  was  at  first  a  pro 
test  against  ecclesiasticism,  like  that  of  George 
Fox,  the  first  Quaker.  Darby,  a  clergyman  in 
the  Church  of  England,  renounced  the  Church, 
and  assumed  that  all  existing  Church  organiza 
tions  are  a  detriment  to  Christianity,  and 
obstructive  of  regeneration  and  the  spiritual 
life.  His  little  band  of  adherents  claim  to  be 
a  reproduction  of  the  primitive  disciples  —  the 
only  genuine  specimens  on  earth.  They  refuse 
to  take  any  distinctive  name,  and  disavow  that 
they  are  a  sect.  They  call  themselves  the 
Brethren,  as  if  they  were  the  only  persons  in 
the  bonds  of  Christian  brotherhood.  They 
are  all  priests  and  all  laymen.  They  insist  thai 
in  Christianity  there  is  no  specially  called  and 
ordained  ministerial  order.  In  this  they  resem 
ble  the  Friends ;  but,  unlike  them,  they  lay 


54  ANTHTOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

great  stress  upon  ordinances,  especially  the 
Lord's  Supper.  This  they  celebrate  alone  by 
themselves  every  Lord's  day,  and  it  constitutes 
the  chief  part  of  their  worship.  To  find  out 
whether  they  are  a  sect,  i.  e.,  a  fragment  cut 
ting  itself  from  the  general  Church  of  Christ, 
I  once  asked  Mr.  Darby  whether  I  would  be 
permitted  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with 
them  if  I  should  present  myself.  He  replied 
that  I  would  be  allowed  to  partake,  if  I  should 
correctly  answer  certain  doctrinal  questions. 
The  other  "  Brethren  "  present  strongly  dissent 
ed  from  such  liberality,  and  intimated  close 
communion.  Hence,  while  denouncing  all 
schisms  and  sects,  they  are  a  sect  of  the  straight- 
est  and  most  exclusive  kind.  They  baptize 
by  immersion  only.  Meetings  for  worship  in 
cluding  only  believers,  are  entirely  different 
from  meetings  for  preaching  where  the  unre- 
generate  are  permitted  to  be  present.  They 
talk  much  about  separation  unto  God,  by  which 
they  mean  abandonment  of  ecclesiastical  organ- 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       55 

izations ,  and  politics  even,  refraining  from 
voting,  insisting  on  deadness  to  the  world  and 
entire  devotion  to  God,  by  going  forth  and 
preaching  Christ  wherever  they  can  get  a 
hearer.  They  make  constant  use  of  the  Bible 
in  private  and  in  public,  or,  rather,  of  a  certain 
line  of  texts,  interpreted  to  sustain  their  pecu 
liar  tenets.  Professing  to  rely  only  on  the 
Word  of  God,  you  will  find  them  all  equipped 
with  the  commentaries  of  Mclntosh,  Darby, 
and  others.  To  propagate  their  doctrines  they 
scatter  many  tracts  and  small  expository  books. 
Several  years  ago,  D.  L.  Moody  learned  his 
method  of  Bible-study  and  Bible-readings  from 
the  English  Plymouth  Brethren.  In  his  eager 
ness  to  attain  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  he 
made  his  first  voyage  to  Europe,  attracted  by 
the  fame  of  these  students  of  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures.  Hence  they  claim  him  as  a  product  of 
their  system.  In  his  earnest  exhortation  to 
converts  to  join  some  church,  he  certainly 
repudiates  Plymouth  come-out-ism,  an4  h<?  en> 


55  ANTIXOMIAXISM  EEVIVED. 

phatically  disclaims  some  of  the  theological 
tenets  of  the  Brethren.  Just  how  far  he 
accords  with  them  we  do  not  know.  He 
adopts  their  milleimarianism,  and  preaches  the 
personal  reign  of  Christ  on  the  earth  as  a  sub 
stitute  for  the  present  agency  of  the  Spirit 
and  of  preaching,  which  are  regarded  as  inade 
quate  for  the  successful  evangelization  of  the 
whole  world,  arid  the  reconstruction  of  society 
on  a  Christian  basis.  His  declaration  that  the 
world  is  like  a  ship  so  hopelessly  wrecked  that 
it  cannot  be  gotten  off  the  rocks,  but  must  be 
left  to  perish,  while  Christians  rescue  as  many 
of  the  passengers  as  possible,  is  a  pessimistic 
Plymouth  idea. 

Jii  England  the  Brethren  are  quite  numerous 
and  influential.  Some,  as  Tregelles  are  very 
scholarly.  Such  men  as  Varley,  Lord  llad- 
stoek,  Blackstone,  and  Muller,  are  either  pro 
fessed  Brethren,  or  arc  in  strong  sympathy  with 
them.  They  have  missionaries  in  India  whose 
disorganizing  influence  has  given  our  Methodist 


THE   PLYMOUTH   BRETHREN.  57 

missionaries  some  trouble,  and  has  caused  one 
secession,  and  the  loss  of  several  promising 
missionary  stations.  The  Wesleyan  Methodist 
societies  in  Lausanne  and  Vevay,  in  Switzer 
land,  at  one  time  suffered  great  loss  through 
the  bewilderment  caused  by  the  preaching  of 
Mr.  Darby  against  their  doctrine  of  Christian 
perfection,  and  their  use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
The  leaven  of  their  doctrines  has  already  spread 
widely  in  America,  and  their  theological  tenets 
are  preached  by  leading  ministers  in  Boston, 
New  York,  St.  Louis,  and  other  cities,  while 
their  theories  of  Church  organization  are 
rejected. 

The  Brethren,  having  no  written  creed  and 
no  Church  discipline,  are  exposed  to  constant 
schisms,  so  that  there  are  several  sorts  in 
England,  and  two  sets  in  Boston  at  the  present 
time  who  repudiate  each  other  quite  cordially. 
The  anti-Darby  party  aver  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
lias  drawn  the  portrait  of  John  Darby  in  3  John 
9,  10.  But  in  the  worst  of  their  theological 


58  ANTINOMIANISM  KEVTVED. 

tenets  they  are  quite  generally  agreed  —  their 
Antinomianism.  We  have  heard  Mr.  Darby 
say  that  if  any  man  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  law  of  God,  even  to  obey  it,  he  was  a  sin 
ner  by  that  very  act. 

Their  primal  error  seems  to  be  in  their  con 
ception  of  the  Atonement.  They  teach  that 
sin,  as  a  kind  of  personality,  was  condemned  on 
the  cross  of  Christ  and  put  away  forever. 
Whose  sins?  Those  of  the  believer.  All  his 
sins  past,  present,  and  future,  are  "judged" 
and  swept  away  forever  in  the  Atonement,  and 
the  believer  is  to  have  no  more  concern  for  his 
past  or  future  sins,  since  they  were  blotted  out 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  Here  is  their 
most  •  mischievous  tenet  respecting  faith  and 
its  relation  to  the  Atonement  and  to  eternal  life : 
The  first  momentary  act  of  faith  renders  the 
Atonement  eternally  available,  and  without  any 
further  conditions  infallibly  secures  everlasting 
life.  Hence  the  younger  Dr.  Tyng,  in  a  recent 
sermon  odorous  of  Plymouth,  declared  that  in 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       59 

that  act  of  faith  the  believer's  "  responsibility 
ends."  This  must  mean  that  his  probation 
ceases,  his  eternal  salvation  having  been  abso 
lutely  secured. 

The  object  grasped  by  faith  is  not  so  much 
Jesus  Christ,  a  present  Saviour,  as  His  finished 
work  of  condemning  and  putting  away  sin  on 
the  cross.  "  Faith  grasps  only  past  and  finished 
acts."  Intellectual  assent  to  these  historical 
facts,  the  atonement  of  Christ  judging  my  sin, 
and  His  resurrection  as  the  proof  thereof,  con 
stitutes  saving  faith. 

Their  view  of  the  Atonement  is  the  old  and 
exploded  commercial  theory  —  so  much  suffer 
ing  by  Christ  equals  so  much  suffering  by  the 
sinners  saved  by  Christ.  With  this  theory  of 
the  Atonement,  they  cannot  proclaim  its  uni 
versality  without  teaching  Universalism.  So 
they  make  a  distinction  between  the  death  of 
Christ  for  all,  and  the  blood  of  Christ  shed 
only  for  those  who  are,  through  faith,  sprinkled 
and  cleansed  thereby.  By  this  means  God 


60  ANTIKOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

saves  believers,  and  presents  "an  aspect  of 
mercy  "  toward  all  mankind. 

Their  idea  of  justification  is  not  that  it  is  a 
present  act,  taking  place  in  the  mind  of  God  in 
favor  of  the  penitent  believer,  but  it  is  a  past, 
completed,  wholesale  transaction  on  Calvary 
ages  ago.  Faith  puts  a  man  into  the  realization 
of  the  fact  that  all  his  foreseen  sins  were  then 
cast  behind  God's  back  forever,  and  that  he 
has  a  through  ticket  to  heaven. 

In  regeneration,  the  new  man  is  created  in 
the  believer,  and  the  old  man  remains  with  al). 
his  powers  unchanged.  Mr.  Darby  asserted  to 
the  writer  that  after  more  than  fifty  years  of 
Christian  experience  he  found  the  old  man  in 
himself  worse  than  he  was  at  his  regeneration. 
Says  Mclntosh :  "  It  is  no  part  of  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  improve  human  nature,"  — 
that  seems  to  be  past  praying  for,  —  but  to 
make  a  brand-new  man  to  dwell  in  the  same 
body  with  the  old  man  till  physical  death  lucki 
ly  comes  and  kills  the  old  Adam  who  had  sue- 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       61 

cessfully  defied  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth 
effectually  to  crucify  him.  Henceforth  the  new 
man  has  the  entire  possession  of  the  disem 
bodied  soul.  How  different  this  from  a  holi 
ness  bearing  its  heavenly  fruit  this  side  of  the 
grave  (Luke  i.  74,  75;  Rom.  vi.  6,  19,  22;  2 
Cor.  vii.  7,  2;  1  Thess.  iii.  13;  iv.  7;  ii.  10; 
Heb.  xii.  10,  14 ;  Col.  ii.  11  (Rev.  Ver.)  ;  1 
John  iv.  17).  The  only  Scripture  cited  for 
this  doctrine  of  death  sanctification  is  Rom.  vi. 
7 :  "He  that  is  dead  is  free  from  sin."  This 
evidently  means  (see  verse  6),  he  who  has  died 
unto  sin  is  freed  or  justified  (Rev.  Ver.)  from 
sin.  This  text,  found  by  the  "Brethren," 
escaped  the  keen  eyes  of  the  whole  West 
minster  Assembly,  who  could  find  nothing  in 
proof  of  this  point  better  than  Heb.  xii,  23 : 
"  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,"  assum 
ing  the  point  in  proof  that  they  were  made 
perfect  in  death.  The  Greek  scholar  will  note 
that  the  text  reads,  not  "  perfected  spirits,"  but 
the  '*  spirits  of  perfected  just  (men),"  implying 


62  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

perfection  in  this  life.  Yet  the  old  man  is  to  be 
quite  vigorously  choked  down  and  kept  under  till 
death  comes  to  the  rescue  and  brings  that  good 
riddance  which  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit,  could  not  bestow.  He  is  to  be  reckoned 
as  dead  by  a  kind  of  pious  fiction,  though  he  is 
as  lusty  and  vigorous  as  ever.  That  Scripture 
which  says  "  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be 
destroyed "  is  explained  to  signify,  "  be  re 
pressed  "  and  "  rendered  inactive  "  ;  and  those 
Scriptures  in  which  the  old  man,  or  the  flesh,  is 
to  be  crucified,  mortified,  or  killed,  are  all 
understood  to  imply  a  life-long  torture  on  the 
cross  —  a  killing  that  continues  through  scores 
of  years.  Says  J.  Denham  Smith,  a  conspicu 
ous  Plymouth  theologian,  in  a  standard  theo 
logical  tract :  "  The  two  natures  remain  in  him 
unchanged.  His  old  nature  is  not  modified  or 
ameliorated  by  the  impartation  of  the  new; 
nor,  on  the  other  hand,  does  the  new  nature 
become  soiled  or  corrupted  by  reason  of  its 
co-existence  in  the  same  being  with  the  old. 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.        63 

They  remain  the  same.  There  is  no  blending 
or  amalgamation.  They  are  essentially  and 
eternally  distinct.  The  old  nature  is  unalter 
ably  and  incurably  corrupt,  while  the  new 
nature  is  divinely  pure  in  its  essence." 

This  doctrine  of  the  two  natures  is  not  com 
pletely  stated  till  the  fact  is  brought  out  that 
neither  is  regarded  as  responsible  for  the  acts  of 
the  other.  For  they  are  conceived  of  as  per 
sons.  If  the  flesh  of  the  believer  behaves 
badly,  that  is  none  of  the  believer's  business. 
He  does  not  live  in  that  department  of  his 
being,  and  hence  has  no  responsibility  for  its 
evil  deeds.  The  "  flesh  was  condemned  on  the 
cross  and  is  under  sentence,"  why  should  I 
worry  about  it  ?  This  reminds  us  of  the  story 
of  the  English  bishop  and  his  servant,  who 
reproved  him  for  profanity.  The  bishop,  who 
\vas  a  member  of  the  house  of  lords,  replied, 
that  he  swore  as  a  lord,  not  as  a  bishop. 
"  But,"  queried  the  servant,  "  when  the  devil 
gets  the  lord,  what  will  become  of  the  bishop  ?  " 


64  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

The  favorite  method  of  exegesis  of  1  John 
iii.  9,  is  to  substitute  "  whatsoever  "  for  "  who 
soever,"  and  to  say,  "  that  part  of  our  nature 
that  is  born  of  God  does  not  commit  sin,"  the 
unregenerate  part  will  continue  to  sin.  This 
is  the  style  of  exegesis :  "  We  have  a  right 
to  read  the  text  thus :  '  Wliatsoever  is  born 
of  God  doth  not  sin.'  We  are  double  creatures 
all  the  way  through.  That  part  of  us  that  is 
born  of  God  does  not  sin.  Sin  is  decreasing ; 
righteousness  is  growing.  So  we  need  not  feel 
discouraged  if  we  find  ourselves  going  astray, 
if  the  purpose  of  our  heart  is  toward  God.  We 
are  confident  of  constant  progression  —  sure  of 
being  better  in  the  other  life  than  here.  It  is 
always  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that 
the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  The  Apostle  tells  us 
that  religion  brings  us  great  assurance.  We 
know  we  shall  be  like  Him  —  how  little  like 
Him  now  !  We  are  a  long  way  from  the  per 
fect  pattern  of  Christ,  of  being  like  Him  in 
character,  with  not  a  stain  upon  the  soul's 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BEETHEEN.       G5 

whiteness.  Feed  your  soul  on  the  thought  of 
better  things  to  come.  Look  for  the  hour 
when  He  shall  appear  and  we  shall  be  like 
Him." 

At  this  point  the  following  questions  are  per 
tinent  :  — 

1.  Have  we  any  right  to  lower  the  standard 
of  character  required  in  the  Scriptures  to  suit 
the  state  of  "  those  who  are  called  Christians  "  ? 
Is  not  such  an  expounder  guilty  of  a  perversion 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ? 

2.  How  high  a  rank  is  that  theology  entitled 
to  which  discrowns  man  in  order  to  save  him  ; 
which  changes  him  from  a  "  who  "  to  a  "  what," 
from  a  person  to  a  thing,  in  order  to  keep  him 
from  sinning?     Does  such  a  theology  empha 
size  the  sacredness  and  dignity  of  man  ?     Does 
it  honor  the  Holy  Spirit  to  teacli  that  He  be 
gets  impersonal  "  whatsoevers,"  instead  of  per 
sonal  "  whomsoevers  "  ? 

3.  In  the  light  of  this  exposition,  what  be 
comes  of  St.  John's  sharply  defined  line  sepa- 


60  ANTINOMLAJSTISM  REVIVED. 

rating  "  the  children  of  God  "  and  "  the  chil 
dren  of  the  devil"?  For  in  the  very  next 
verse  to  the  text  he  says :  "  In  this  "  —  the 
fact  of  not  sinning  — "  the  children  of  God 
are  manifest,  and  the  children  of  the  devil  "  — 
in  the  fact  of  their  sinning.  This  exposition 
not  only  "  tears  down  the  fence  between  the 
Lord's  garden  and  the  devil's  common,"  but  it 
actually  binds  up  the  child  of  God  and  the 
child  of  the  devil  in  a  single  personality,  im 
possible  to  be  classified  either  with  the  right 
eous  or  the  wicked. 

4.  Is   the   human   being   of    such   a   double 
nature  that  a  part  of  him  may  be  holy,  and  a 
part  commit  sin  ? 

5.  Is  not  the  action  of  the  free  will  an  ele 
ment  of  every  moral  act,  and  can  the  will  at 
one  and  the  same  time  sin  and  abstain  from 
sin? 

6.  If  such  a  moral  philosophy  is  good  in  the 
pulpit,  would  it  not  be  good  at  the  bar?     Could 
uot    the   lawyer  plead    that   the   part   of   the 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       67 

accused  which  is  born  of  God  is  innocent  of 
the  crime,  and  that  it  is  only  the  unregenerate 
part  that  has  done  the  mischief,  and  therefore 
the  regenerate  part  should  be  acquitted  ? 

Would  not  any  judge,  endowed  with  average 
common  sense,  sentence  the  unregeuerate  part 
to  the  gallows,  and  tell  the  regenerate  part  to 
look  out  for  itself?  The  soul  that  sinneth  — 
the  undivided  soul  —  it  shall  die. 

7.  Is  there  any  analogy  in  the  natural  world 
for  a  partial  birth  —  a  part  being  born  at  one 
time  and  a  part  forty  or  fifty  years  afterward  ? 
A  hearer    of    this    exposition    very   properly 
asks   me   the    question :    "  What   if    a   person 
should  die  before  he  gets  wholly  born  ?  " 

8.  Is  the  expounder  right  in  his  interpretation 
of  assurance,  that  it  does  not  relate  to  present 
knowledge  of  forgiveness  and  of  entire  sanctifi- 
cation,  but   to   the   final   perseverance   of  the 
saints  ?     Does  it  not  always  relate  to  a  knowl 
edge    of    our    present    acceptance   with    God, 
except  this  one  expression,  "  the  assurance  of 
hope"? 


68  ANTINOMIASTISM  REVIVED. 

9.  Is  freedom  from  sin  ever  presented  as  an 
object  of  hope  in  the  future  ?     Is  entire  sancti- 
fication  ever  classified  with  the  good  things  to 
come,  such  as  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  the 
resurrection  and  glorification  of  the  body,  and 
the  rewards  of  Heaven  ? 

10.  Does  not  St.  John,  in  this  very  epistle, 
declare,  that  as  Jesus  is,  so  are  Christians  in  this 
world  ?     Does  the  likeness  of  Christ  which  be 
lievers  shall   have   when   they  shall    see  Him, 
consist  in  the  fact  of  their  being  then  sancti 
fied,  or  rather  in  the  fact  of  both  soul  and  body 
then  glorified  ? 

11.  Our  last  question  is  this  :    Is  Antinomian- 
ism  getting  up  out  of  its  grave  in  New  Eng 
land  ?    For  the  innermost  essence  of  this  error  is, 
that  it  destroys  human  responsibility  for  sin,  by 
saddling  it  all  upon  the  flesh, ."  the  old  man,"  who 
turns  out  at  last  a  mere  mythical  person  who 
cannot  be  found  in  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

We  are  impressed,  in  reading  the  Plymouth 
writings,  with  the  perpetual    confusion  of  the 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       69 

term,  "  sinful  flesh,"  with  the  body,  as  though 
sin  could  be  predicated  of  the  material  part  of 
man.  Some  even  speak  of  the  hand  and  the 
foot  as  committing  sin.  Thus  the  old  error  of 
Oriental  philosophy  and  of  Gnosticism,  that 
inherent  and  unconquerable  evil  lurks  in  matter, 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  Plymouth  theology. 

Of  course  they  strenuously  antagonize  in 
wrought  and  personal  holiness  as  an  utter  im 
possibility,  since  the  old  man  has  a  lease  of  the 
soul  which  does  not  expire  till  death.  Yet 
they  insist  that  they  are  perfectly  holy  in  Christ 
"up  there,"  while  perfectly  carnal  and  corrupt 
"  down  here  "  in  their  moral  state.  They  dwell 
ad  nauseam  upon  the  distinction  between  the 
standing  in  Christ  and  the  state.  The  standing 
in  Christ  attained  by  a  single  act  of  faith  is  the 
great  and  decisive  thing ;  the  moral  state  is  a 
small  affair,  having  not  the  least  power  to 
damage  the  standing.  David  in  Uriah's  bed, 
and  with  hands  red  with  his  blood,  was  in  a 
sad  moral  predicament  indeed,  so  far  as  his 


70  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

moral  state  was  concerned,  but  his  judicial 
standing  in  Christ  was  not  in  the  least  inr 
paired.  All  that  he  lost  was  his  communion 
with  God ;  all  that  he  sought  for  was  restored 
joy  — "  Restore  Thou  unto  me  the  joy  of  Thy 
salvation."  God  did  not  see  his  adultery  and 
murder.  These  were  covered  with  the  blood 
of  atonement  shed  in  the  Divine  purpose 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  put 
away  forever  before  David  was  born.  A  favor 
ite  proof  text  for  this  abominable  dogma,  which 
lays  the  axe  flt  the  root  of  the  whole  system  df 
Christian  morals,  is  Num.  xxiii.  21:  "He  hath 
not  beheld  iniquity  in  Jacob,  neither  hath  he 
seen  perverseness  in  Israel,"  correctly  rendered 
by  Rosenmiiller :  "  God  cannot  endure  to  be 
hold  iniquity  cast  upon  Jacob,  nor  can  He  bear 
to  see  affliction,  vexation,  trouble,  wrought 
against  Israel."  Some  such  must  be  the  mean 
ing  of  this  text.  The  Plymouth  exegesis  makes 
it  positively  deny  the  omniscence  of  God,  and 
flatly  contradict  His  declaration :  "  Because  all 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       71 

these  men  which  have  seen  My  glory,  and  My 
miracles  which  I  did  in  Egypt  and  in  the  wil 
derness,  have  tempted  Me  now  these  ten  times, 
and  have  not  hearkened  to  My  voice  ;  surely 
they  shall  not  see  the  land  which  I  swear  unto 
their  fathers,  neither  shall  any  of  them  that 
provoked  me  see  it"  (Num.  xiv.  22,  23).  God 
not  only  saw  the  sins  of  Israel,  but  He  kept 
accurate  account  of  their  number,  and  so  in 
dignant  was  He  that  He  purposed  to  smite  and 
disinherit  the  whole  nation,  and  raise  up  a  bet 
ter  one  from  Moses  (Num.  xiv.  12). 

The  doctrine  that  the  believer  is  seen  only  in 
Christ,  and  is  regarded  as  pure  as  Christ  Him 
self,  is  founded  on  his  incorporation  into  the 
glorified  human  and  Divine  Person  in  lieaven. 
The  first  act  of  faith  is  the  occasion  on  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  eternally  incorporates  the  be 
liever  into  the  risen  and  glorified  body  of  Jesus 
Christ.  "  Since,"  as  Mr.  Darby  said  to  the 
writer,  "  Jesus  does  not  walk  about  in  heaven 
dropping  off  fingers  and  toes,"it  follows  that 


72  ANT1NOMIAN1SM  REVIVED. 

every  believer  once  incorporated  into  Christ  is 
absolutely  sure  of  ultimate  salvation.  The  cer 
tainty  is  forever  beyond  contingencies.  No  act 

of  sin,  even  murder,  can  remove  us  from  our 

« 

standing  in  Christ.  Sin  may  obstruct  com 
munion,  and  leave  the  soul  in  sadness  and  dark 
ness  for  a  season ;  but  since,  as  Shakspeare  says, 
"  All  is  well  that  ends  well,"  sin  in  a  believer  is 
well  since  it  ends  in  eternal  life.  For  a  proof 
of  this  doctrine,  Eph.  v.  30  is  quoted:  "For 
we  are  members  of  His  body."  The  clause, 
"  of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones,"  which  is 
rejected  by  the  Revised  Version  as  spurious,  is 
strongly  emphasized  as  a  proof  of  a  literal  in 
corporation  into  the  person  of  Christ.  A  little 
attention  to  the  context  will  show  that  literal 
embodiment  in  Christ  cannot  be  meant  without 
implying  the  actual  incorporation  of  the  hus 
band  and  wife  in  "  one  flesh."  If  it  be  said, 
this  is  just  what  marriage  produces,  we  reply, 
that  the  "one  flesh"  of  wedlock  becomes  two 
through  infidelity  to  the  marriage  vow  (Matt. 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BBETHKEN.       73 

v.  32).  Sin  destroys  the  soul's  marriage  with 
Christ,  and  brings  about  a  divorce  which  may 
become  eternal  (James  iv.  4-6,  Rev.  Ver). 
Another  favorite  proof-text  is  Eph.  ii.  6,  which 
is  understood  as  teaching  that  all  believers  are. 
in  their  judicial  standing,  literally  "  sitting  to 
gether  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus." 
Another  proof-text  is  found  in  the  oft-recurring 
words,  "  in  Christ." 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  the  Plymouth  doc 
trines  find  their  basis  in  a  literalizing  of  figures, 
ingenious  allegorizing  of  facts,  and  a  straining 
of  t}rpes.  The  best  specimens  of  typology  run 
wild,  are  found  in  the  Plymouth  commentaries. 
For  instance :  In  order  to  prove  that  it  was 
not  the  mission  of  the  Comforter  to  sanctify 
the  pentecostal  Church,  and  to  destroy  sin  in 
the  hearts  of  full  believers,  this  is  the  line  of 
argument  which  is  thought  to  be  unanswerable  : 
Leaven  always  stands  for  sin.  In  Lev.  xxiii. 
1C,  17,  is  the  command  to  put  leaven  into  the 
bread  for  Pentecost.  Therefore  there  was  siu 


74  ANTINOMIAKISM   REVIVED. 

in  the  Pentecostal  Church  after  it  was  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  office  is  not  to 
cleanse  believers  from  all  sin,  but  to  incorporate 
them  into  Christ  up  in  the  sky.  TJiis  is  the 
argument  of  their  greatest  annotator,  M'ln- 
tosh,  whose  exegetical  skill  and  spiritual  insight 
are  by  some  of  "  the  Brethren  "  attributed  to  an 
inspiration  almost  plenary.  Says  another  writ 
er,  J.  R.  C.:  "  We  know  that  Moses  in  the  law 
spake  of  Christ.  These  ancient  enactments 
were  shadows,  in  many,  if  not  in  all,  cases,  of 
good  things  to  come."  Then  from  the  Mosaic 
requirement  that  "  the  man  who  hath  taken  a 
wife  shall  not  go  out  to  war,  but  shall  be  free 
at  home  one  year  to  cheer  his  wife,"  he  gravely 
argues  that  this  signifies  that  Christ  will  not  go 
forth  to  battle  until  He  has  remained  with  the 
saints  a  certain  period  at  home  in  a  kind  of 
honeymoon.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  Major 
Whittle's  typology,  whose  doctrines  are  all 
drawn  from  the  Plymouth  Brethren:  First, 
he  assumes,  without  a  particle  of  proof,  that 


THE   PLYMOUTH    BRETHREN.  75 

the  ark  is  a  type  of  Christ.  Secondly,  all  who 
went  into  the  ark  in  the  old  world  came  out  in 
the  new;  none  died,  none  were  lost.  Hence 
all  who  are  once  in  Christ  will  be  infallibly 
saved !  Admit  the  premises,  and  the  demon 
stration  is  irresistible. 

These  are  only  a  few  specimens  of  the  logic 
of  types  when  handled  by  an  ingenious  man, 
eager  to  find  biblical  proofs  for  for  un-Scriptu- 
ral  doctrines.  The  great  master  of  this  falla 
cious  treatment  of  God's  Word,  the  wizzard 
who  can  give  a  Scriptural  flavor  to  tenets  most 
repugnant  to  the  sacred  oracles,  is  Andrew 
Jukes.  Whether  one  of  the  "Brethren,"  I 
know  not ;  but  he  is  unexcelled  in  their  typo 
logical  sleight  of  hand,  even  going  beyond  his 
teachers  and  demonstrating  the  ultimate  res 
toration  of  all  the  wicked  in  hell  to  holiness 
and  heaven.  Evangelical  minds  should  be  on 
their  guard  against  this  subtle  method  of  in 
stilling  dangerous  theological  errors.  There 


76  ANTINOMLAJSTSM  KEVIVED. 

is  a  large  class  of  minds  which  are  easily  capti 
vated  by  types  which  are  purely  fanciful,  the 
cunning  inventions  of  men. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN — {ContinuecT) . 

A  CARDINAL  Plymouth  tenet  is  the  necessary 
continuance  of  the  flesh,  or  the  old  man,  and 
his  abiding,  unchanged,  with  the  new  man,  till 
death.  Regeneration  has  no  effect  on  the  old 
man  by  way  of  improvement  or  extinction.  He 
is  incapable  of  becoming  better,  and  has  a  life- 
lease  in  the  believer's  soul.  The  personality, 
or  what  says  J,  may  put  itself  under  the  leader 
ship  of  either  the  new  nature  or  the  old  for  an 
indefinite  period  without  detriment  to  the 
standing,  only  the  communion  is  obstructed 
when  the  old  Adam  is  at  the  helm.  The  best 
illustration  of  the  Christian  soul  is,  that  it  is  a 
tenement  with  two  rooms.  The  spiritual  apart 
ment  faces  the  sun,  and  the  fleshly  room  is  in 
the  rear,  turned  from  the  sun.  The  believer, 
ouce  sure  of  his  standing  in  Christ,  may  live  in 

77 


78  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  front  room  and  bask  in  the  sunshine,  or  he 
may  retire  into  the  back  room  and  live  in  the 
shade.  He  is  exhorted  to  live  in  the  front 
room,  and  to  keep  the  back  room  locked,  if  he 
would  have  unbroken  happiness  through  cloud 
less  communion  with  God.  But  if  he  should 
disregard  the  exhortation,  and,  owl-like,  should 
dwell  amid  the  darkness  all  his  days,  he  is  just 
as  sure  at  last  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints 
in  light,  though  he  was  not  partial  to  the  light 
while  dwelling  in  his  double  tenement  on  the 
earth. 

These  teachers  have  a  special  hostility  to  the 
Weslyan  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection, 
against  which  they  oppose  perfection  in  Christ. 
They  are  very  shy  of  the  term  "  perfect  love," 
since  this,  as  used  by  St.  John,  evidently  refers 
to  our  love  to  God :  "  Herein  is  our  love  made 
perfect."  This  is  not  God's  love  to  us,  as  some 
say,  "  for,"  says  Alford,  "  this  is  forbidden  by 
the  whole  context."  Inwrought  personal  holi 
ness  is  denied,  as  ministering  to  pride,  while  a 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       79 

constant  declaration  of  inward  vileness,  and  of 
a  fictitious  purity,  by  the  imputation  of  Christ's 
purity,  is  supposed  to  conduce  to  our  humility 
and  Christ's  exaltation. 

The  Plymouth  idea  of  entire  sanctification  is 
exceedingly  complex  and  contradictory.  First, 
in  our  standing  we  are  as  holy  as  Christ ;  sec 
ondly,  in  our  flesh  we  are  perfectly  vile,  the  old 
man  being  incapable  of  improvement ;  thirdly, 
the  new  man  is  perfectly  pure,  being  a  new 
creature  by  the  Spirit,  and  hence  not  needing 
sanctification.  This  statement  is  highly  sug 
gestive  of  the  celebrated  kettle  plea  :  — 

1.  Our  client  never  borrowed  the  kettle;  2. 
It  was  cracked  when  he  borrowed  it ;  3.  It  was 
whole  when  he  returned  it. 

But,  nevertheless,  there  is  an  exhortation  to 
practical  holiness  in  most  of  the  writings  of 
the  Brethren,  on  this  wise:  "Be  holy  down 
here  because  ye  are  holy  up  there  "  (in  Christ). 
"Strive  to  make  your  state  correspond  with 
your  standing."  Yet  this  motive  to  Christian 


80  ANTINOMIANISM  IlEVIVED. 

purity  is  neutralized  by  the  assurance  that  the 
believer's  standing  in  Christ  is  eternal  anyhow, 
just  as  the  exhortation  to  sinners  to  repentance 
by  a  Universalist  is  a  motive  of  no  force,  since 
ultimate  salvation  is  certain.  Says  M'Intosh : 
"  God  will  never  reverse  His  decision  as  to  what 
His  people  are  as  to  standing."  "  Israel's  bless 
edness  and  security  are  made  to  depend,  not  on 
themselves,  but  on  the  faithfulness  of  Jehovah." 
"  We  must  never  measure  the  standing  by  the 
state,  but  always  the  state  by  the  standing. 
To  lower  the  standing  because  of  the  state,  is 
to  give  the  death-blow  to  all  progress  in  practi 
cal  Christianity."  That  is  to  say,  the  fruit 
must  always  be  judged  by  the  tree ;  to  judge 
the  tree  by  the  fruit,  is  to  give  the  death-blow 
to  practical  pomology. 

The  opening  verse  of  2  Cor.  xii.,  speaks  of 
visions  and  revelations  of  the  Lord ;  the  closing 
verse  condemns  un cleanness  and  fornication  and 
lasciviousness  not  repented  of.  "In  the  for 
mer,"  says  M'Intosh,  "  we  have  the  positive 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       8] 

standing  of  the  Christian;  in  the  latter,  the 
possible  state  into  which  he  may  fall  if  not 
watchful."  Yet  he  keeps  his  Christly  standing 
amid  all  his  swinish  wallowings  !  This  is  Ply 
mouth  Brethrenism  in  a  nut-shell.  Here  is  an 
other  :  "  In  John  xiii.  the  Lord  Jesus  looks  at 
His  disciples  and  pronounces  them  *  clean 
every  whit ' ;  although  in  a  few  hours  one  of 
them  was  to  curse  and  swear  that  he  did  not 
know  Him.  So  vast  is  the  difference  between 
what  we  are  in  ourselves  and  what  we  are  in 
Christ  —  between  our  positive  standing  and  our 
possible  state."  (Notes  on  Leviticus.) 

These  theologians  make  a  nice  distinction  be 
tween  conscience  of  sin  and  consciousness  of  sins, 
where  neither  the  Bible  nor  moral  science 
affords  the  least  ground  for  this  distinction, 
"  The  former,"  say  they,  "  is  guilt ;  the  latter  is 
the  normal  experience  of  all  believers.  They 
ever  feel  the  motions  of  sin  within  their  hearts." 
Whereas  conscience  is  nothing  more  than  con 
sciousness  when  the  question  of  right  or  wrong 
is  before  the  mind. 


82  ANTINOMIANISM  EEVIVED. 

Here  is  another  distinction  vital  to  the  Ply 
mouth  system :  "  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  we  accurately  distinguish  between  sin  in 
the  flesh  and  sin  on  the  conscience.  If  we  con 
found  these  two,  our  souls  must,  necessarily,  be 
unhinged,  and  our  worship  marred."  Then 
follows  the  Scriptural  distinction  in  1  John  i. 
8-10 :  " '  If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin  (in  us), 
we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in 
us.'  In  the  next  verse  we  find  the  sin  on  us  — 
1  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin.' "  What  becomes  of  the  sin  in  us  when  all 
sin  is  cleansed,  the  writer  does  not  deign  to  say ; 
but  he  does  say  that,  "  Here  the  distinction  be 
tween  sin  in  us  and  sin  ow,  is  fully  brought  out 
and  established." 

It  is  so  "  fully  brought  out "  that  it  took 
1,800  years  for  Bible  readers  to  discover  it,  and 
then  only  through  Plymouth  eye-glasses !  From 
Augustine  to  Darby  this  has  been  a  standing 
proof-text  against  entire  sanctification,  which  is 
as  plainly  taught  in  the  passage  as  the  sun  in 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       83 

the  heavens.  Let  any  candid  mind  read  the 
context,  and  he  will  see  that  the  clause,  "  If  we 
say  we  have  no  sin,"  means,  if  any  unregener 
ate  man  denies  that  he  has  any  sin  which  needs 
the  atonement,  or  that  he  has  ever  sinned,  as  it 
is  in  verse  ten,  he  deceives  himself.  No  writer 
would  so  stultify  himself  as  to  say  that  he  who 
is  cleansed  from  all  sin  in  the  seventh  verse,  is 
a  dupe  and  a  liar  in  the  eighth  verse,  if  he  tes 
tifies  to  the  all-cleansing  blood.  John  must  be 
written  down  as  utterly  self-contradictory  to 
say  that  he  that  is  born  of  God  sinneth  not, 
and  then  brand  with  deception  and  falsehood 
the  man  who  should  profess  that  by  grace  he 
was  kept  from  sin.  Yet  this  passage,  wrenched 
from  its  context,  is  the  proof  constantly  reiter 
ated,  that  there  is  no  salvation  from  sin  in  this 
life.  The  absurdity  of  this  text  as  a  proof  of 
indwelling  sin,  as  the  highest  attainable  state 
of  the  Christian,  and  of  self-deception  on  the 
part  of  the  person  who  professes  entire  inward 
cleansing,  is  akin  to  that  of  advertising  a  com- 


84  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

plete  cure  of  cancers,  and  then  branding  as 
false  every  testimony  to  such  a  cure. 

Another  text  constantly  urged  by  them,  in 
utter  disregard  of  the  context,  is  Gal.  v.  17, 
which,  by  that  fallacy  in  logic  called  "  begging 
the  question,"  they  assume  to  be  descriptive  of 
the  most  perfect  specimen  of  the  Spirit's  work 
in  a  human  soul,  whereas  St.  Paul  is  writing  to 
a  backsliding  church.  "  I  marvel,"  says  he,  as 
translated  by  Dean  Alford,  "  that  ye  are  so  soon 
removing  from  Him  that  called  you  in  the  grace 
of  Christ,  unto  a  different  Gospel."  Again : 
"  Are  ye  so  foolish  ?  Having  begun  in  the 
Spirit,  are  ye  now  being  made  perfect  in  the 
flesh?" 

In  believers,  in  this  mixed  moral  state,  a 
struggle  is  going  on  between  the  flesh  and  the 
spirit.  The  fallacy  lies  in  the  assumption,  that 
the  best  Christians  are  in  this  state,  against  the 
positive  testimony  of  St.  Paul :  "  I  have  been 
crucified  with  Christ ;  and  it  is  no  longer  I  that 
live,  but  Christ  that  liveth  in  me." 


THE  PLYMOUTH   BRETHREN.  85 

The  doctrine  of  assurance  is  strongly  empha 
sized  by  these  Christians  as  the  privilege  of  all 
who  are  in  Christ.  They  are  very  earnest  in 
their  condemnation  of  the  "hope-so  "  experience, 
and  they  insist  on  a  clear  and  undoubted 
knowledge  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  adop 
tion  into  the  family  of  God.  But  this  truth, 
when  joined  with  the  pernicious  doctrine  of 
eternal  incorporation  into  the  glorified  body  of 
Christ,  removes  the  safeguard  against  sin,  which 
old-fashioned  Calvinism  set  up,  in  the  uncer 
tainty  which  every  Christian  was  taught  that  he 
must  feel  respecting  his  acceptance  with  God. 

Both  Calvinism  and  Arminianism  have 
checks  which  deter  believers  from  sin.  The 
Arminian  is  told  that  the  holiest  saint  on  earth 
may  fall  from  grace  and  drop  into  hell.  The 
Calvinist  is  restrained  from  abusing  the  doctrine 
of  unconditional  election  by  the  consideration, 
that  no  man  may,  beyond  a  doubt,  know  that 
his  own  name  is  on  the  secret  register  of  God's 
chosen  ones.  This  ignorance  inspires  a  health- 


86  AKTIKOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

ful  solicitude  promotive  of  watchfulness  and 
persevering  fidelity  in  the  Calvinist,  just  as  the 
possibility  of  total  and  final  apostasy  tends  to 
conserve  the  purity  of  the  Arminian.  The 
Plymouth  Brethren  drop  both  of  these  safe 
guards  by  uniting,  with  eternal  incorporation 
into  Christ,  a  present  and  absolute  assurance  of 
that  fact.  There  may  be  a  few  souls  who 
would  not  be  put  in  imminent  peril  by  the 
revelation,  that  their  eternal  salvation  is  secured 
beyond  a  peradventure ;  but  the  mass  of  believ 
ers  would  become  dizzy,  if  suddenly  lifted  to 
such  a  height,  and  many  would  fall  into  sin. 
Human  nature  at  its  best  estate  can  never  be 
safely  released  from  the  salutary  restraint  of 
fear.  Hence  we  predict  that  great  moral  dis 
asters  will  follow  the  general  prevalence  of  the 
teachings  of  Mr.  Darby  and  his  school. 

In  this  matter  of  assurance,  how  much  more 
guarded  are  the  utterances  of  John  Wesley, 
who  teaches  the  certain  knowledge  of  justifica 
tion  by  faith,  with  appropriate  safeguards. 


THE   PLYMOUTH   BRETHREN.  87 

"  Let  none  ever  presume  to  rest  in  any  supposed 
testimony  of  the  Spirit  which  is  separate  from 
the  fruit  of  it."  This,  translated  into  the  Ply 
mouth  idiom,  would  read  thus  :  "  Let  none  ever 
presume  to  rest  in  any  supposed  standing  in 
Christ  while  his  actual  state  of  character  is  not 
radiant  with  all  the  excellences  of  Christ." 
"Let  no  one  who  is  in  a  state  of  wilful  sin, 
imagine  that  he  has  a  standing  in  Christ  pure 
and  clear  before  the  throne  of  God,  for  hig 
standing  in  heaven  is  the  same  as  his  state  on 
earth." 

In  perfect  accord  with  this  absolute  assurance 
of  final  salvation,  is  the  denial  of  the  general  judg 
ment  as  taught  in  all  orthodox  creeds.  If  the 
saints  have  a  through  ticket  for  heaven,  why 
should  they  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ  ?  The  favorite  proof-text,  ever  on  the 
lips  of  the  Brethren,  is  John  v.  24,  with  the 
comment  that  "  condemnation  "  should  be  trans- 
luted  "judgment."  To  show  how  far  this  fails 
to  prove  the  doctrine  for  which  it  is  quoted,  I 


88  A2JTIX03IIAXIS3I  EEVITED. 

will  adduce  Alford's  note  Anglicizing  the 
Greek:  " The  believing  and  the  having  eternal 
life  arc  commensurate ;  where  the  faith  is,  the 
possession  of  eternal  life  is ;  and  when  the  one 
remits,  the  other  is  forfeited.  But  here  the 
faith  is  set  before  us  as  an  enduring  faith,  and 
its  effects  are  described  in  their  completion 
(See  Eph.  i.  19,  20)."  "He  who  believeth" 
(pcrsevcringly)  "  comes  not  into,  has  no  concern 
with,  the  separation  (/.r/m-),  the  damnatory  part 
of  the  judgment."  All  the  texts  which  teach 
the  simultaneous  judgment  of  all  the  human 
family  are  ingeniously  explained  away  by  par 
tial  judgments  strung  along  through  the  future, 
after  the  doctrine  of  Swedenborg,  in  order  to 
make  way  for  this  new  doctrine,  that  the  saints 
will  not  be  before  Christ's  judgment  tribunal 
in  the  last  day.  We  shall  show  the  fallacy  of 
these  explanations  when  we  come  to  the  discus 
sion  of  the  Plymouth  scheme  of  eschatology, 
or  lust  things. 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.  89 

THE  SINS  OF  BELIEVERS  ARE  NOT  REAL  SINS. 

This  is  a  necessary  inference  from  the  assured 
exemption  of  believers  from  condemnation, 
however  deep  their  fall  into  gross  sins.  For 
this  exemption  implies  the  absence  of  guilt. 
Those  acts  which  entail  no  guilt  cannot  be  real 
sins.  If  they  appear  to  be  sins,  their  appear 
ance  is  deceptive.  Hence,  a  distinguished 
English  doctor  of  divinity  could  say  in  the 
pulpit,  "  A  believer  may  be  assured  of  pardon 
as  soon  as  he  commits  any  sin,  even  adultery 
and  murder.  Sins  are  but  scarecrows  and  bug 
bears,  to  frighten  ignorant  children,  but  men  of 
Understanding  see  they  are  counterfeit  things." 

The  author  has  heard  Dr.  Brooks,  of  St. 
Louis,  assert  that  the  sins  of  believers  mate 
rially  differ  from  the  sins  of  unbelievers,  hint 
ing  that  they  are  not  real  sins  in  God's  eyes,  be 
cause  He  sees  the  believer  and  all  his  acts  only 
in  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  logical  conclusion 
from  the  premises  that  character  is  transferable, 


90  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

that  Jesus  Christ  on  the  cross  became  a  sinner, 
and  was  punished,  while  we,  by  a  single  act  of 
faith,  assume  His  righteousness  by  an  inalien 
able  incorporation  into  His  glorified  person  in 
heaven,  and  are  ever  afterward  viewed  by  God 
as  possessing  all  His  moral  excellencies,  among 
which  is  sinlessness. 

What  an  opiate  to  the  accusing  conscience ! 
what  a  weakening  of  the  divine  safeguards 
against  sin,  set  up  in  man's  moral  constitution, 
are  manifest  on  the  very  face  of  such  a  theo 
logical  tenet !  The  chief  barrier  against  sin  is 
removed,  and  sinning  is  made  easy.  With 
ordinary  human  beings,  even  after  regeneration, 
facility  for  sinning  with  impunity  becomes  a 
tremendous  temptation,  and  to  most  men  an 
irresistible  incentive  to  sin.  If  God  has  sol 
emnly  pronounced  "  woe  to  them  that  call 
(moral)  evil  good,  and  (moral)  good  evil," 
what  must  be  His  sentence  against  those  who 
entirely  rub  out  the  broad  boundary  line  be 
tween  them  by  teaching  that  the  willful  viola- 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       91 

tion  of  the  known  law  of  God  is  only  a  seem 
ing,  but  not  a  real  sin?  Yet  this  is  the  inevi 
table  outcome  of  the  doctrine  that  there  never 
can  be  condemnation  to  them  who  are  in  Christ. 
The  case  is  aggravated  by  the  denial  of  the 
possibility  of  entire  sanctification  in  this  life, 
and  by  the  assertion  that  the  flesh,  the  sinward 
bent  of  the  soul,  must  remain  until  it  is  eradi 
cated  by  physical  death.  Broadcast  these  twin 
doctrines  throughout  Christendom,  that  believ 
ers  are  incapable  of  real  sin,  and  that  the  sin 
principle  is  a  necessity  in  every  human  heart 
during  this  life,  defying  the  blood  of  Christ  to 
purge  it  away,  and  the  Christian  Church  will 
need  myriads  of  patient  toilers  to  grub  up  these 
seeds  of  immoralities,  more  baneful  than  the 
Canada  thistle  is  to  the  farmers  of  this  western 
world. 

This  whole  question  of  the  believer's  relation 
to  God's  law  has  been  discussed  by  the  theo 
logical  giants  of  past  generations.  I  quote 
from  Baxter's  Aphorisms  on  Justification,  an 


92  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

epitome  made  by  J.  Wesley:  "As  there  are 
two  covenants,  with  their  distinct  conditions,  so 
there  is  a  twofold  righteousness,  and  both  of 
them  absolutely  necessary  for  salvation.  Our 
righteousness  of  the  first  covenant  (under  the 
remediless,  Christless,  Adamic  law)  is  not  per 
sonal,  or  consisteth  not  in  any  actions  preferred 
by  us;  for  we  never  personally  satisfied  the 
law  (of  innocence),  but  it  is  wholly  without  us, 
in  Christ.  In  this  sense  every  Christian  dis- 
claimeth  his  own  righteousness,  or  his  own 
works.  Those  only  shall  be  in  Christ  legally 
righteous  who  believe  and  OBEY  the  Gospel, 
and  so  are  in  themselves  evangelically  right 
eous.  Though  Christ  performed  the  conditions 
of  the  law  (of  Paradisaical  innocence),  and 
made  satisfaction  for  our  non-performance,  YET 

WE  OURSELVES  MUST  PERFORM  THE  CONDI 
TIONS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  These  (last)  two  pro- 
positions  seem  to  me  so  clear,  that  I  wonder 
that  any  able  divines  should  deny  them.  Me- 
thinks  they  should  be  articles  of  our  creed,  and 


THE   PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.  93 

a  part  of  children's  catechisms.  To  affirm  that 
our  evangelical  or  new-covenant  righteousness 
is  in  Christ,  and  riot  in  ourselves,  or  performed 
by  Christ,  and  not  by  ourselves,  is  such  a  mon 
strous  piece  of  Antinomian  doctrine  as  no 
man,  who  knows  the  nature  and  difference  of 
the  covenants,  can  possibly  entertain."  (Bax. 
Aphor.  Prop.  14-17.)  Thus  speaks  this  pious, 
practical,  well-balanced  dissenter  against  the 
fatal  errors  arising  from  confounding  the 
Adamic  law  with  the  law  of  Christ,  the  first 
demanding  of  a  perfect  man  a  faultless  life,  the 
other  requiring  an  imperfect  man,  inheriting 
damaged  intellectual  and  moral  powers,  to  ren 
der  perfect,  that  is,  pure  love,  to  God  his 
Heavenly  Father,  through  Christ  his  adorable 
Saviour,  with  the  assistance  of  regenerating 
and  sanctifying  grace. 

It  was  the  clearly  discerned  distinction  be 
tween  the  two  covenants  which  prompted  good 
Bishop  Hopkins  to  make  this  paradoxical  reso 
lution  r  "So  to  BELIEVE,  so  to  rest  on  the 


94  ANTINOMIANISM   KEVIVED. 

merits  of  Christ,  as  if  I  had  never  wrought  any 
thing;  and  withal  so  to  WOEK,  as  if  I  were 
only  to  be  saved  by  my  own  merits."  To  give 
each  of  these  its  due  in  practice,  is  the  verj 
height  and  depth  of  Christian  perfection. 

MODERN  ANTINOMIANISM  EXAMINED. 

The  new  Antinomianism  does  not  make  Cal 
vinism  prominent  by  any  formal  statement.  It 
is  rather  implied  than  expressed.  Nothing  is 
said  of  sovereign  decrees  and  of  unconditional 
election.  For  this  reason  it  does  not  specially 
offend  Arminians,  while  its  doctrine  of  the  final 
perseverance  of  all  believers  is  a  tenet  very 
pleasing  to  those  who  hold  Calvinism,  with  its 
modern  alleviations,  the  only  form  still  extant 
in  New  England.  For  these  reasons  this  great 
error  is  well  adapted  to  become  widespread  in 
both  these  great  branches  of  orthodoxy. 

There  is  a  class  of  people  who  are  specially 
pleased  to  see  the  Gospel  set  in  antagonism 
with  the  law,  and  they  breathe  more  easily 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       95 

when  they  are  assured  that  God's  law,  as  the 
rule  of  life,  is  abrogated  by  the  Gospel.  This 
repugnance  of  the  Gospel  to  the  moral  law  is 
one  of  the  primal  errors  of  all  Antinomians. 
But  the  form  which  this  antagonism  takes,  is 
peculiar  to  the  modern  Antinomianism.  This 
is  the  difference  between  the  believer's  stand 
ing  in  Christ,  and  his  actual  moral  state. 
These  bear  no  relation  to  each  other.  The 
state  may  be  utterly  bad,  while  the  standing  be 
perfectly  good.  Like  the  first  brick  in  a  row, 
Jesus  only  is  seen  by  the  eye  of  God,  the  de 
fects  of  the  others,  covered  by  Him,  are  not 
seen ;  the  perfections  of  Jesus  being  seen  in 
stead.  This  standing,  attained  by  the  first  act 
of  faith,  is  inalienable  and  everlasting. 

The  influence  of  this  doctrine  of  an  eternal 
and  inalienable  standing  in  Christ,  and  of  ex 
emption  from  the  day  of  judgment,  must,  in 
many  cases,  be  disastrous.  The  removal  of  the 
wholesome  safeguard  found  in  the  fear  of  being 
morally  shipwrecked  and  cast  away,  must  tencl 


96  ATDTOMIANISM   KEVIVED. 

to  looseness  of  living  in  not  a  few  cases.  It  is 
possible  that  a  few  might  suffer  no  detriment 
from  embracing  such  a  theory,  but  they  would 
be  exceptions.  Most  people  live  below,  not 
above  their  creed.  How  can  a  man,  amid  the 
fierce  temptations  of  life,  sing  the  following 
verses,  and  be  just  as  watchful  against  sin  as 
before  ?  Especially,  how  can  one  in  whom  the 
old  man  exists  in  full  strength  ? 

"  Rejoice,  rejoice,  my  soul, 
Rejoice  in  sin  forgiven ; 
The  blood  of  Christ  hath  made  thee  whole; 
For  thee  His  life  was  given. 

"  Rejoice  in  peace  made  sure: 

No  judgment  now  for  thee  ; 
Thy  conscience  purged,  thy  life  secure, 
More  safe  thou  canst  not  be." 

Heaven  itself  can  afford  no  greater  safety ! 
Is  there  no  moral  peril  in  preaching  such  a  doc 
trine  to  men  in  the  furnace  of  temptation  ?  In 
all  my  study  of  human  nature,  I  have  found 
that  the  removal  of  barriers  against  sin  is  a 
tremendous  incentive  to  its  commission. 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.     07 

REPENTANCE  SLIGHTED. 
At  another  point,  the  Plymouth  system  is 
open  to  criticism  —  its  neglect  of,  or  very  slight 
emphasis  on,  the  need  of  repentance.  This  is 
in  keeping  with  its  Antinomian  tendencies.  I 
quote  from  Dr.  Robert  Anderson's  book, — 
"  The  Gospel  and  its  Ministry,"  —  a  book 
highly  commended  by  Mr.  Mood}*,  to  verify 
this  criticism,  and  to  show  that  this  defect  is 
not  an  oversight,  but  a  part  of  the  system,  the 
justification  of  which  is  attempted  in  this  quota 
tion  :  "  The  soundest  and  fullest  Gospel 
preaching  need  not  include  any  mention  of  the- 
word  (repentance).  Neither  as  verb  or  noun 
does  it  occur  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  — 
God's  great  doctrinal  treatise  on  redemption 
and  righteousness,  —  save  in  the  warnings  of 
the  second  chapter.  And  the  Gospel-book  of 
all  the  liiblc  will  be  searched  i:i  vain  for  a 
single  mention  of  it.  The  beloved  Disciple 
wrote  His  Gospel,  that  men  might  believe  and 


98  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

live,  and  His  Epistle  followed,  to  confirm  be 
lievers  in  the  simplicity  and  certainty  of  their 
faith ;  but  yet,  from  end  to  end  of  them,  the 
word  '  repent '  or  *  repentance '  never  once 
occurs."  This  proves  nothing.  It  is  manifest 
to  every  student,  that  the  synoptic  Gospels, 
which  are  full  of  repentance,  present  a  differ 
ent  phase  of  Christ's  teaching  from  John's 
Gospel.  Again,  it  would  not  be  natural  to  look 
for  exhortations  to  repentance  in  epistles  to 
believers,  whether  John's  epistles  or  Paul's. 
To  find  these,  let  us  turn  to  the  reports  of  the 
Apostle's  sermons  to  the  unconverted,  in  the 
Acts,  and  we  will  find  repentance  preached  in 
due  proportion  to  other  duties.  See  the  con 
cordance,  in  which  these  words  will  be  found 
in  the  Acts  eleven  times.  It  must  be  carefully 
remembered  that,  though  the  word  "  believe " 
occurs  about  a  hundred  times  in  John's  Gospel, 
and  "  repent "  is  not  found  even  once,  John's 
"  believe "  is  so  large  in  its  meaning  that  it 
comprehends  conversion,  or  turning  from  sin,  as 


THE  PLYMOUTH  BRETHREN.       99 

well  as  trusting  in  Christ.  This  fulness  of 
meaning  must  not  be  neglected,  but  must  be 
magnified  by  him  who  would  get  John's  deep 
meaning.  He  can  never  be  quoted  to  support 
Antinomiariism.  The  preaching  of  repentance 
in  no  way  belittles  faith  in  Jesus,  the  sole  con 
dition  of  forgiveness,  but  it  is  the  indispensable 
prerequisite  to  its  exercise.  Hence,  repentance 
must  be  earnestly  preached. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ANTHSTOMIAN   FAITH. 

WE  look  in  vain  in  all  these  writers  of  the 
Antinomian  school,  whether  ancient  or  modern, 
for  any  adequate  definitions  of  saving  faith. 
After  a  faithful  and  patient  study,  extending 
through  ten  years,  I  can  find  in  these  writings 
no  better  notion  of  faith  than  a  bare  intel 
lectual  assent  to  the  fact  that  Jesus  put  away 
sin  once  and  forever  on  His  cross.  There  is  no 
preliminary  to  this  mental  act,  such  as  a  heart 
felt  conviction  of  sin,  and  eternal  abandonment 
of  it  in  purpose  and  in  reality.  Nor  is  there 
any  test  of  this  faith  in  the  genuineness  of  its 
fruits.  The  evangelical  definition  of  saving 
faith  is  utterly  ignored, —  that  it  has  its  root  in 
genuine  repentance,  its  bud  and  blossom  in  joy 
ful  obedience,  and  its  fruitage  in  holiness  of 
heart  and  life  ;  that  in  addition  to  the  assent  of 
100 


ANTINOMIAN    FAITH.  101 

the  intellect,  —  the  fruitless  faith  of  devils 
(James  ii.  19), —  there  must  be  the  consent  of 
the  will,  the  Christward  movement  of  the 
moral  sensibilities,  and  an  unwavering  reliance 
on  Him,  and  on  Him  alone,  as  a  present 
Saviour.  Nor  do  the  Antinomians  teach  that 
faith  is  continuous  —  a  life-long  outgoing  of  the 
heart  in  glad  obedience  —  but  rather  that  its 
efficacy  is  concentrated  into  a  single  act  of 
assent  to  a  past  fact,  an  act  which  forever  and 
forever  justifies.  We  can  easily  predict  the 
character  of  the  edifice  built  upon  a  foundation 
so  defective.  On  such  a  corner-stone  we  do 
not  expect  to  find  a  love  which  purifies  the 
heart  and  overcomes  the  world,  a  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness,  an  eager  pursuit  of 
holiness,  and  "  pressing  on  unto  perfection  " 
(Heb.  vi.  1,  Rev.  Ver.),  and  that  "  perfect  love 
•which  caste th  out  all  fear  that  has  torment." 
We  find  rather  a  dry,  intellectual  religion,  tena 
cious  of  its  speculative  theory,  indifferent  to 
inward  and  outward  holiness,  and  reveling  in 
imaginary  graces,  or,  rather,  in  the  perfections 


102  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

of  Christ  falsely  imputed  to  themselves,  and 
preferring  to  keep  the  old  man  alive  rather  than 
his  summary  crucifixion,  in  order  "  that  the 
body  of  sin  may  be  destroyed."  We  find  a  sys 
tem  which  is  a  great  comfort  to  the  backslider 
in  heart  and  life,  and  a  pleasant  refuge  to  those 
who  have  lost  their  inheritance  among  the 
sanctified,  into  which  they  once  entered  when 
under  better  religious  instruction. 

We  have  thus  far  spoken  of  an  indefinite  An- 
tinomian  faith ;  we  now  proceed  to  speak  of 

FAITH  VERSUS   FEELING. 

"  The  power  of  God,"  says  Fletcher,  "  is  fre 
quently  talked  of,  but  rarely  felt,  and  too  often 
cried  down  under  the  despicable  name  of 
frames  and  feelings." 

"  If  I  had  a  mind,"  said  the  eloquent  George 
Whitefield,  "  to  hinder  the  progress  of  the  Gos 
pel,  and  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  darkness, 
I  would  go  about  telling  people  they  might 
have  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  yet  not  feel  it,"  or 
which  is  much  the  same,  that  the  pardon  which 


ANTINOMIAN   FAITH.  103 

Christ  procured  for  them  is  already  obtained  by 
them,  whether  they  enjoy  the  sense  of  it  or  not. 

This  is  the  kind  of  faith  which  multitudes  of 
souls  in  utter  spiritual  barrenness  are  resting  in 
for  eternal  life.  'They  are  exhorted  to  beware 
of  looking  for  any  changed  feeling,  that  feeling 
is  inconsistent  with  true  faith.  Says  John 
Wesley,  "  It  is  easy  to  satisfy  ourselves  without 
being  possessed  of  the  holiness  and  happiness 
of  the  Gospel.  It  is  easy  to  call  these  (holi 
ness  and  happiness)  frames  and  feelings,  and 
then  to  oppose  faith  to  one  and  Christ  to  the 
other.  Frames  (allowing  the  expression)  are 
no  other  than  heavenly  tempers,  the  mind  that 
was  in  Christ ;  feelings  are  the  Divine  consola 
tions  of  the  Holy  Ghost  shed  abroad  in  the 
heart  of  him  that  truly  believes.  And  wher 
ever  faith  is,  and  wherever  Christ  is,  there  are 
these  blessed  frames  and  feelings.  If  they  are 
not  in  us,  it  is  a  sure  sign  that  though  the  wil 
derness  become  a  pool,  the  pool  is  become  a 
wilderness  again."  (Note  on  Peter  iii.  18). 

This  is  the  process  of  inculcating  this  kind 


104  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

of  faith.  The  religious  teacher  sits  down  in 
the  inquiry  room,  by  the  side  of  the  seeker, 
opens  his  Bible  at  Romans  x.  9,  and  reads  :  "  If 
thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord 
Jesus  (Jesus  as  Lord,  Rev.  Ver.),  and  shalt 
believe  in  thy  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved."  Do  you 
confess  that  Jesus  is  your  Lord  ?  Yes.  Do 
you  believe  that  He  arose  from  the  dead  ?  Yes. 
Well,  praise  the  Lord,  you  are  born  again !  you 
have  found  eternal  life.  But  I  do  not  experi 
ence  any  inward  change.  Never  mind  that; 
you  are  to  believe  without  any  feeling.  If  you 
look  for  feeling  as  the  ground  of  your  faith 
that  you  are  now  a  child  of  God,  you  dishonor 
the  Word.  The  Word  says  that  you  are  saved, 
and  you  ought  to  believe  the  Bible.  It  is  weak 
and  childish  to  be  looking  for  any  change  in 
your  feelings.  I  strongly  advise  you  to  be  bap 
tized  and  join  the  Church.  You  have  fulfilled 
the  conditions  of  salvation.  You  are  hence 
forth  to  count  yourself  a  Christian,  and  by  a 
resolved  will  to  crush  out  all  doubts  respecting 


ANTINOMIAN   FAITH.  105 

jour  conversion,  whenever  they  arise.  For  they 
will  arise.  All  true  Christians  have  doubts  of 
this  kind.  It  is  an  evidence  that  they  have  a 
good  hope  in  Christ.  But,  dear  pastor,  is  this 
all  there  is  in  the  new  birth?  I  expected  I 
should  have  unspeakable  joy,  arising  from  a 
sense  of  burning  love.  I  thought  I  should  be 
sure  that  I  was  saved  by  some  inward  impres 
sion  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Oh,  says  the  pastor, 
you  are  not  to  expect  a  miraculous  conversion. 
That  kind  is  limited  to  the  Apostolic  age. 

SlN  "  IK,"  AND  SlN  "  ON,"  THE  SOUL. 

Through  all  their  books  and  innumerable 
tracts  runs  a  distinction  between  the  preposi 
tions  "in"  and  "on."  It  is  the  aim  of  the 
Gospel  to  deliver  from  sin  "  on  "  the  soul,  but 
not  from  sin  "  in "  the  heart,  till  we  pass 
through  the  gate  of  death.  In  other  words, 
justification  is  affirmed,  but  entire  sanctification 
in  the  present  life  is  denied.  The  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  efficacious  for  the  removal  of 


106  AKTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

actual  sins,  but  it  fails  to  eradicate  the  sin  prin 
ciple,  or  inbred  sin,  till  physical  death  conies  to 
the  aid  of  atonement,  and  completes  its  saving 
power.  Thus  the  penalty  of  sin  becomes  its 
destroyer.  "Death,  that  foul  monster,  the  off 
spring  of  sin,  shall  have  the  important  honor  of 
killing  his  father,"  says  Fletcher.  "  He  alone  is 
to  give  the  great,  the  last,  the  decisive  blow." 
In  vain  do  we  call  for  Scripture  proofs  for  death 
sanctification,  and  for  the  important  distinction 
between  "in"  and  "on."  When  those  Scrip 
tures  are  cited  which  teach  immediate  perfect 
cleansing  from  all  sin,  as  in  1  John  i.  7,  9,  we  are 
assured  that  the  verb  "  cleanse "  here  means 
judicial  clearance,  or  justification,  and  not  in 
herent  purification.  But  this  involves  St.  John 
in  the  Romish  doctrine  of  good  works  as  a  con 
dition  of  justification  — "  If  we  walk  in  the 
light."  This  is  certainly  a  course  of  good  works 
prescribed  as  a  condition  of  cleansing.  If  this 
is  pardon,  we  have  a  condition  unknown  to  St. 
Paul.  But  we  have  as  great  a  difficulty  in  pas- 


ANTINOMIAN    FAITH.  107 

sages  which  urge  us  to  cleanse  ourselves,  as  2 
Cor.  vii.  1.  Here  we  have  a  cluster  of  absurd 
ities.  (1.)  Self-justification :  "  Let  us  cleanse 
ourselves."  (2.)  Justification  is  divided  and 
distributed  into  two  parts,  "  flesh  and  spirit "  — 
a  piece-meal  pardon !  (3.)  "  Filthiness "  is  a 
state.  How  can  a  state  be  justified,  or  have 
judicial  clearance  or  acquittal  ? 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  sin  "in"  the  believer, 
who  has  been  adopted  into  the  family  of  God 
(2  Cor.  vi.  18),  or  inbred,  original  depravity,  is 
here  intended,  and  the  Corinthians  are  ex 
horted  to  seek  its  entire  purgation  as  a  condi 
tion  to  "  perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord." 

NOT  UNDER  THE  LAW. 

"  Free  from  the  law,  oh,  happy  condition! " 

This  is  a  verse  which  should  never  be  sung 
except  with  those  safeguards  which  the  author 
of  the  hymn  has  not  been  careful  to  set  up. 

(1.)  It  is   true  that  all  mankind  are,  by  the 


108  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

atonement,  forever  freed  from  the  necessity  of 
pleading  that  we  have  perfectly  kept  the  law, 
in  order  to  acceptance  with  God.  We  are  freed 
from  the  necessity  of  legal  justification.  Such 
a  necessity  would  shut  up  a  sinful  race  in 
eternal  despair.  We  are  freed  from  the  law 
as  the  (/round  of  justification.  Our  ground  of 
justification  is  the  blood  of  Christ  shed  for  us. 
(2.)  Nor  are  true  believers,  who  have  received 
the  Spirit  of  adoption,  under  the  law  as  the 
impulse  to  service.  They  are  not  spurred  on  to 
activity  by  the  threatened  penalties  of  God's 
law.  Love  to  the  Law-giver  has  taken  the 
place  of  fear  of  the  law  as  a  motive.  This  is 
specially  true  of  those  advanced  believers,  out 
of  whom  perfect  love  has  cast  all  servile,  tor 
menting  fear.  Before  emerging  into  this  expe 
rience,  there  is  a  blending  of  fear  and  love  as 
motives  to  service.  In  this  state  the  believer  is 
not  wholly  delivered  from  legalism.  But  the 
law  is  put  into  the  heart  of  the  full  believer, 
and  its  fulfillment  is  spontaneous  and  free.  "  I 


ANTINOMIAN   FAITH.  109 

will  run  the  way  of  Thy  commandments  when 
Thou  shalt  enlarge  my  heart."  The  Septuagint 
Version,  used  by  our  Lord  Jesus,  reads :  "  I 
have  run.  .  .  .  Since,"  etc.  "  Without  the 
law,"  says  St.  Paul,  as  an  outward  yoke  laid 
upon  the  neck,  "but  under  law  to  Christ." 
Love  to  Christ  absorbs  into  itself  all  the  princi 
ples  of  the  moral  law,  and  prompts  to  their 
glad  performance.  Hence,  "  Love  is  the  fulfill 
ment  of  the  law."  This  is  the  meaning  of 
Rom.  vii.  6,  as  translated  in  the  Revision  which 
corrects  the  blunder  of  King  James'  version 
from  a  faulty  MS.,  making  the  law  of  God  die, 
instead  of  the  believer's  dying  to  it;  that  is, 
ceasing  to  be  actuated  by  its  terrors,  and  be 
coming  obedient  from  the  new  principle  of 
love.  "  But  now  we  have  been  discharged  from 
the  law,  having  died  to  that  wherein  we  were 
holden ;  so  that  WE  SERVE  IN"  NEWNESS  OF  THE 
SPIRIT,  and  not  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter." 

(3.)  We  are  free  from  the  law  as  the  instru 
ment  of  our  sanctification*     Christ  has  become 


110  ANTINOMIAN1SM  REVIVED. 

our  sanctification  by  purchasing  with  His  blood 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  is  called 
"  holy,"  not  as  a  peculiar  attribute,  distinguish 
ing  Him  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  but  be 
cause  it  is  His  great  office  to  make  men  holy. 
We  are  "  elect  through  sanctification  of  the 
Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth." 

(4.)  Christ  has  freed  us  from  the  ceremonial 
law. 

(5.)  Believers  in  Christ  are  not  delivered 
from  the  moral  law,  as  the  rule  of  life.  The 
form  of  this  law  may  change,  but  the  essence 
is  as  immutable  as  its  Author,  out  of  whose 
bosom  it  goes  forth.  If  believers  were  free 
from  the  law,  as  a  rule  of  life,  we  should  be 
obliged  to  change  the  verse  — 

"Free  from  the  law,  oh,  wretched  condition " ! 

A  moral  intelligence,  whether  man  or  angel, 
thus  freed  from  his  proper  norm,  would  dash 
into  ruins  like  a  locomotive  of  an  express  train 
freed  from  the  rails.  As  the  rails  give  direc- 


ANTINOMIAN   FAITH.  Ill 

tion  to  the  mighty  momentum  of  the  train,  so 
is  the  law  designed  to  direct  our  moral  progress 
to  a  destiny  of  unspeakable  blessedness.  Diso 
bedience  derails  and  destroys.  Hence  the  law 
is  a  blessing  of  unspeakable  value.  The  soul 
that  despises  it  is  in  imminent  peril.  The  the 
ology  which  teaches  that  men  mount  to  a 
"  happy  condition,"  by  ridding  themselves  of 
the  beneficent  guidance  of  the  moral  law,  merits 
the  condemnation  of  all  Christians.  Jesus  is  a 
Law-giver  to  control,  as  well  as  a  Redeemer  to 
save. 

THE  SINNER  HAS  NOTHING  TO  Do. 

"  Nothing,  either  great  or  small, 

Nothing,  sinner,  no; 
Jesus  died  and  paid  it  all, 
Long,  long  ago." 

All  that  Jesus  has  done  for  the  sinner  will 
do  him  no  good  till  he  personally  appropriates, 
by  a  faith  which  requires  the  highest  effort  to 
exercise,  and  which  prompts  to  a  continued 
course  of  good  works.  "  This  is  the  work  of 


112  ANTESTOMIAmSM  REVIVED. 

God  —  which  He  requires  —  that  ye  believe  in 
His  Son."  In  all  cases  there  must  be  repent 
ance  and  its  fruits,  forsaking  wicked  ways,  and 
turning  to  God.  In  the  case  of  the  unbeliev 
ing  Jews  there  were  two  severe  preliminary 
works  before  they  could  believe.  They  must 
conquer  their  love  for  human  honor,  and 
through  the  use  of  prevenient  grace,  rise  to  the 
position  where  they  are  swayed  by  the  honor 
that  comes  from  God  only,  or  the  only  God. 
Hie  labor,  hoc  opus  est  —  this  is  work,  this  is 
toil.  Jesus  sets  another  task  before  the  Jews 
before  they  can  believe  in  Him.  They  must 
believe  in  Moses.  Men  cannot  indolently  neg 
lect  inferior  light,  and,  at  a  single  bound,  spring 
up  to  the  highest  exercise  of  faith  in  Jesus,  the 
Light  of  the  world.  They  must  be  of  the  truth 
before  they  can  come  to  Him  who  is  the  Truth. 
They  must  so  love  the  truth  already  within 
their  reach  as  to  be  willing  to  search  for  it  dili 
gently,  and  to  follow  wherever  the  truth  leads. 
This  implies  self-denial  and  cross-bearing,  even 


ANTINOMIAN   FAITH.  113 

before  Jesus  is  apprehended  as  their  Saviour. 
Then  having  found  Him,  they  must  consecrate 
all  their  powers  of  service  to  do  His  will ;  they 
must  work  while  the  day  lasts.  These  works 
are  rewardable,  though  not  meritorious,  in  the 
sense  of  putting  God  under  obligation  to  com 
pensate  the  doers.  In  the  light  of  these  truths 
the  following  verses  have  an  Antinomian 
sound :  — 

"  Cast  your  deadly  '  doing '  down  — 

Down  at  Jesus'  feet; 
Stand  in  Him,  in  Him  alone, 
Gloriously  complete. 

/ 

•'  Cease  your  doing;  all  was  done 

Long,  long  ago. 

"  '  Doing'  is  a  deadly  thing  — 
'  Doing'  ends  in  death." 

There  is  a  call  in  this  latter  quarter  of  tho 
nineteenth  century  for  St.  James  to  go  through 
the  world  preaching  from  his  favorite  text: 
"Faith  without  works  is  dead."  Sinners  are 
not  saved  by  works,  but  they  must  work  to  be 


114  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

saved.     "Work  out  your   salvation  -with  fear 
and  trembling.     Ye  are  workers  together  with 

God." 

THE  FLESH  REMAINS  FLESH. 

Two  natures  co-existing  in  the  believer  in 
his  best  possible  earthly  state,  is  proved  by 
John  iii.  6,  which  is  amended  to  read  thus: 
"  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and 
remains  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the 
Spirit  is  spirit."  This  is  quoted  to  prove  that 
the  single  nature  is  untouched  in  the  new  birth, 
while  an  entirely  new  nature,  or,  rather,  new 
creature,  is  created,  and  associated  therewith. 
This  view  assumes,  without  proof,  the  follow 
ing  :— 

1.  That  John  uses  the  term  "flesh"  in  the 
Pauline  sense,  which  as  Meyer  says,  "  is  strange 
to  him " ;  while  Cremer,  in  his  Biblico  Theo 
logical  Lexicon,  quotes  this  passage  as  an  in 
stance  of  John's  use  of  sarx,  flesh,  to  signify 
merely  that  which  "  mediates  and  brings  about 
man's  connection  with  nature."  He  finds  six 
shades  of  meaning  to  this  important  word,  the 


ANTINOMIAN  FAITH.  115 

last  only  embracing  the  idea  of  sin.  He  ex 
cludes  from  this  meaning  all  passages  in  the 
four  Gospels  in  which  the  word  occurs. 

2.  It  is  assumed  that  such  writers  as  Weiss, 
and  Julius  Miiller,  are  in  error  when  they  say 
that  the  meaning  of  Jesus  is,   "the  corporeal 
birth  only  produces  the  corporeal  sensual  part." 

3.  There  is  a  confounding  of  birth  with  crea 
tion  out  of  nothing.     "  For  as  generation,"  says 
Dr.  Whedon,  "  is  a  modifying  of  substance  or 
being,  imparting  to  it  a  new  principle  of  life, 
conforming  it,  as  living  being,  to  the  likeness 
of  the  generator,  so  regeneration  is  a  modifica 
tion  of  the  human  spirit  by  the   Holy  Spirit, 
conforming  the  temper  of  the   human   to   the 
Holy." 

So  that  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit, 
is  the  same  person  as  is  born  of  the  flesh. 
He  is  henceforth  endowed  with  the  new  qualit} 
of  spiritual  life,  instead  of  spiritual  death. 
The  identical  man,  soul,  body,  and  spirit  — 
"  for  in  the  term  flesh,"  says  Alford,  "  is  in- 


116  ANTLNOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

eluded  every  part  of  that  which  is  born  after 
the  ordinary  method  of  generation  "  —  is  born 
again  by  the  endowment  of  spiritual  life. 

What  is  born  again  in  the  view  of  the  irnpu- 
tationist?  Not  the  fallen  nature,  —  that  must 
remain  fallen ;  nothing  is  born  again ;  but  a 
new  man  is  created  de  novo  and  put  into  the 
believer,  who  is  henceforth  to  live  a  dual  life, 
liis  personality  sometimes  dwelling  under  the 
uway  of  the  old  man,  and  sometimes  under  the 
rule  of  the  new.  This  is  not  a  birth  at  all. 
For  in  a  true  birth  there  is  a  communication  of 
life  to  non-living  matter.  So  in  the  spiritual 
birth  there  is  the  impartation  of  life  to  a  spirit 
ually  non-living  soul. 

4.  Our  best  philosophers  say  that  the  only 
safeguard  against  materialism  is  the  theory  that 
the  soul  is  created  by  a  direct  act  of  the  Creator. 
This  theory  would  seem  to  lie  at  the  base  of  the 
reasonings  of  the  imputationists  on  this  text,  and 
to  afford  them  an  analogy  for  the  absolutely  new 
creation  of  a  spiritual  man  at  the  new  birth. 


ANTDIOMIAN   FAITH.  117 

Now  it  is  well  known  in  theological  circles  that 
there  are  three  theories  for  the  origin  of  the 
human  spirit,  (1)  pre-existence  from  the  date 
of  the  creation,  and  waiting  to  be  incarnated, 
(2)  traduction,  or  derivation  from  parents,  the 
same  as  the  body,  and  (3)  direct  creation  at  the 
time  of  birth,  or  of  generation. 

It  is  not  incumbent  on  me  to  show  which  is 
the  true  theory.  But  he  who  builds  on  any 
of  these  hypotheses  must  first  demonstrate  its 
truth.  We  assert  that  the  declaration  of  the 
imputationists,  that  a  new  man  is  created,  not 
by  a  transformation  and  renewal  of  the  old 
man,  but  by  an  immediate  creation,  rests  ana 
logically  upon  a  misunderstood  theory  respect 
ing  the  first  birth.  For  this  theory  is  not  that 
of  creation  absolutely  independent  of  all  ante 
cedents,  but  each  soul  is  created  as  part  of  a 
system  which  has  been  dislocated  by  sin.  The 
Adamic  matrix,  though  marred  by  sin,  being 
still  used  in  the  creation,  and  not  the  matrix 
of  a  new  race. 


118  ANTIKOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

Well  does  Augustine  say,  "  "Where  the  Scrip 
ture  renders  no  certain  testimony,  human  in 
quiry  must  beware  of  deciding  one  way  or  the 
other." 

Let  us  emerge,  then,  from  this  region  of 
speculation  into  that  of  common  sense.  Nico- 
demus  was  surely  right  when  he  understood 
that  the  new  birth  was  a  second  birth  of  the 
same  subject.  The  same  man  born  of  the  flesh 
must  be  born  again. 

Jesus  Himself  fully  explains  the  meaning 
which  St.  Paul  puts  into  the  words,  "in 
Christ,"  in  that  wonderful  discourse  of  Christ, 
in  the  sixth  chapter  of  John,  about  the  spiritual 
appropriation  of  the  benefit  of  His  atonement, 
by  sacramentarians,  erroneously  interpreted  as 
the  reception  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  Christ 
explains  what  is  signified  by  being  in  Him : 
"  He  that  eateth  (continuously)  my  flesh,  and 
(persistently)  drinketh  my  blood,  abideth  in 
me,  and  I  in  him."  Eternal  blessedness  is  in 
Him,  and  is  imparted  to  all  who  by  faith  con- 


ANTINOMIAN  FAITH.  119 

linually  appropriate  it.  With  such  souls  there 
is  a  mystical  union  with  Christ,  an  inter-pene 
tration  of  Spirit.  So  long  as  Jesus  abides  in 
the  believer,  he  abides  in  Him :  "  Christ  in  you 
the  hope  of  glory."  This  union  excludes  wilful 
sin.  When  this  is  committed,  the  union  is 
dissolved.  If  Christ  should  continue  to  dwell 
in  the  heart  which  persists  in  a  course  of  vol 
untary  transgression  of  the  known  law  of  God, 
He  would  become  what  St.  Paul  styles,  "  the 
minister  of  sin,"  and  not  a  destroyer  of  the 
works  of  the  devil. 

In  Mr.  Wesley's  day,  when  an  un-Scriptural 
view  of  the  doctrine  of  imputed  righteousness 
was  much  preached,  he  not  unfrequently  met 
men  who,  while  claiming  to  be  "perfect  in 
Christ,  not  in  themselves,"  affirmed  that  their 
faith  canceled  their  obligations  to  obey  the 
Divine  law.  They  might,  as  they  wickedly 
claimed,  violate  any  or  all  the  ten  command 
ments  without  being  guilty  of  sin,  so  long  as 
they  maintained  faith  in  Christ.  No  wonder 


120  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

Mr.  Wesley  wrote  of  such  men  :  "  Surely,  these 
are  the  first-born  children  of  Satan." 

The  true  doctrine  of  the  result  of  union  with 
Christ,  is  very  truly  expressed  by  Rev.  Mr. 
Sears,  of  the  Unitarian  faith :  "  The  atonement 
brings  the  believer  into  such  a  vital  union  with 
Christ  as  to  produce  from  within,  outwardlVj 
not  a  putative,  but  a  genuine,  righteousness." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT. 

THE  basis  of  the  doctrine  of  imputed  holiness 
is  that  theory  of  the  atonement  which  represents 
that  Christ  Jesus,  the  sinless  Son  of  God,  in 
whom  He  was  well  pleased,  was  literally  identi 
fied  with  sin  so  as  to  be  "  wholly  chargeable 
therewith,  that  we  might  be  identified  and 
wholly  charged  with  righteousness."  This  quo 
tation  is  from  Dr.  George  S.  Bishop,  who  pro 
ceeds  to  say,  "  The  atonement  which  we  preach 
is  one  of  absolute  exchange,  that  Christ  took 
our  place  literally  —  that  God  regarded  and 
treated  Christ  as  a  sinner,  and  that  He  regards 
and  treats  the  believing  sinner  as  Christ.  From 
the  moment  we  believe,  God  looks  upon  us  as 
if  we  were  Christ.  .  .  .  We  then  are  saved, 
straight  through  eternity,  by  what  the  Son  of 
God  has  done  in  our  place.  .  .  .  Other  consid- 
121 


122  ANTIKOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

erations  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  It  matters 
nothing  what  we  have  been,  what  we  are,  or 
what  we  shall  be.  From  the  moment  we  believe 
on  Christ,  we  are  forever,  in  God's  sight,  AS 
CHRIST.  Of  course  it  is  involved  in  this  that 
men  are  saved,  not  by  preparing  first,  that  is,  by 
repenting,  and  praying,  and  reading  the  Bible, 
and  then  trusting  Christ ;  nor  the  converse  of 
this,  that  is,  by  trusting  Christ  first,  and  then 
preparing  something  —  repentance,  reformation, 
good  works  —  which  God  will  accept ;  but  that 
sinners  are  saved  irrespective  of  what  they  are 
—  how  they  feel  —  what  they  have  done  — 
what  they  hope  to  do  —  by  trusting  on  Christ 
only,  that  the  instant  Christ  is  seen  and  rested 
on,  the  soul's  eternity,  by  God's  free  promise, 
and  regardless  of  all  character  and  works,  is 
fixed." 

We  would  call  attention  to  the  following 
points  in  the  above  quotation ;  — 

1.  Repentance  is  not  necessary  to  saving 
faith. 


PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  123 

2.  Good  works,  as  the  fruit  of  saving  faith, 
and  proof  of  its  genuineness,  have  no  place  in 
this  scheme  of  salvation,  and  are  distinctly  repu 
diated  ;  and  well  they  may  be,  since  by  the  first 
act  of  faith,  as  a  bare,  intellectual,  impenitent 
apprehension  that  God  punished  His  Son  for 
our  past,  present,  and  future  sins,  "  the  soul's 
eternal  salvation,  regardless  of  conduct  and  char 
acter,  is  FIXED."     "  What  we  shall  be  matters 
nothing"  since  we  have  a  through  ticket  for 
Heaven.     St.  James  is  an  impertinence  in  this 
scheme  of  salvation,  and  his  epistle  may  well 
be  called  "strawy." 

3.  That  "  God  regarded  and  treated  Christ 
as  a  sinner  " ;  in  other  words,  that  He  actually 
punished  His  Son  because  he  was  guilty  of  our 
sins.     There  was  a  time  in  the  life  of  Martin 
Luther  when  he  sowed  the  seeds  of  this  error, 
which  produced  a  sad  harvest  of  antinomianism. 
He  used  words   which  seem  not  blasphemous, 
merely    because    the    intention  was  wanting. 
"  The  prophets  did  foresee  in  Spirit  that  Christ 


124  ANTLNOMTANTSM   REVIVED. 

would  become  the  greatest  transgressor,  mur 
derer,  thief,  rebel  and  blasphemer  that  ever  was" 
or  can  be."  "  Whatsoever  sins  I,  thou,  and  we 
shall  have  done,  or  shall  do  hereafter,  they 
are  Christ's  own  sins,  as  verily  as  if  He  had 
done  them  Himself." 

We  once  heard  a  layman,  an  ex-president  of 
the  Boston  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  assert  in  a  public  evan 
gelistic  service  that  "  Jesus  Christ  on  the  cross 
was  the  greatest  sinner  in  the  universe  ! "  Such 
statements  are  usually  attended  by  the  portrayal 
with  terrific  distinctness,  of  the  Almighty 
Father  in  the  act  of  hurling  His  thunderbolts, 
in  blasting  shocks,  down  upon  the  defenceless 
head  of  His  shrinking  and  suffering  Son. 

We  indignantly  repudiate  the  monstrous  idea 
that  Jesus  on  the  cross  was  a  sinner  over 
whelmed  with  the  bolts  of  the  Father's  personal 
wrath.  What  we  do  affirm  is  that  his  sufferings 
and  death  were  in  no  sense  a  punishment,  but 
a  substitute  for  punishment,  answering  the  same 
end,  the  conservation  of  God's  moral  govern- 


PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.    125 

ment  and  the  vindication  of  His  holy  character 
while  He  pardons  penitent  believers. 

The  chief  proof-text  of  the  doctrine  that 
Christ  on  the  cross  was  a  gigantic  sinner,  is  2 
Cor.  v.  21.  "  For  He  hath  made  him  to  be  sin 
for  us,  who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be  made 
the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him."  This  is 
styled  "  the  sublime  equation."  Jesus  becomes 
guilty  of  our  sins  and  suffers  their  punishment, 
and  His  righteousness  is  henceforth  forever 
reckoned  as  ours.  The  exchange  of  our  sin 
for  Christ's  righteousness  is  "  absolute." 

The  common  sense  exegesis  of  this  text  is, 
that  Jesus  became  of  His  own  free  will  a  sin- 
offering  for  us,  and  that  this  is  the  meaning  of 
sin  in  the  first  clause.  This  is  the  interpreta 
tion  of  Augustine,  Ambrosiaster,  Erasmus, 
(Ecumenius,  Vatablus,  Cornelius  a  Lapidis,  Pis- 
cator,  Bitsche,  Wolf,  Hammond,  Michaelis, 
Rosenmiiller,  Ewald,  Raymond,  and  others. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Hebrew  word, 
chattath,  is  used  in  the  Old  Testament  by  actual 


126  ANTENOMIANTSM   REVIVED. 

count  one  hundred  and  sixty  times  for  sin,  and 
one  hundred  and  twelve  times  for  sin-offering. 
It  is  very  natural  that  such  a  mind  as  Paul's, 
saturated  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  should 
sometimes  use  the  Greek  term  for  sin,  liamartia, 
in  the  sense  of  sin-offering.  So  obvious  is  this 
usage  in  Paul's  Epistles,  that  the  Revision  has 
twice,  at  least,  translated  this  term  by  "sin 
offering  "  —  Rom.  viii.  3 ;  Heb.  xiii.  11.  We 
contend  that  it  should  be  thus  rendered  in  2 
Cor.v.  21. 

4.  We  have  insuperable  philosophical  and 
ethical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  receiving  the 
statement  that  the  guilt  of  the  race  was  trans 
ferred  to  Christ.  Character  is  personal,  and 
cannot  be  transferred.  Sin  is  not  an  entity,  a 
substance  which  can  be  separated  from  the  sin 
ner  and  be  transferred  to  another  and  be  made 
an  attribute  of  his  character  by  such  a  transfer. 
Sin  is  the  act  or  state  of  a  sinner,  as  thought  is 
the  act  or  state  of  the  thinker.  Neither  can 
have  an  essential  existence  separate  from  their 


PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.    127 

personal  subject,  any  more  than  any  attribute 
can  exist  separate  from  its  substance. 

5.  If  sin  cannot  exist  in  the  abstract,  it  can 
not  be  punished  in  the  abstract.  If  it  cannot 
be  transferred  to  another,  it  cannot  be  punished 
in  another,  though  one  man  may  voluntarily 
suffer  to  save  another  from  punishment. 

Hence  we  repudiate  in  the  interest  of  sound 
ethical  philosophy  and  clearness  of  thought,  the 
following  proposition  of  Dr.  Bishop  :  — 

"  If  the  sin  of  the  believing  sinner  is  taken 
from  his  shoulders  and  laid  upon  the  Son  of 
God,  then  justice,  still  following  after  sin,  must 
strike  through  sin  and  the  person  of  the  Son  of 
God  beneath  it." 

It  is  a  moral  axiom  that  only  the  guilty  can 
be  rightfully  punished.  If  Christ  was  hoiy, 
harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate  from  sinners, 
to  punish  Him  would  be,  not  only  contrary  to 
all  human  law,  but  it  would  outrage  all  those 
God-given  moral  sentiments  on  which  human 
law  rests.  It  is  in  vain  that  Dr.  Bishop  seeks  for 


128  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

analogies  to  sustain  the  monstrous  injustice  of 
punishing  innocence.  He  says,  "  When  a  father 
commits  a  crime,  his  whole  family  sink  in  the 
social  scale,  though  innocent."  Here  he  con 
founds  the  natural  consequences  of  sin  with  the 
punishment  of  sin.  Dr.  Bishop  should  show 
that  society  universally  hangs  the  innocent 
family  on  the  same  gibbet  with  the  guilty  hus 
band  and  father.  Then  the  case  would  be  aiial- 
agous. 

Many  persons  use  the  expression  "  Christ  in 
the  stead  of  the  sinner  suffered  the  punishment 
of  his  sin,"  without  subjecting  this  proposition 
to  that  rigid  analysis  which  theological  accuracy 
requires.  While  it  is  true  that  Jesus  is  our 
substitute,  He  is  our  substitute  truly  and  strict 
ly  only  in  suffering,  not  in  punishment.  Sin 
cannot  be  punished  and  pardoned  also.  This 
would  be  a  moral  contradiction.  Sin  is  con 
ditionally  pardoned  because  Jesus  has  suffered 
and  died.  There  is  no  punishment  of  sin  ex 
cept  in  the  person  of  the  sinner  who  neglects 


PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.    129 

so  great  a  Saviour.  Sin  was  not  punished  on 
the  Cross.  Calvary  was  the  scene  of  won 
drous  mercy  and  love,  not  of  wrath  and 
penalty. 

Says  Dr.  Whedon,  "  Punishment  in  the  strict 
sense  implies  the  guilt  of  the  sufferer  as  its 
correlative.  Whenever  the  sinner  arid  the  suf 
ferer  are  not  the  same,  it  is  only  by  an  allow 
able  inaccuracy  that  the  suffering  can  be  called 
punishment.  It  follows  that  it  is  not  strictly 
accurate  to  say  that  Christ  was  punished,  or 
that  he  truly  suffered  the  punishment  of  sin." 

But  this  inaccuracy  is  no  longer  "  allowable  " 
when  it  is  made  the  basis  of  the  doctrine  of 
imputed  holiness,  which  tramples  the  holy  law 
of  God  under  foot,  and  flings  its  obligations  to 
the  winds  on  the  plea  of  an  inalienable  stand 
ing  in  Christ,  in  whom,  despite  my  wallowing 
in  fleshly  lusts,  I  am  seen  to  be  as  holy  us  He 
is  holy. 

6.  But  the  ethical  difficulties  thicken  as  we 
continue  om  examination  of  this  view  of  the 
atonement. 


130  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

A  LIMITED  ATONEMENT 

Is  the  inevitable  outcome  of  the  doctrine  that 
siri  was  punished  on  the  cross.  Whose  sin? 
If  it  be  answered,  that  of  the  whole  human 
race,  then  universalism  emerges,  for  God  cannot 
in  justice  punish  sin  twice.  It  must  be,  then, 
that  the  sins  oi  the  elect  only  were  punished. 
Hence  at  the  bottom,  this  system  of  doctrine 
rests  upon  the  tenet  of  a  particular,  in  distinction 
from  a  universal  atonement.  The  fact  that  this 
basis  is  not  avowed,  and  that  the  terminology 
of  hyper-predestinarianism,  such  as  "  the  elect," 
"  the  reprobates,"  "  special  call,"  "  irresistible 
grace,"  "perseverance  of  the  saints,"  and  salva 
tion  by  "Divine  Sovereignty,"  is  studiously 
avoided,  makes  this  system  of  doctrine  still 
more  dangerous,  because  these  offensive  feat 
ures  are  concealed  with  Jesuitical  cunning. 
We  cannot  resist  the  suspicion  that  this  is 
designed,  so  as  to  make  it  palatable  to  those 
educated  in  the  Arminian  faith,  in  order  to 


PLYMOUTH  VIEW  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  131 

catch  them  with  guile.  Some  unreflective 
Arminians  are  thus  unawares  entrapped  into 
the  reception  of  that  unmitigated  scheme  of 
doctrine  which  Christendom  is  almost  univer 
sally  shaking  off. 

In  our  first  interview  with  Mr.  Darby,  we 
asked  what  was  his  view  of  election  founded 
on  the  foreseen,  free,  acceptance  of  the  condi 
tions  of  salvation,  repentance  toward  God,  and 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  His  reply  was  that  "  an 
election,  grounded  upon  reasons,  would  destroy 
the  sovereignty  of  God,  and  that  no  act  of  the 
creature,  no  foreseen  faith  in  Christ,  conditioned 
election." 


CHAPTER   VII. 

ETERNAL   LIFE    NON-FOIIFEITABLE. 

IN  two  instances  Jesus  speaks  of  everlasting 
life  as  a  present  possession  :  "  He  that  heareth 
(continually)  my  words  hath  everlasting  life  " 
(John  v.  24)  ;  "  He  that  believeth  (persever- 
ingly)  on  me  hath  everlasting  life  "  (John  vi. 
47). 

The  reader  of  the  Greek  Testament  sees  at  a 
glance  the  condition  expressed  in  the  present 
tense  of  the  verb  "  heareth  "  and  "  believeth." 
If  these  conditions  are  fulfilled,  the  new  life 
inspired  by  the  first  act  of  evangelical  faith 
becomes  everlasting.  This  is  the  common  sense 
view.  If  this  faith,  at  any  point  of  probation, 
lapses,  the  life  expires.  That  everlasting  life 
once  begun  can  be  lost,  is  no  more  a  contradic 
tion  in  terms  than  the  Jew's  forfeiture  of  the 
land  which  God  gave  to  them  for  "  an  eveiiast- 


ETERNAL  LIFE   NON-FORFEIT  ABLE.       133 

ing  possession"  (Gen.  xvii.  8),  nor  the  seed  of 
Phineas  losing  "  the  everlasting  priesthood," 
nor  the  Israelites  breaking  "the  everlasting 
covenant "  (Is.  xxiv.  5),  and  finding  out  Jeho 
vah's  "breach  of  promise"  (Num.  xiv.  34). 
Hymeneus  and  Philetus  forfeited  the  everlast 
ing  heritage  of  believers  by  "  making  shipwreck 
of  faith  and  a  good  conscience." 

We  infer,  therefore,  that  the  words  "hath 
everlasting  life,"  were  never  designed  as  a  non 
forfeitable  insurance  policy,  giving  an  uncondi 
tional  and  inalienable  right  to  the  rewards  of 
Heaven.  They  are  a  compendious  expression 
for  the  spiritual  life  already  inspired,  which  is 
destined  to  become  everlasting  if  its  conditions 
are  fulfilled  through  the  whole  of  our  probation. 

A  SOUL  BORN  OF  GOD  CAN  NEVER  BE  UN 
BORN. 

An  abuse  of  figurative  language  is  a  strong 
hold  of  religious  error.  Antinomianism  seizes 
upon  "  the  new  birth,"  "  the  being  born  again," 


134  ANTINOM1ANISM   REVIVED. 

"a  child  or  son  of  God,"  and  presses  these 
phrases  into  a  proof  of  an  unchangeable  accept 
ance  with  God,  however  grossly  sinful  the  once 
regenerate  person  may  afterwards  become.  J. 
Fletcher  thus  points  out  the  fallacy  in  this  rea 
soning  :  "  According  to  the  oriental  style,  a  fol 
lower  of  wisdom  is  called  '  a  son  of  wisdom  ' ; 
and  one  that  deviates  from  her  path,  '  a  son  of 
folly ' ;  a  wicked  man  is  called  '  a  son  of  Belial, 
a  child  of  the  wicked  one,  and  a  child  of  the 
devil.'  But  when  he  turns  from  wicked  works, 
by  faith,  he  becomes  a  child  of  God.  Hence  the 
passing  from  the  ways  of  Satan  to  the  ways  of  God 
was  naturally  called  conversion  and  a  new  birth. 
Hence  some  divines,  who,  like  Nicodenms,  car 
nalize  the  expressions  new  birth,  child  of  Crod,  and 
son  of  God,  assert,  that  if  men  who  once  walked  in 
God's  ways  turn  back,  even  into  adultery,  mur 
der,  and  incest,  they  are  still  God's  dear  people 
and  pleasant  children,  in  the  Gospel  sense  of  the 
words.  They  ask,  "  Can  a  man  be  a  child  of 
God  to-day,  and  a  child  of  the  devil  to-morrow  ? 


ETERNAL  LIFE  NON-FORFEITABLE.        135 

Can  lie  be  born  this  week,  and  unborn  the  next?" 
And  with  these  questions  they  as  much  think 
they  have  overthrown  the  doctrine  of  holiness, 
and  one-half  of  the  Bible,  as  honest  Nicodemus 
supposed  he  had  demolished  the  doctrine  of  re 
generation,  and  stopped  our  Lord's  mouth,  when 
he  said,  "  Can  a  man  enter  the  second  time  into 
his  mother's  womb  and  be  born  ?  " 

The  question  would  be  easily  answered,  if, 
setting  aside  the  oriental  mode  of  speech,  they 
simply  asked,  "  May  one  who  has  '  ceased  to  do 
evil '  and  learned  to  do  well  to-day,  cease  to  do 
well  and  learn  to  do  evil  to-morrow  ?  To  this 
we  could  directly  reply,  If  the  dying  thief,  the 
Philippian  jailor,  and  multitudes  of  Jews,  in  one 
day  went  over  from  the  sons  of  folly  to  the  sons 
of  wisdom,  where  is  the  absurdity  of  saying  they 
could  measure  the  same  way  back  again  in  one 
day,  and  draw  back  in  the  horrid  womb  of  sin 
as  easily  as  Satan  drew  back  into  rebellion, 
Adam  into  disobedience,  David  into  adultery, 
Solomon  into  idolatry,  Judas  into  treason,  and 


136  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

Ananias  and  Sapphira  into  covetousness  ? 
When  Peter  had  shown  himself  a  blessed  son 
of  heavenly  wisdom,  by  confessing  Jesus  Christ, 
did  he  even  stay  till  the  next  day  to  become  a 
son  of  folly  by  following  the  "wisdom  which 
is  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish"?  Was  not 
our  Lord  directly  obliged  to  rebuke  him  with 
utmost  severity,  by  saying,  "  Get  thee  behind 
me,  Satan  "  ? 

A  SHEEP  CAN  NEVER  BECOME  A  GOAT. 

Here  is  another  Antinomian  abuse  of  figures. 
In  the  day  of  judgment  the  human  race  stand 
separate  —  the  sheep  and  the  goats.  It  is  said 
that  since  a  sheep  can  never  become  a  goat,  be 
cause  of  the  law  of  the  invariability  of  species,  so 
one  once  called  by  Christ  a  sheep  can  never  be 
come  a  goat.  But  this  logic  proves  too  much. 
Can  a  goat  ever,  by  any  power  divine,  become  a 
sheep?  Can  a  sinner  ever  become  a  saint  if  it 
is  impossible  for  a  saint  ever  to  become  an  incor 
rigible  sinner?  Yet  multitudes,  who  live  in 


ETERNAL   LIFE   1SON-FOKFEJ.TABLE.       137 

open  sin,  build  their  hopes  of  heaven  upon  this 
palpable  mistake.  "  Once  I  heard  the  Shep 
herd's  voice,"  say  these  apostate  souls  ;  "I/0Z- 
loived  Him,  and  received  His  ear-mark,  water  bap 
tism,  and  therefore  I  was  one  of  His  sheep;  and 
now,  though  I  follow  the  voice  of  a  stranger  who 
leads  me  into  all  manner  of  sins,  into  adultery 
and  murder,  I  am  undoubtedly  a  sheep  ;  for  it 
was  never  heard  that  a  sheep  became  a  goat." 
"  A  washed  sow  is  no  sheep,"  said  Mr.  Darby 
to  the  writer,  with  an  air  of  logical  conclusive- 
ness.  Says  Fletcher,  "  Such  persons  do  not  ob 
serve  that  our  Lord  calls  '  sheep  '  those  who 
hear  His  voice,  and  '  goats '  those  who  follow 
that  of  the  tempter.  Nor  do  they  consider  that 
Saul,  a  grievous  wolf,  'breathing  slaughter 
against  Christ's  sheep,'  and  '  making  havoc ' 
of  His  little  flock,  could  in  a  short  time  be 
changed  into  a  sheep  and  a  shepherd ;  David, 
a  harmless  sheep  (and  shepherd  of  Israel),  could 
in  a  short  time  commence  a  goat  with  Bathsheba, 
and  prove  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  to  her  hus- 


138  ANTINOMIAN1SM  REVIVED. 

band."  Fletcher  shows  the  superlative  fallacy 
of  this  style  of  logic  by  quoting  the  metaphors 
of  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus,  who  style  the 
Jews  a  "  brood  of  vipers  and  serpents."  Christ 
afterwards  compares  this  vipers'  brood  to  a 
brood  of  a  hen  !  Had  the  vipers  become  chick 
ens?  To  convince  the  reader  that  this  is 

ANTIXOMIANISM  UNADULTERATED, 

we  quote  the  following  from  Tobias  Crisp, 
D.  D.,  eminent  preacher  and  writer  of  the  An 
glican  Church  in  the  seventeenth  century,  that 
our  readers  may  understand  the  logical  outcome 
and  immoral  tendency  of  this  pernicious  doc 
trine  :  — 

"  Though  a  believer  does  sin,  yet  he  is  not  to  be 
reckoned  as  a  sinner ;  his  sins  are  reckoned  to 
be  taken  away  from  him.  God  reckons  not  his 
sin  to  be  his  ;  he  reckons  it  Christ's,  therefore 
he  cannot  reckon  it  to  be  his.  Christ  does  jus 
tify  a  person  before  he  believes  ;  we  do  not  be 
lieve  that  we  may  be  justified,  but  because  we 


ETERNAL  LIFE   NON-FOUFEITABLE.       130 

are  justified.  The  elect  are  justified  from  eter 
nity,  at  Christ's  death ;  and  the  latest  time  is 
before  we  are  born.  It  is  a  received  conceit 
among  persons  that  our  obedience  is  the  way  to 
heaven ;  but  I  must  tell  you,  all  this  sanctifica- 
tion  of  life  is  not  a  jot  the  way  of  that  justified 
person  to  heaven.  To  what  purpose  do  we  pro 
pose  to  ourselves  the  gaining  of  that  by  our 
labor  and  industry  which  is  already  become  ours 
before  we  do  one  jot?  The  Lord  does  nothing 
in  his  people  upon  conditions.  He  intends  not 
that  by  our  obedience  we  shall  gain  something, 
which  in  case  of  our  failing  we  shall  miscarry 
of.  While  you  labor  to  get  by  duties,  you  pro 
voke  God  as  much  as  in  you  lies.  We  must  work 
from  life  and  not  for  life.  Love  to  the  brethren, 
universal  obedience,  and  all  other  inherent 
qualifications,  are  no  signs  by  which  we  are  to 
judge  of  our  state  ("  standing  "  is  the  modern 
term).  Every  elect  vessel,  from  the  first  in 
stant  of  his  being,  is  as  pure  in  the  eyes  of  God 
from  the  charge  of  sin  as  he  shall  be  in  glory. 


140  ATINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

Though  such  persons  do  act  rebellion,  yet  the 
loathsomeness  and  hatefulness  of  this  rebellion 
is  laid  on  the  back  of  Christ ;  He  bears  the  sin, 
as  well  as  the  blame  and  shame  ;  and  God  can 
dwell  with  such  persons  that  act  the  thing,  be 
cause  all  the  filthiness  of  it  is  translated  from 
them  upon  the  back  of  Christ.  It  is  the  voice 
of  a  lying  spirit  in  your  hearts  that  says  '  you 
that  are  believers  (as  David)  have  yet  sin  wast 
ing  your  conscience.'  David  indeed  says,  '  My 
sins  are  gone  over  my  head,'  but  he  speaks 
from  himself,  and  all  that  he  speaks  from  himself 
was  not  truth.  There  is  as  much  ground  to  be 
confident  of  the  pardon  of  sin  to  a  believer,  as 
soon  as  he  has  committed  it,  as  to  believe  it  after 
he  has  performed  all  the  humiliation  in  the 
world.  A  believer  may  be  assured  of  pardon  as 
soon  as  he  has  committed  any  sin,  even  adultery 
and  murder.  God  does  no  longer  stands  dis 
pleased,  though  a  believer  do  sin  often.  There 
is  no  sin  that  even  believers  commit  that  can 
possibly  do  them  any  hurt.  Therefore,  as  their 


ETERNAL,  LIFE  NONFORFEITABLE.       141 

sins  cannot  hurt  them,  so  there  is  no  cause  of 
fear  in  their  sins  committed.  Sins  are  but 
scarecrows  and  bugbears  to  frighten  ignorant 
children,  but  men  of  understanding  see  they  are 
counterfeit  things.  If  we  tell  believers,  except 
they  walk  thus  and  thus  holily,  and  do  these 
and  these  good  works,  God  will  be  angry  with 
them,  we  abuse  the  Scriptures,  undo  what 
Christ  has  done,  injure  believers,  and  tell  God 
lies  to  His  face.  All  our  righteousness  is  filthy, 
full  of  menstruosity,  the  highest  kind  of  filtlii- 
ness ;  —  even  what  is  the  Spirit's  must  be  in 
volved  within  that  which  is  man's  own,  under 
the  general  notion  of  doing" 

"  It  is  a  soft  and  easy  doctrine  to  bid  men  sit 
still  and  believe,  as  if  God  would  translate 
them  to  heaven  upon  their  couches !  Christ 
expects  that  those  who  have  grace  should  put 
forth  the  utmost  power  thereof  in  laboring  after 
the  salvation  He  has  purchased  for  them."  "  So 
work  with  that  earnestness,  constancy,  and  un- 
weariuess  in  well  doing,  as  if  thy  works  alone 


142  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

were  able  to  justify  and  save  thee ;  and  so  ab 
solutely  depend  and  rely  upon  the  merits  of 
Christ  for  justification  and  salvation,  as  if  thou 
never  hadst  performed  one  act  of  obedience  in  all 
thy  life.  This  is  the  right  Gospel  frame  of  obedi 
ence,  so  to  work  as  if  we  were  only  to  be  saved 
by  our  own  merits ;  and  withal  so  to  rest  on 
the  merits  of  Christ,  as  if  we  had  never  wrought 
anything.  It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  give  to  each 
of  these  its  due  in  practice.  When  we  work,  we 
are  apt  to  neglect  Christ ;  and  when  we  rely  on 
Christ  we  are  apt  to  neglect  working.  But 
that  Christian  has  got  the  right  art  of  obedience 
who  can  mingle  these  two  together ;  who  can 
with  one  hand  '  work  the  works  of  God,'  and 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  lay  fast  hold  on  the  merit 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Let  this  Antinomian  principle 
be  forever  rooted  out  of  the  minds  of  men,  that 
our  working  is  derogatory  to  Christ's  work. 
He  gave  himself  for  us,  that  He  might  redeem 
us  from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  to  Himself  a 
peculiar  people,  ZEALOUS  OF  GOOD  WORKS.'" 


ETEUNAL  LIFE  NON-FORFEITABLE.     148 

MODERN  ANTINOMIANISM. 

We  quote  from  modern  writers  essentially 
the  same  doctrines  as  those  taught  by  Dr. 
Crisp,  only  there  is  apparently  a  shrinking  from 
the  frank  statement  of  their  logical  outcome. 
There  is  rather  an  attempt  to  draw  a  vail  over 
those  inferences  which  old  Antinomianism 
plainly  avowed.  In  this  particular,  the  old  is 
less  dangerous  than  the  new. 

We  turn  to  Mclntosh's  Notes  on  various 
books  of  the  Bible,  a  series  of  diffuse  annota 
tions  highly  esteemed  by  D.  L.  Moody  and 
many  other  evangelists  :  "  The  very  moment 
in  which  a  soul  is  born  again,  —  born  from 
above,  and  sealed  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  —  he  is 
incorporated  into  the  body  of  Christ.  He  can 
no  longer  view  himself  as  a  solitary  individual 
—  an  independent  person  —  an  isolated  atom; 
he  is  a  member  of  a  body,  just  as  the  hand  or 
foot  is  a  member  of  the  human  body."  "  There 
are  two  grand  links  in  Christianity,  which, 


144  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

though  very  intimately  connected,  are  perfectly 
distinct ;  namely,  the  link  of  eternal  life,  and 
the  link  of  personal  communion.  The  former 
never  can  be  snapped  ly  anything,  the  latter  can 
be  snapped  in  a  moment,  by  the  weight  of  a 
feather."  It  seems  that  a  sin  as  light  as  a 
feather  can  suspend  communion,  while  the  vio 
lation  of  every  one  of  the  ten  commandments, 
over  and  over  again,  can  never  snap  the  link  of 
eternal  life !  Comforting  indeed  to  the  back 
slider  !  His  fear  that  he  may  at  last  be  filled 
with  his  own  ways,  are  groundless.  "  Behold 
ers  many  faults  may  find ;  but,  as  regards  our 
standing,  our  God  sees  us  only  in  the  comeli 
ness  of  Christ ;  we  are  perfect  in  Him.  When 
God  looks  at  His  people,  He  beholds  in  them 
His  own  workmanship  ;  and  it  is  to  the  glory 
of  His  holy  name,  and  to  the  praise  of  His  sal 
vation,  that  not  a  blemish  should  be  seen  on 
those  who  are  His  —  those  whom  He,  in  sov 
ereign  grace,  has  made  His  own.  His  charac 
ter,  His  name,  His  glory,  and  the  perfection  of 


ETERNAL   LIFE   NON-FORFEIT ABLK.        145 

His  work,  are  all  involved  in  the  standing  of 
those  with  whom  He  has  linked  Hi:nself." 
Tims  it  would  seem  that  David's  workmanship, 
in  making  himself  an  adulterer  and  a  murderer, 
is  utterly  ignored  as  a  blemish.  While  in 
Uriah's  bed  his  standing  as  perfectly  holy  is 
absolute.  "We  must  never  measure  the  stand 
ing  by  the  state,  but  always  judge  the  state  by 
the  standing.  To  lower  the  standing  because 
of  the  state,  is  to  give  the  death-blow  to  all 
progress  in  practical  Christianity."  That  is, 
we  must  never  judge  the  tree  by  the  fruit,  but 
always  the  fruit  by  the  tree.  If  a  crab  scion, 
grafted  on  a  golden  pippin,  still  produces  crab- 
apples,  we  must  aver  that  they  are  golden  pip 
pins,  because  the  crab  has  a  golden  pippin 
standing.  "  The  people  of  God  are  seen  only 
in  ' the  vision  of  the  Almighty' — seen  as  He 
sees  them,  without  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such 
thing  —  all  their  deformities  hidden  from  view 
—  all  His  comeliness  seen  upon  them."  "He 
hath  not  beheld  iniquity  in  Jacob,  neither  hath 


146  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

he  seen  perverseness  in  Israel."  The  enemy 
may  say,  "  There  is  iniquity  and  perverseness 
there  all  the  while."  "  Yes ;  but  who  can  make 
Jehovah  behold  it,  when  He  Himself  has  been 
pleased  to  blot  it  all  out  as  a  thick  cloud  for 
His  name's  sake  ?  "  "  God  will  never  reverse  His 
decision  as  to  what  His  people  are  as  to  stand- 
ing." 

This  is  the  comment  on  the  shameless  licen 
tiousness  of  Israel  on  the  plains  of  Moab,  with 
the  women  of  Midian.  Their  standing  is  still 
the  same  as  it  was  when  the  prophet  stood  on 
Pisgah.  "It  reminds  us  of  the  opening  and 
close  of  2  Cor.  xii.  In  the  former  we  have 
the  positive  standing  of  the  Christian ;  in  the 
latter,  the  possible  state  into  which  he  may  fall, 
if  not  watchful.  That  shows  us  a  "  man  in 
Christ "  capable  of  being  caught  up  into  Para 
dise  at  any  moment.  This  shows  us  saints  of 
God  capable  of  plunging  into  all  manner  of  sin 
folly."  Of  course  the  plunge  into  the 


ETERNAL   LIFE   NON-FORFEITABLE.       147 

cesspool  has  not  the  least  damaging  effect  on 
their  clean  standing  in  Christ.  These  quota 
tions  are  from  Mclntosh  on  Numbers. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

HOLINESS    IMPUTED. 

THERE  is  much  confused  and  erroneous  think 
ing  and  teaching  on  the  subject  of  imputed 
righteousness  and  imputed  holiness.  Some  are 
confounding  the  two,  and  teaching  that  the 
only  holiness  possible  to  us  in  this  world  is  the 
robe  of  Christ's  righteousness  thrown  around 
hearts  inherently  impure.  In  the  interest  of 
clear  thought  and  Christian  purity,  we  invite 
the  reader  to  a  discussion  of  the  radical  distinc 
tion  between  imputed  righteousness  and  im 
puted  holiness.  The  term  "impute,"  literally 
signifies  "  to  think  to,"  to  reckon  one  thing  be 
longs  to  another  when  it  really  does  not.  In 
the  Revision  it  is  superseded  by  the  word 
"reckon." 

We  define  righteousness  in  man  to  be  con- 
148 


HOLINESS  IMPUTED.  14JA 

formity  to  the  Divine  law,   and   holiness   con 
fortuity  to  the  Divine  nature. 

Jesus  Christ  is  both  righteous  and  holy. 
These  qualities  are  personal,  inherent,  and  un 
transferable.  But  in  addition  to  His  personal 
righteousness  He  has  a  mediatorial  righteous 
ness,  the  merit  of  His  passive  obedience,  labors, 
sacrifices,  sufferings,  death,  and  high-priestly 
intercessions.  Now,  although  the  phrase,  "  the 
imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness,"  or 
"  Christ's  imputed  righteousness,"  is  not  found 
in  the  Bible,  the  doctrine  itself  is  found  in  the 
epistles  of  Paul  unfolded  extendedly,  and  it  is 
hinted  at  in  the  Gospels  when  Jesus  speaks  of 
giving  His  life  for  the  world,  or  as  a  ransom  for 
many.  But  it  is  always  His  mediatorial,  and 
not  His  personal  righteousness.  The  absolute 
necessity  of  this  imputation  in  the  scheme  of 
redemption,  arises  from  the  fact  that  one  past 
sin  produces  an  eternal  disconformity  to  the 
Divine  law,  so  that  the  Lawgiver  cannot  treat 
us  as  if  we  had  never  sinned  without  violating 


150  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

the  truth  of  history,  and  cheating  the  law  of 
its  demands.  Hence  pardon  and  salvation 
would  be  impossible  under  the  reign  of  strict 
and  unbending  law.  But  here  conies  in  the 
mediatorial  righteousness  of  Christ  to  all  who 
plead  it  as  the  ground  of  justification,  so  that 
God  can  be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  who 
believeth.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  construct 
ive,  not  to  say  fictitious,  conformity,  to  the  law, 
now  possible  through  faith  in  the  merits  of 
Christ.  Otherwise,  law  would  be  forever 
against  us.  The  necessity  of  this  scheme  of 
imputation  lies  in  the  fact  that  God  Himself 
cannot  change  the  past.  It  is  a  record  abso 
lutely  inerasible. 

But  when  God  wishes  to  make  men  holy,  or 
bring  them  into  conformity  to  His  own  nature, 
there  is  no  such  inerasible  record  in  the  way. 
Justification  is  a  work  done  for  us,  and  has 
reference  to  the  past ;  sanctifi cation  is  a  work 
wrought  in  us,  and  always  has  respect  to  the 
present.  Hence,  imputation  of  holiness  is  not 


HOLINESS   IMPUTED.  151 

necessary.  In  fact,  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  it  is  impossible.  There  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  vicarious  character,  for  character  is  the 
sum  total  of  what  we  ourselves  are.  There 
may  be  a  vicarious  assumption  of  another's 
debt ;  there  cannot  be  a  vicarious  assumption 
of  another's  character.  Hence,  holiness  must 
be  personal,  inherent,  inwrought  and  imparted 
by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  procured  by 
the  same  atonement  by  which  it  is  possible  for 
us,  through  faith,  to  be  conformed  to  the  Divine 
law,  or  savingly  adjusted  to  an  inerasible,  sinful 
record. 

IN  CHKIST. 

The  phrase  "  in  Christ "  is  perpetually  quoted 
as  a  proof-text  to  sustain  the  doctrine  of  im 
puted  holiness,  a  quality  not  imparted  to  us, 
being  inwrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  ever 
afterwards  existing  inherently  in  the  believer ; 
but  an  attribute  of  Jesus  Christ  regarded  by 
God  as  belonging  to  Christians,  even  when  they 
are  unholy  in  character  and  wicked  in  conduct. 


152  AtfTINOMIAXISM   REVIVED. 

The  theory  is  that  Jesus  Christ  is  standing  to* 
day  in  the  presence  of  the  Father  as  a  specimen 
and  representative  of  glorified  humanity,  and 
that  faith  in  Him  so  intimately  unites  us  with 
Him,  that  all  His  personal  excellencies  become 
ours  in  such  a  sense  as  to  excuse  us  if  we  lack 
them.  It  is  said  that  the  first  act  of  faith  eter 
nally  incorporates  us  into  the  glorified  person 
of  Christ,  so  that  whatever  sin  we  may  commit 
afterwards  we  incur  no  condemnation. 

Says  Fletcher :  "  People,  it  seems,  may  now 
be  'in  Christ,'  without  being  'new  creatures,' 
and  '  new  creatures '  without  casting  '  old 
things'  away.  They  may  be  God's  children 
without  God's  image  ;  and  '  born  of  the  Spirit ' 
without  '  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit.' '' 

The  favorite  proof-text  of  this  piece  of  rank 
Antinomianism  is  Rom.  viii.  1 :  "  There  is  there 
fore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in 
Christ  Jesus,"  with  special  attention  called  to 
the  omission  by  the  critical  MSS.  and  the  Re 
vised  Version,  of  the  limiting  clause :  "  who 


HOLINESS   IMPUTED.  153 

Walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit." 
Over  this  omission  the  imputationists  rejoice, 
as  if  it  unanswerably  demonstrated  the  truth  of 
their  doctrine,  that  God,  seeing  the  believer 
only  in  Christ,  beholds  no  sin  in  him,  even 
when  he  has  wilfully  and  flagrantly  transgressed 
the  known  law.  They  fail  to  note  that  the 
same  limiting  clause  stands  in  the  fourth  verse 
unquestioned  by  the  critics. 

Hence  their  assertion  that  the  flesh  is  a  sin 
ful  state  which  does  not  in  the  least  damage  our 
perfect  standing  in  Christ,  in  whom  the  carnally- 
minded  believer  is  as  holy  as  the  Son  of  God 
Himself.  It  is  said  that  "  the  standing  is  never 
to  be  judged  by  the  state,  but  the  state  by  the 
standing."  The  New  Testament  Scriptures  re 
lied  on  as  proofs  of  this  doctrine  are  those  in 
which  our  faith  is  imputed  for  righteousness. 
The  error  is  in  failing  to  notice  that  this  refers 
to  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  not  to  the  char 
acter  after  justification. 

Another  mistake  is  in  not  distinguishing  be- 


154  ANTiXOMIAXISM  REVIVED. 

tween  the  sum  total  of  Christ's  merits,  called 
His  mediatorial  righteousness,  and  His  own  per 
sonal  righteousness,  which  is  not  transferable. 
Character  is  personal  and  unimputable. 

Another  constantly  recurring  Scripture  is  the 
expression,  '*  in  Christ  "-  -  used  to  prove  an  act 
ual  incorporation  into  His  Person.  We  take 
up  our  pen  to  examine  these  words.  They  are 
not  found  in  the  four  Gospels  nor  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  They  are  Pauline,  being  used 
only  by  Paul,  except  in  1  Pet.  iii.  16 ;  v.  14. 
The  words,  "  in  the  Lord,"  are  peculiar  to  Paul 
also.  Elsewhere  they  are  found  only  in  Rev. 
xiv.  13.  What  does  Paul  mean  by  these 
phrases  ? 

1.  He  does  not  mean  incorporation  into  the 
glorified  Person  of  Christ,  for  he  always  (except 
in  1  Cor.  xv.  18  — "  asleep  in  Jesus  ")  avoids 
His  purely  personal  name,  Jesus,  never  saying 
"  in  Jesus,"  but  he  always  adds  one  of  His 
titular  names,  Christ,  or  Lord.*  "In  Christ," 

*  On  "  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  see  Meyer.    Eph.  Iv.  21.    Quoto 
Meyer  and  Bengei. 


HOLINESS   IMPUTED.  155 

or   "in  the  Lord,"   must  mean,  then,  some  in 
timate  relation  to  His  official  work. 

2.  What  this  relation  is  will  be  seen  when  we 
observe  that  while  Luke  and  Peter  use  the  term 
"  Christian,"  Paul  never  used  it,  but  uses  the 
more  vivid  phrase,  "  in  Christ."  Let  us  now  ex 
amine  a  favorite  text  of  the  imputationists  —  1 
Cor.  i.  2 :  "  To  them  that  are  sanctified  in 
Christ  Jesus."  We  heartily  endorse  the  com 
ment  of  Meyer,  "  the  greatest  exegete  of  the 
nineteenth  century  ":  "  In  Christ  —  namely,  in 
His  redemptive  work,  of  which  Christians  have 
become,  and  continue  to  be,  partakers,  by 
means  of  justifying  faith  (Eph.  i.  4 ;  Heb.  x. 
10)."  In  the  fourth  verse,  Meyer's  note  on 
"  in  Christ,"  is  "  in  your  fellowship  with  Christ." 
His  paraphase  of  the  thirtieth  verse,  "But  of 
Him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God  is  made 
unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sancti- 
fication,  and  redemption,"  is  the  following: 
u  But  truly  it  is  God's  work  that  ye  are  Chris 
tians,  and  so  partakers  of  the  greatest  Divine 


156  ANT1NOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

blessings,  that  none  of  you  should  in  any  way 
boast  himself  save  only  in  God."  Rom.  xvi.  7 ; 
"  In  Christ  before  me  "  —  Christians  before  me. 
Rom.  xvi.  10;  "Approved  in  Christ" — i.e., 
says  Meyer,  "  the  tried  Christian."  2  Cor.  v. 
17  ;  "  If  any  man  is  in  Christ  "  a  Christian, 
says  the  same  annotator. 

Cremer,  in  his  Biblico-Theological  Lexicon, 
enumerates  forty-eight  texts  where  this  phrase 
is  used  with  the  above  meaning,  such  as  "  weak 
in  Christ "  and  "•  babes  in  Christ,"  for  feeble 
Christians ;  "  growing  up  in  Christ,"  for  an  ad 
vancing  Christian ;  "  perfect  in  Christ,"  for  a 
believer  fully  sanctified,  or,  in  the  words  of 
Meyer,  "  perfect  as  a  Christian,  in  respect  to  the 
whole  Christian  nature."  "  Holy  in  Christ "  is  a 
phrase  foreign  to  New  Testament  diction.  The 
general  meaning  of  the  words,  "  in  the  Lord," 
is  discipleship  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  as  in  Rom.  xvi. 
2 :  "  which  are  in  the  Lord ";  1  Cor.  vii.  39 ; 
"  To  be  married  in  the  Lord  " ;  i.  e.,  to  a  dis 
ciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 


HOLINESS    IMPUTED.  157 

The  expressions  "  in  Christ "  and  "  in  the 
Lord  "  are  the  Pauline  way  of  denoting  a  sav 
ing  relation  to  the  Son  of  God,  a  union  with 
Him  by  faith,  a  union  which  ceases  when  the 
faith  decays.  It  is  quite  probable  that  St.  Paul's 
use  of  this  peculiar  idiom  is  an  amplification  of 
the  words  of  Christ,  "  If  ye  abide  in  Me,"  in 
His  parable  of  the  true  vine,  John  xv.  1-7. 
That  He  does  not  here  speak  of  an  inseparable 
and  eternal  incorporation  into  His  person,  is 
evident  from  these  words :  "  Every  branch  iii 
Me  that  beareth  not  fruit,  He  taketh  away." 
That  this  taking  away  is  no  mere  temporary 
break  in  the  saving  relation  to  Christ,  but  an 
eternal  cutting  off,  will  be  seen  by  reading  the 
sixth  verse :  "  If  a  man  abide  not  in  Me,  he  is 
cast  forth  as  a  branch  and  is  withered,  and  men 
gather  them  and  cast  them  into  the  fire,  and 
they  are  burned."  This  solemn  and  expressive 
language  is  utterly  meaningless,  if  the  phrase  "in 
Me,"  or  "  in  Christ,"  means  an  inalienable  stand 
ing  in  Christ  wholly  independent  of  one's  real 


158  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

character.  Those  modern  champions  of  imputed 
holiness,  and  opponents  of  inwrought  personal 
purity,  the  Plymouth  brethren,  find  their  air- 
castle  rudely  swept  away  when  these  words  of 
Jesus  are  directed  against  it.  A  branch  in  the 
true  vine  may  die  and  be  sundered  and  burned. 

This  is  a  complete  answer  to  the  words  of  Rev. 
John  Darby  to  the  writer,  that  "  believers  are 
parts  of  the  glorified  Person  of  Jesus  Christ, 
who  does  not  walk  about  in  Heaven  dropping 
His  fingers  and  toes  by  self-mutilation,  but  re 
tains  every  part  and  particle  of  His  body  for 
ever."  The  revised  version,  in  Eph.  v.  30,  omits 
"  of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones,"  and  thus  re 
moves  a  seeming  proof-text  for  the  incorpora 
tion  theory. 

3.  This  paper  would  not  be  complete  if  we 
did  not  refer  to  the  objective  use,  by  St  Paul, 
of  the  phrase  "  in  Christ,"  as  representing,  not 
the  peculiar  union  of  the  believing  subject,  but 
the  blessings  of  redemption  included  in  Jesus. 
In  this  Apostle's  writings,  the  idiom,  "in 


HOLINESS   IMPUTED.  159 

Christ,"  has  a  Godward,  or  objective  meaning, 
when  he  describes  the  provisions  for  salvation 
embodied  in  the  Person  and  work  of  the  Son, 
and  a  manward,  or  subjective  meaning,  when  he 
speaks  of  the  believer  as  appropriating  those 
provisions.  As  a  specimen  of  the  objective  use, 
we  quote  Rom.  vi.  23 :  "  But  the  free  gift  of  God 
is  eternal  life  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  "  (R.  V.). 
See  also  Rom.  viii.  2,  39;  1  Cor.  i.  4  (R.  V.)  ; 
2  Cor.  v.  19;  Gal.  ii.  4,  iii.  14  (R.  V.)  ;  Eph. 
i.  3,  ii.  G.  7  (R.  V.),  iii.  11,  iv.  32  (R.  V.) ; 
Phil.  ii.  5;  2  Tim  ii.  10.  In  all  these  passages 
Jesus  Christ  is  presented  as  God's  treasury  of 
grace  and  salvation.  In  examining  these  texts 
the  reader  will  be  impressed  with  the  superior 
precision  of  the  revisors  in  their  translation  of 
the  preposition  "  en,"  in.  There  are  instances 
in  which  this  Pauline  idiom  embraces  both  the 
subjective  and  the  objective,  notably  Rom.  vi. 
11,  "  Alive  unto  God  in  Christ  Jesus  "  (R.  V.). 
Here  the  believer  appropriates  the  life  that  ex 
ists  in  Jesus. 


160  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

Writers  in  classical  Greek  exemplify  only  the 
objective  use  of  " en"  Thus  Sophocles :  " I  in 
deed  am  saved  wholly  in  thee " ;  Hesiod  : 
"  Whether  Athens  shall  be  enslaved  or  freed  is 
now  in  thee  " ;  says  Homer :  "  Complete  victory 
is  in  the  immortal  gods." 

But  St.  Paul's  use  of  "in,"  as  expressing 
the  activity  of  the  subject  appropriating  Christ, 
from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  has  no  verbal 
parallels  in  profane  Greek. 

In  conclusion,  we  aver  that  it  is  just  as  rea 
sonable  to  interpret  1  John  v.  19,  "  The  whole 
world  lieth  in  the  evil  one  "  (R.  V.),  as  mean 
ing  that  the  whole  world  is  in  itself  inherently 
saintly,  but  by  imputation  is  wicked  in  the  evil 
one,  as  it  is  to  say  that  the  best  estate  of  be 
lievers  on  earth  is  to  be  inherently  impure, 
while  by  imputation  they  are  spotless  in  Christ. 
According  to  the  testimony  of  that  cosmopoli 
tan  evangelist,  Wm.  Taylor,  imputed  holiness, 
enrobing  cherished  vileness,  is  a  favorite  fiction 
of  the  pagans  of  India.  A  fakir  in  his  presence 


HOLINESS   IMPUTED.  161 

professing  spotless  holiness,  was  rebuked  by  the 
crowd  as  a  liar,  a  cheat,  and  an  adulterer.  Ad 
mitting  the  truth  of  these  charges,  the  fakir 
triumphantly  exclaimed :  "  I  am  vile  in  myself, 
but  perfectly  holy  in  Vishnu." 

To  be  holy  with  a  retention  of  the  old 
man,  would  be  an  untruth  and  a  flat  contradic 
tion  (Meyer  on  Eph.  iv.  21.) 


CHAPTER   IX. 

PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY,   OK   LAST   THINGS. 

THIS  school  of  theologians  dwells  at  great 
length  upon  the  future  history  of  Christianity 
as  it  is  unrolled  to  their  anointed  eyes  in  proph 
ecy.  They  differ  from  the  ordinary  Adventists, 
inasmuch  as  they  believe  in  a  second  and  a 
third  coming  of  Christ  —  the  first  for  the  saints, 
and  the  second  with  them.  In  the  first,  Christ 
will  not  appear  to  the  world,  which  will  be  in 
utter  ignorance  ol  that  great  event.  At  some 
day  —  not  fixed  in  the  Plymouth  scheme,  but 
near  at  hand  —  Jesus  will  come  down  with 
noiseless  footfall,  like  a  thief,  and  raise  the 
righteous  dead,  and  change  the  righteous  living, 
and  snatch  them  all  up  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye ;  and  no  unbeliever  will  notice  any  disturb 
ance  in  the  graveyard  or  see  his  believing  wife 
or  child  slip  out  of  this  world  into  the  glorified 
162 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOQY.  163 

state.  He  will  miss  them,  and  wonder  where 
they  are.  This  "  rapture  of  the  saints  "  is  fore 
told  in  1  Thess.  iv.  17.  But  in  the  16th  verse 
there  are  three  words  indicating  noise  —  a 
shout,  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  the 
trump  of  God.  But  Plymouth  exegesis  easily 
explains  this  little  objection.  Dr.  Tyng,  the 
younger,  says  the  shout  is,  in  the  Greek,  a  com 
mand,  heard  only  by  the  living  and  the  dead 
saints.  The  invisibleness  of  the  resurrection 
and  the  rapture  are  argued  from  Christ's  res 
urrection,  and  the  translation  of  Enoch  and 
Elijah,  all  of  which  were  unobserved  by  the 
wicked  world. 

Again,  all  you  know  about  the  burglar  is  that 
your  treasures  are  gone.  You  did  not  hear  his 
wool-shod  feet ;  you  did  not  see  his  form  while 
he  was  gliding  about  your  bed.  All  that  ordi 
nary  readers  have  seen  in  the  simile,  "as  a 
thief,"  is  the  suddenness  and  unexpectedness  of 
His  advent.  The  Plymouth  brethren  add  the 
perfect  secrecy  of  His  coming,  work,  and  de- 


164  AUTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

parture,  thus  making  the  comparison  teach  more 
than  Christ  ever  intended. 

The  saints  caught  up  into  the  air  will  be  re 
viewed  by  Christ  with  a  view  to  the  distribution 
of  offices  under  His  millennial  reign.  It  seems 
that  the  question  of  patronage  meets  Christ  at 
the  opening  of  His  kingdom  on  earth,  just  as  it 
vexes  every  new  president  of  the  United  States. 
But  Jesus  will  have  no  hostile  senate  to  concili 
ate.  His  civil  service  appointments  will  be 
made  according  to  merit,  after  a  rigid  examina 
tion.  In  this  way  the  works  of  the  saints,  but 
not  their  persons,  will  come  to  judgment.  The 
question  of  their  personal  relation  to  the  divine 
government  was  forever  adjusted  when  they 
put  forth  the  first  act  of  faith  in  Christ.  All 
the  thrones,  presidencies,  governorships,  secre 
taryships,  judgeships,  mayoralties,  etc.,  down  to 
the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace  and  constable, 
in  all  nations,  will  then  be  considered  as  vacant. 
The  time  occupied  by  this  inquest  into  the 
works  of  the  saints  and  their  assignment  to 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOQY.  165 

oilice,  is  supposed  to  occupy  about  seven  years. 
Then  when  the  state  of  the  future  millennial 
administration  is  made  up  satisfactorily  to  all 
concerned,  the  King  descends  with  all  His  reti 
nue  of  saints  in  all  the  pomp  and  majesty  of 
royalty,  impressing  every  beholder  with  awe 
and  wonder.  Now  He  appears. 

But  the  world  to  which  He  comes  is  in  a 
sorry  condition.  The  devil  and  Antichrists 
have  driven  rough-shod  over  the  earth  in  the 
absence  of  the  saints,  and  all  the  woes  of  the 
book  of  Revelation  have  been  experienced ;  all 
the  events  of  that  book  after  the  third  chapter 
take  place  —  the  trumpets,  the  seals,  and  the 
vials. 

By  this  time  the  world  is  sadly  in  need  of  a 
universal  king,  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos. 
King  Jesus  makes  Jerusalem  His  capital,  and 
sends  His  appointees  to  their  respective  coun 
tries  to  enter  upon  their  various  offices.  Per 
haps  St.  Paul  may  mount  the  throne  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  Indies,  or  become  the  President 


KEVIVED. 

of  the  United  States,  without  the  bother  of  an 
electoral  college.  The  Jews  are  all  going  to 
wheel  into  line  by  sudden  conversion  like  that 
of  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and  become  Christ's  right- 
hand  men  —  the  inner  circle  nearest  the  throne. 
They  will  become  the  great  missionary  agency, 
travelling  through  all  lands,  and  preaching 
Christ,  the  Jews'  Messiah  and  the  world's  Sav 
iour.  Satan  will  be  bound  in  his  prison-house 
a  thousand  years,  and  the  Gospel,  which  was  a 
failure  for  eighteen  hundred  years,  will  now 
begin  its  real  conquest  of  the  world.  In  fact, 
it  never  was  Christ's  design  that  the  world 
should  be  converted  through  the  great  commis 
sion,  u  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach," 
etc.  That  was  designed  only  to  keep  alive  on 
earth  a  testimony  for  Christ,  not  to  inaugurate 
a  victory. 

In  the  absence  of  Satan,  and  in  the  presence 
of  so  many  Hebrew  Christian  missionaries 
steaming  over  every  sea  and  traversing  all  lands, 
impelled  by  their  new-born  zeal  for  the  Naza- 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGY.  167 

rene,  the  work  of  conversion  goes  on  very  rap 
idly,  and  a  nation  is  born  in  a  day.  At  the 
close  of  the  thousand  years  there  is  a  review  of 
the  nations,  and  the  inquiry  is  made  how  they 
have  treated  Christ's  brethren,  the  Jewish 
evangelists.  This  review  of  the  nations  —  not 
of  individuals  —  in  a  general  judgment,  is  de 
scribed  in  Matt.  xxv.  31-46.  If  you  wish  to 
embarrass  a  Plymouth  brother,  ask  him  to 
expound  the  whole  passage,  carrying  through 
it  from  beginning  to  end  the  idea  that  nations, 
and  not  individuals  of  the  human  family,  are 
there  judged  and  eternally  sentenced.  The 
brother's  embarrassment  will  be  painful,  and 
his  makeshifts  will  be  pitiable. 

At  the  end  of  the  millennium  Satan  is  loosed 
for  a  season  and  makes  sad  havoc  with  the  con 
verts  made  in  his  incarceration.  He  raises  an 
army  and  encompasses  the  camp  of  the  saints, 
is  conquered,  and,  with  Antichrist,  is  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire,  the  latter  being  a  living  man. 

Finally,   the   wicked    dead   are    raised    and 


168  ANTINOMIAKISM   REVIVED. 

judged  according  to  the  description  of  the  judg 
ment  of  the  dead,  in  Rev.  xx.  12-15.  To  make 
out  that  only  the  wicked  dead  are  judged,  the 
Book  of  Life  which  is  brought  into  the  judg 
ment  is  assumed  to  be  blank.  This  is  a  very 
violent  assumption,  as  the  reader  of  the  passsge 
will  see. 

After  the  sentence  of  the  wicked  dead,  come 
the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  —  the  eter 
nal  abode  of  the  saints,  if  I  can  make  out  the 
meaning  of  the  Plymouth  doctrine  on  this 
point. 

The  effect  of  this  teaching  is,  first,  to  belittle 
the  Christian  agencies  now  in  operation  by  as 
serting  that  they  are  inadequate  to  the  conver 
sion  of  the  world.  Secondly,  it  gives  a  Jewish 
and  highly  materialistic  turn  to  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  and  leads  to  a  depreciation  of  the  spir 
itual  manifestation  of  Christ  by  the  Comforter 
in  this  life.  Thirdly,  it  calls  off  the  attention 
from  the  great  saving  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and 
leads  believers  to  dwell  upon  airy  and  baseless 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  169 

speculations,  and  profitless  argumentation. 
Fourthly,  unless  the  laws  of  mind  are  all 
changed  in  this  generation,  \ve  predict  from  the 
history  of  Adventism  in  past  ages,  that  the  Ply 
mouth  Brethren  will  soon  begin  to  fix  a  definite 
time  for  the  Advent,  which  will  be  followed  by 
disappointment  and  all  the  moral  and  spiritual 
disasters  of  Millerism. 

PESSIMISM. 

One  of  the  most  depressing  doctrines  of  the 
Pre-Millenarians,  especially  of  the  "  Brethren," 
is  the  hopelessness  of  the  world  under  the  dis 
pensation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  always 
and  everywhere  assume  that  this  dispensation 
is  a  stupendous  failure.  "From  the  Cross  to 
the  Second  Advent  there  is  nothing  but  a 
parenthesis."  I  shudder  at  the  disrespect  which 
is  thus  shown  to  the  Paraclete,  the  personal  suc 
cessor  to  the  risen  Lord  Jesus. 

It  is,  moreover,  an  imputation  of  a  lack  of 
goodness  on  the  part  of  God  to  let  the  world 


170  ANTINOMIANISM   HEVIVED. 

wax  worse  and  worse,  and  generation  after  gener 
ation  go  down  to  hell,  who  might  have  been 
saved  or  their  existence  prevented  by  the  earlier 
coming  of  Christ  to  setup  His  earthly  kingdom, 
converting  the  Jews  in  a  day,  and,  through 
them,  converting  the  Gentiles  in  a  wholesale 
way  by  sheer  omnipotence.  But  if  the  world 
is  growing  better  under  a  purer  and  more  widely 
preached  Gospel,  there  is  a  merciful  reason  for 
the  delay  of  the  second  coining  of  Christ  to 
wind  up  the  period  of  human  history  by  judg 
ing  the  quick  and  the  dead  and  assigning  them 
to  eternal  destinies. 

THE  PAHABLE  OF  THE  LEAVEN. 

Every  one  of  the  Plymouth  expositors,  with 
out  exception,  attempts,  by  a  wonderful  exege 
sis  of  the  parable,  to  show  that  the  world  is 
steadily  and  certainly  going  to  the  bad.  Here 
is  the  exposition  :  "  The  leaven  does  not  mean 
the  Gospel ;  it  everywhere,  in  the  language  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  always  beautifully 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  171 

consistent  with  itself,  means  something  evil. 
In  twenty  places,  we  have  mention  of  leaven, 
and  it  always  denotes  evil.  Into  the  'three 
measures  of  meal,'  not  into  the  ivorld,  not  into 
society  at  large  —  no,  but  into  the  new,  unleav 
ened  lump  —  into  the  church  —  a  leavenlike 
mystery  of  iniquity  is  introduced  by  the 
'woman,'  the  seducer,  the  mother  of  harlots. 
The  very  hiding  of  it  looks  suspicious.  Could 
this  mean  the  public  preaching  of  the  Gospel  ? 
The  whole  lump  —  sad  announcement! — was 
to  be  leavened.  Has  not  this  announcement 
been  fulfilled  ?  "  Then  follows  a  dismal  picture 
of  Christianity,  painted  with  a  brush  dipped  in 
the  blackness  of  darkness,  ending  with  this 
question,  "Is  there  one  single  Christian  here 
whose  garments  are  not  soiled,  in  whose  heart 
'leaven,'  in  one  form  or  another,  is  not  work 
ing?"* 

Let  us  now  turn  to  Matt.  xiii.  31-33.     The 
mustard  seed  certainly  represents  the  kingdom 

*  Eight  Lectures  on  Prophecy. 


172  A1TTINOMIAKISM   REVIVED. 

of  heaven  in  this  one  aspect,  its  inherent  self- 
developing  power  from  a  small  vital  germ.  The 
leaven  just  as  certainly  represents,  not  a  for 
eign,  corrupting  principle  thrust  into  the  king 
dom  of  heaven,  but  that  kingdom  itself  in 
another  aspect,  its  power  to  penetrate  and  assim 
ilate  a  foreign  mass.  As  the  yeast  transforms 
the  heavy  and  indigestible  dough  into  light  and 
wholesome  bread,  so  does  the  Gospel  transform 
wicked  hearts.  For  the  leaven  has  its  good 
side  as  well  as  its  bad,  and  to  this  good  use  the 
Gospel  is  compared.  This  is  the  traditional 
explanation  of  this  parable,  which  is  certainly 
full  of  good  sense. 

Let  us  examine  the  Plymouth  view.  The 
meal  is  the  church.  This  is  a  pure  assumption. 
The  form  of  words,  in  both  parables,  is  the 
same.  The  kingdom  is  like  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,  and  like  leaven.  If  it  is  like  it  in  its 
progress  of  corruption  and  deterioration,  surely 
"  there  is,"  as  Alford  well  says,  "  an  end  of  all 
the  blessing  and  healing  influence  of  the  Gos 
pel  on  the  world." 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  17'-? 


THE  GKAIN  OF  MUSTARD-SEED. 

Not  content  with  a  pessimistic  perversion  of 
the  parable  of  the  leaven,  they  attempt  to  foist 
an  entirely  new  meaning  upon  the  preceding 
parable.  The  mustard-plant  grows  in  order  to 
attract  to  its  branches  the  carrion-eating  birds, 
"  the  vulture,  the  cormorant,  the  night-owl  and 
the  bat."  These  "  unclean  birds "  typify  the 
gross  abominations  predicted  by  Christ  as  nest 
ing  in  His  Church.  But  what  is  the  proof? 
The  Lord  himself  tells  us,  in  the  previous  para 
ble,  who  are  the  "fowls  "  or  "  birds  of  the  air"; 
for  it  is  the  same  word  that  is  used  in  both 
places.  u  Then  cometh  the  wicked  one  and  catch- 
eth  away  that  which  was  sown  in  his  heart." 
Therefore,  the  birds  which  picked  up  the  far 
mer's  seed  scattered  on  the  sidewalk,  were  not 
clean,  grain-eating  birds,  such  as  pigeons  and 
doves,  but  were  vultures  and  owls !  "  Thus 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  it  purports  to  be,  or 


174  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

nominal,  national  Christianity,  becomes  a  vast 
and  monstrous  worldly  system." 

A  meaning  utterly  different  from  that  in 
tended  by  the  great  Teacher  is  read  into  His 
words  by  a  style  of  reasoning  which  would 
pervert  and  subvert  the  whole  Bible,  if  it  were 
universally  applied.  Yet  this  sophistry  is 
eagerly  swallowed  by  those  who  desire  to  prove 
that  the  world  is  on  the  down  grade,  nearing 
the  brink  of  destruction,  and  the  church  is 
crowded  with  a  phethora  of  sins,  and  is  so  far 
gone  in  wickedness  as  to  be  past  praying  for, 
and  deserves  nothing  but  vilification  and  denun 
ciation  by  all  true  lovers  of  Christ's  appearing. 
We  do  not  wonder  that  "the  Brethren"  are  all 
come-outers  after  they  have  accepted  this  inter 
pretation  of  these  two  parables. 

PROBATION  CLOSED  IN  ADAM'S  FALL. 
One  is  surprised,  in  reading  Plymouth  theol 
ogy,  by  the  declaration  made  by  all  the  writers 
that  human  probation  closed  with  fall  of  Adam. 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  175 

The  idea  seems  to  be  that,  since  legal  justifica 
tion  is  impossible  to  the  fallen  race,  that  "  the 
era  of  probation  has  been  finally  foreclosed." 
"  The  Holy  Spirit,"  says  Dr.  R.  Anderson,  "  has 
not  come  to  re-open  the  question  of  sin  and 
righteousness  and  judgment,  but  to  convince 
the  world  that  it  is  closed  forever."  How  dif 
ferent  is  this  from  St.  Peter's  exordium  at  Caes- 
area !  "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons ;  but  in  every  nation  he 
that  feareth  Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is 
accepted  with  Him."  This  looks  like  probation 
on  the  plane  of  natural  theology,  the  religion  of 
the  conscience.  St.  Paul  seems  to  endorse 
Peter's  doctrine  in  Rom.  ii.  6-16.  No  one  can 
study  this  whole  passage  without  admitting 
that  pagans,  without  the  law,  and  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  are  being  put  to  the 
test  by  God  to  show  whether  they  have  the 
spirit  of  faith ;  i.  e.,  the  disposition  to  grasp 
Christ,  the  object  of  faith,  were  He  revealed  to 
them  ;  and  the  purpose  of  righteousness,  i.  «., 


176  ANTINOMIAXISM  REVIVED. 

the  disposition  to  walk  by  the  perfect  law,  were 
it  disclosed  to  them.  This  I  call  probation.  I 
do  not  see  how  the  "  Brethren "  can,  by  any 
possible  theodice,  justify  God  for  bringing 
countless  millions  of  fallen  beings  into  exist 
ence  in  a  state  of  hopelessness  implied  in  proba 
tion  "  forever  foreclosed." 

If  they  mean  to  say  that  no  man  since  Adam's 
expulsion  from  Eden  is  under  the  dispensation 
of  mere  justice  expressed  in  law,  but  that  all 
men  ever  since  that  sad  event  have  been  under 
justice  tempered  by  mercy,  as  revealed  in  the 
Gospel,  and  that  they  are  still  on  probation 
but  under  changed  conditions,  no  one  would 
object.  For  all  sound  theologians  reckon  the 
Gospel  dispensation  as  dating  from  the  promise, 
"  The  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  ser 
pent's  head." 

A  little  reflection  will  show  that  the  denial  of 
human  probation  is  a  logical  antecedent  of  the 
negation  of  a  general  judgment  of  the  race.  If 
the  race  is  not  on  trial  in  probation,  there  is  no 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  177 

need  for  such  a  day.     The  two  errors  are  yoke 
fellows.     They  stumble  and  fall  together. 

But  the  doctrine  of  the  general  judgment  at 
the  end  of  the  world,  strongly  implying,  as  it 
does,  that  all  men  are  now  on  probation,  must 
be  explained  away  by  the  Brethren,  for  the  two 
doctrines  cannot  both  be  true.  Let  us  see  how 
they  succeed. 

NEVER  UNDER  CONDEMNATION. 

The  constant  assertion  of  the  Plymouth 
Brethren  is,  that  a  person,  once  "  in  Christ,"  by 
a  momentary  act  of  faith,  is  forever  removed 
from  the  possibility  of  Divine,  judicial  disap 
proval.  Let  us  examine  their  Scriptural  proofs. 

Romans  viii.  1,  as  translated  in  the  Revision, 
which  omits  the  last  clause,  is  frequently  cited 
as  an  absolute  and  unconditional  deliverance 
from  present  and  future  condemnation.  I  have 
elsewhere  shown  that  this  exemption  is  condi 
tioned  on  the  relative  clause,  in  the  fourth 
verse,  "  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after 


ITS  ANTiKOMLANISM   J1EV3VED. 

the  Spirit,"  i.  e.,  while  we  walk  thus.  This  con 
ditioning  clause  has  as  much  force  in  the  fourth 
verse  as  it  would  have  had  in  the  first. 

John  iii.  18,  "  He  that  believeth  on  Him  is 
not  condemned."  Here  the  word  believeth  is 
in  the  Greek,  in  the  present  tense,  which 
denotes  a  continuous  state  of  faith.  He  who 
believes  perseveringly  is  not,  at  any  point  of  his 
faithful  life,  under  condemnation. 

The  same  explanation  applies  to  Rom.  viii. 
33-39.  The  "we"  and  "us"  of  this  passage 
refer,  not  to  all  men,  but  to  persevering  believ 
ers.  In  Gal.  iii.  13,  "  Christ  redeemed  us  from 
the  curse  of  the  law."  The  persons  included  in 
"us"  are  fully  described  in  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  verses,  those  who  constantly  live  by  a 
faith  which  bears  the  fruit  of  obedience.  "  The 
just  shall  live  by  faith." 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  179 

THE  SAINTS  WILL  NOT  BE  JUDGED  IN  THE 
LAST  DAY. 

This  doctrine  is  really  included  in  the  pre 
ceding.  The  word  for  "  condemnation  "  is  often 
translated  "  judgment "  in  the  Revision.  The 
great  proof-text  of  the  "  Brethren  "  is  John  v. 
24 :  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that 
heareth  my  word,  and  believeth  him  that  sent 
Me,  hath  eternal  life,  and  cometh  not  into  judg 
ment,  but  has  passed  out  of  death  into  life.'' 
(R.  V.)  Here  the  "judgment"  evidently 
means  the  condemnatory  side  of  the  great  tri 
bunal.  The  life  begins  with  the  believing,  and 
continues,  and  becomes  eternal  on  the  condition 
of  faith,  persisted  in  through  human  probation. 
As  Dean  Alford  well  says :  "  Where  the  faith 
is,  the  possession  of  eternal  life  is ;  and  where 
the  one  remits,  the  other  is  forfeited.  But  here 
the  faith  is  set  before  us  as  an  enduring  faith, 
and  its  effects  described  in  their  completion" 
(See  Eph.  i.  19,  20.) 


IbO  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

In  all  of  God's  promises  of  eternal  life  to  the 
righteous,  there  is  an  implied  condition  which 
is  sometimes  expressed,  as  in  Heb.  iii.  6,  14,  2 
Pet.  i.  10,  11,  Rev.  xxii.  14  (R.  V.) 

The  grand  reason  why  the  saints  will  not  be 
judged,  lies  in  the  fact  that  their  sins  were 
judged  on  the  cross,  and  condemned  once  for 
all ;  and  the  believer  need  not  have  any  concern 
about  his  sins  past,  present  and  future,  since  in 
the  sight  of  God  they  are  blotted  out  forever. 
Very  comforting  doctrine,  this !  The  future 
immoralities  of  the  saints  are  annihilated  by  the 
blood  of  Christ;  and  we  are  the  saints.  We 
have  a  certificate  of  our  heavenly  standing 
signed  and  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  is 
my  paid-up,  non-forfeiting  insurance  policy. 
An  occasional  outburst  of  unholy  tempers  or 
indulgence  in  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  may  becloud 
my  communion  for  an  hour,  but  they  cannot 
damage  my  standing  in  Christ,  or  vitiate  my 
title  to  life  everlasting.  If  one  should  fall  into 
habitual  sin,  "  he  only  sleeps."  As  sleep  does 
not  affect  the  validity  of  a  man's  title-deeds  to 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY. 

his  farms,  so  spiritual  sleep  the  most  profound 
does  not  damage  my  title  to  the  skies.  Precious 
doctrine  !  Who  is  so  unbelieving  as  not  to  fall 
in  love  with  it  at  first  sight,  especially  if  he  be 
a  periodical  Christian,*and  is  most  of  the  time 
at  the  aphelion  ? 

But  on  what  is  this  doctrine  built?  On 
these  two  words  —  in  Christ.  Let  us  hear 
what  Jesus  Himself  says :  "  If  any  man  abide 
not  in  Me,  he  is  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  is 
withered,  and  men  gather  them,  and  cast  them 
into  the  fire,  and  they  are  burned."  The  mi 
nuteness  of  this  description  of  a  branch  of  the 
true  Vine,  once  vitalized  by  its  sap  ;  the  picto 
rial  and  impressive  portrayal,  just  before  the 
apostasy  of  Judas,  of  these  five  particulars, — 
the  withering,  the  cutting  off,  the  gathering, 
the  casting  into  the  fire,  and  the  burning, — 
have  an  import  of  deep  and  awful  solemnity, 
disclosing,  as  they  do,  that  the  most  intimati 
unity  with  Christ,  in  probation,  does  not  shut 
out  the  possibility  of  a  perverse  use  of  our  frea 
agency,  entailing  eternal  perdition. 


182  ATINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

A  JUDGMENT  OF  PERSONS  AND  A  JUDGMENT 
OF  WORKS. 

Before  leaving  this  topic,  we  should  notice 
the  Plymouth  distinction  between  a  judgment 
of  persons  and  a  judgment  of  works.  They 
teach  that  the  persons  of  believers  were  judged 
at  the  cross,  and  they  were  acquitted  once  for 
all.  Their  works  are  to  be  reviewed  by  Christ, 
not  to  determine  the  question  of  destiny  to 
heaven  or  to  hell,  but  to  decide  on  each  one's 
amount  of  rewards.  This,  they  say,  is  not 
properly  called  a  judgment.  But  the  Scrip 
tures  make  no  such  distinction.  We  are  to  be 
judged  and  assigned  to  a  destiny  of  bliss  or 
woe,  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body. 

When  a  criminal  act  is  condemned,  the  crim 
inal  actor  is  condemned.  Human  courts  know 
nothing  of  a  fancied  judgment  of  works  aside 
from  the  worker.  The  purpose  for  which  they 
administer  law  is  to  reach  persons  by  their 
judgments. 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGY.  183 

A  radical  error  in  Plymouth  ethics  seems  to 
be  a  forgetfulness  that  a  moral  agent  is  a  unit 
incapable  of  division  into  parts,  as  the  old  man 
and  the  new  man,  the  person  and  the  works, 
one  of  which  segments  may  be  innocent,  and 
the  other  guilty.  This  error  we  have  refuted 
in  the  discussion  of  the  two  natures. 

THE  GENERAL  JUDGMENT  DENIED. 
The  General  Judgment  at  the  last  day  is 
very  stoutly  denied  by  the  "  Brethren,"  as  may 
be  inferred  from  the  last  paragraph.  If  the 
reader  wishes  to  confound  them  and  make  them 
writhe  in  pain,  ask  them  to  explain  St.  Paul's 
words  in  Rom.  xiv.  10-12  :  "  For  we  shall  all 
stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  (God 
—  Rev.  Ver.)  For  it  is  written,  as  I  live,  saith 
the  Lord,  to  me  every  knee  shall  bow,  and 
every  tongue  shall  confess  to  God.  So  then 
each  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself  to 
God."  Here  the  "  Brethren  "  must  choose  one 
of  the  three  horns  of  the  following  trilemma  :  — 


184  ANTINOMIAXISM  REVIVED. 

The  words  "  we  all,"  "  each  one  of  us," 
"every,"  must  mean  (1),  all  mankind,  saints 
and  sinners,  or  (2),  the  saints  only,  or  (3),  the 
wicked  only.  If  either  of  the  first  two  is 
chosen,  the  saints  will  be  judged.  But  if  the 
third  is  chosen,  how  do  you  account  for  the  fact 
that  St.  Paul  deliberately  includes  himself 
("  we  "  and  "  us  ")  among  the  wicked  ?  His 
constant  habit  is  to  use  these  pronouns  either 
referring  to  all  men,  more  commonly  to  believ 
ers.  There  is  no  instance  of  his  classif}dng 
himself  with  unbelievers. 

The  same  reasoning  applies  to  2  Cor.  v.  10, 
with  the  addition  of  the  fact  that  Paul  here 
analyzes  the  words  "  we  all "  into  two  classes, 
those  who  have  done  good,  arid  those  who  have 
done  evil.  This  unanswerably  demonstrates 
that  the  saints  are  not  on  the  judgment  seat  as 
associate  judges,  but  before  that  august  tri 
bunal.  In  Heb.  ix.  27  —  "  It  is  appointed  unto 
men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment " 
—  it  is  manifest  that  the  judgment  is  co-exten- 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  185 

sive  with  death,  and  is  in  no  way  conditioned 
on  character.  Hence  the  saints  will  come  into 
judgment  after  death.  The  strength  of  this 
argument  is  immediately  perceived  by  the 
Greek  scholar  when  he  sees  that  the  word  for 
"  men  '  is  anthropoi,  a  term  so  broad  as  to  com 
prehend  the  whole  race.  Then  to  make  surety 
doubly  sure,  it  is  preceded  by  what  grammari 
ans  call  "  the  generic  article,"  which  must  often 
be  left  untranslated  in  English,  but  means  all 
the  human  race  (Hadley,  §  529). 

We  could  hardly  keep  from  laughing  in  the 
face  of  the  venerable  Christian  scholar,  when, 
at  my  request,  Mr  Darby  gave  an  exposition  of 
Matt.  xxv.  31-46.  What  pitiable  make-shifts 
to  explain  away  this  most  solemn  and  awful 
passage  in  the  Holy  Scriptures !  "  It  was  not  a 
final  and  universal  judgment,  but  a  review  of 
the  Gentile  nations.  Individuals  are  not  here 
judged,  but  nations  other  than  the  Jews.  The 
point  to  be  determined  is,  how  these  nations 
have  treated  the  Christianized  Jews  whom 


186  ANTiNOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

Christ  will  send  forth  to  convert  the  Gentiles 
after  His  coming  and  setting  up  of  His  visible 
kingdom  on  the  earth.  '  My  brethren '  are 
Jews.  Jesus  never  called  anybodjr  brother  but 
a  Jew."  But  when  pressed  to  explain  more 
particularly  the  sheep  and  the  goats,  and  the 
final  sentence,  the  wriggling  and  floundering  of 
this  great  evangelist  was  something  wonderful 
to  behold.  May  I  never  see  another  man,  mani 
festly  of  so  great  genius  and  learning,  com 
pelled  to  crawl  through  orifices  so  small. 
There  is  something  very  depressing  to  a  gen 
erous  mind  to  witness  such  an  intellectual 
humiliation  in  the  attempt  to  save  a  baseless 
dogma  from  a  manifest  overthrow. 

St.  Paul,  a  thorough  student  of  the  Old  Tes 
tament  prophecies,  and  illumined  by  plenary 
inspiration,  never  interprets  the  Old  Testament 
as  predicting  the  literal  return  of  the  Jews. 
He  spiritualizes  the  seed  of  Abraham,  the  sac 
rifices,  the  circumcision,  and  Jerusalem,  and  he 
distinctly  foretells  the  spiritual  salvation  of  the 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGV.  187 

Hebrews,  not  before  "  the  fulness  of  the  Gen 
tiles  be  come  in,"  but  after  that  event  (Rom. 
xi.  25).  The  faith  of  the  Gentile  world  receiv 
ing  Jesus  as  their  Saviour  will  drown  out  the 
unbelief  of  the  Jews,  and  they  will  receive 
Him  as  their  Messiah.  Is  not  this  great  Apos 
tle,  writing  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  a  more  accurate  interpreter  of  the  proph 
ets  than  any  uninspired  man,  or  class  of  men, 
in  modern  times? 

The  universal  Church  of  Christ,  from  the  be 
ginning  to  the  present  hour,  has  never  formu 
lated  pre-Milleiiarianism  in  its  creed  state 
ments  of  Christian  truth.  They  all  speak  of 
Christ  as  coming  "to  judge  the  quick  and 
dead,"  but  never  to  set  up  an  outward  and  visi 
ble  kingdom  "  with  Jerusalem  for  the  centre  of 
worship  and  of  blessing."  Examine  that  sum 
mary  of  Christian  faith,  the  Apostles'  creed,  so- 
called,  not  because  it  was  made  by  them,  but 
oecnuse  it  is  a  compend  of  their  doctrines, 
and  you  will  find  no  trace  of  Chiliasm  contained 


188  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

therein.  The  judicious  Bishop  Pearson,  in  his 
Exposition  of  the  Creed,  says,  "  That  the  end 
for  which  He  shall  come,  and  the  action  which 
He  shall  perform  when  He  cometh,  is  to  judge 
all  those  which  shall  then  be  alive,  and  all 
which  ever  lived." 

The  Nicene  Creed,  better  known  and  more 
generally  recognized  than  any  other,  except  the 
Apostles',  teaches  exactly  the  same  doctrine 
with  respect  to  the  purpose  of  Christ's  second 
advent,  "  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead." 
There  is  even  a  verbal  agreement. 

The  next  most  important  symbol  of  the 
early  church,  the  Athanasian  Creed,  has  these 
words :  "  Whence  He  shall  come  to  judge  the 
quick  and  dead.  At  whose  coming  all  men 
shall  rise  again  with  their  bodies,  and  shall  give 
account  of  their  works." 

All  these  three  great  creeds  agree  in  four 
points :  — 

1.  That  Christ  will  come  again. 

2.  The  object  of  His  advent  will  be  "  to  judge 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  189 

the  quick  and  the  dead."  This  they  testify 
with  one  voice,  and  as  preliminary,  all  confess 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  meaning  all  the 
dead. 

3.  All  imply  what  the  Athanasian  distinctly 
states,  that  this  resurrection  and  judgment  will 
be  at  His  coming. 

4.  All   are   silent  about  any  pre-millennial 
coming,  or  personal  reign,  or  any  of  the  pecu 
liar  tenets  of  millenarians.     Now  these  creeds 
universally   received,   in   ancient   and    modern 
times,    by     Roman,     Greek,    and     Protestant 
churches,  must  be  presumed  to  accord  with  the 
Divine  Word. 

The  Augsburg  Confession,  A.  D.  1530,  says : 
"  It  is  taught  that  Christ  will  appear  at  the  end 
of  the  world  to  sit  in  judgment,  and  that  He 
will  raise  all  the  dead,  and  will  give  to  the 
righteous  and  elect  eternal  life  and  endless 
joys  ;  but  wicked  men  and  devils  He  will  con 
demn,  and  they  shall  be  •  tormented  without 
end." 


190  ANTINOMIA^ISM   ItEVIVED. 

It  adds  this  significant  item :  "  Others  are 
also  condemned,  who  are  now  scattering  Jewish 
notions,  that  prior  to  the  resurrection  the  right 
eous  will  possess  a  temporal  kingdom,  and  all 
the  wicked  will  be  exterminated." 

Substantially  the  same  clause,  "  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead,"  is  found  in  the  Metropoli 
tan,  1530 ;  Basle,  1534  ;  Second  Basle,  1536  ; 
Second  Helvetic,  1564  ;  Heidelburg,  1562 ;  Bel- 
gic,  1562 ;  Scotch,  1560 ;  Anglican,  1551-1562 ; 
Westminster,  1643-48 ;  Catechism  of  Trent, 
1566  ;  and  Orthodox  Confession,  1642. 

This  array  of  creeds,  ancient  and  modern, 
Protestant,  Papal,  and  Greek,  teaches  a  doc 
trine  wholly  irreconcilable  with  the  first  princi 
ples  of  millenarianism,  or  modern  Second  Ad- 
ventism.  If  it  is  true  that  all  men  are  wiser 
than  one  man,  it  is  true  that  all  churches  are 
more  correct  in  a  doctrine  held  in  common  than 
one  small  sect  which  sets  up  a  doctrine  incon 
sistent  with  it. 

The    prophecies    adduced    as    teaching    the 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGY.  191 

return  of  the  Jews,  and  the  temporal  reign  of 
Christ  at  Jerusalem,  present  a  view  of  Chris 
tianity  so  grossly  materialistic  as  to  be  abso 
lutely  irreconcilable  with  Christ's  spiritual 
kingdom.  Isaiah  xiv.  1,  2,  a  commonly-quoted 
proof-text  for  the  restoration  of  the  Jews, 
declares  that  they  will  be  slave-holders.  "  The 
house  of  Israel  shall  possess  them  (strangers) 
in  the  land  of  the  Lord,  for  servants  and  hand 
maids."  After  the  spirit  of  philanthropy,  kin 
dled  in  men's  hearts  by  the  Gospel,  has  led 
them  to  sweep  every  form  of  involuntary  servi 
tude  from  the  earth,  it  is  utterly  repugnant  to 
all  our  ideas  of  moral,  not  to  say  of  Christian 
progress,  to  read  that  chattel  slavery,  the  pos 
session  of  slaves,  will  be  re-established  under 
the  eye  of  Jesus,  the  visibly  enthroned  King. 
What  a  moral  absurdity ! 

Again,  Zech.  xiv.  21,  teaches  that  the  re 
turned  Jews  will  offer  animal  sacrifices  in  Jeru 
salem,  and  boil  the  flesh  in  pots.  How  can  this 
be  reconciled  with  the  abolition  of  the  Levitical 


192 


AoSTTINOMlANISM    REVIVED. 


law,  as  taught  by  Paul?  What  would  be  the 
significance  and  efficacy  of  bloody  sacrifices 
after  the  Lamb  of  God  has  been  slain  as  a 
sufficient  atonement  for  sin  ? 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   PROPHETIC    CONFERENCE    REVIEWED. 
CONSPECTUS  OF   ITS  DOCTRINES. 

THE  author  has  thought  that  he  could  give  the  best 
refutation  of  the  Plymouth  Eschatology  by  a  republica- 
tion  of  his  review  of  "  The  Prophetic  Conference,"  held 
in  New  York  in  1878.  It  was  published  in  Ziori's  Herald, 
soon  afterward,  in  a  series  of  eight  articles. 

The  recent  Prophetic  Conference  in  New 
York,  for  the  setting  forth  and  advocacy  of  the 
general  outline  of  the  Plymouth  scheme  of  last 
things,  is  the  effect  of  causes  which  the  writer 
has  watched  for  several  years  with  the  deepest 
interest.  It  is  the  natural  fruitage  of  the  Ply 
mouth  literature  brought  from  England  and 
recommended  to  American  Christians  by  cer 
tain  popular  evangelists  in  their  sermons,  Bible 
readings,  and  evangelical  conferences.  These 
evangelists,  though  they  discard  the  name  of 
103 


194  ANTINOMIAinSM   REVIVED. 

Plymouth  Brethren,  have  sown  broadcast  their 
doctrines,  with  a  zeal  and  earnestness  rivaling 
the  Brethren  themselves. 

The  Conference  was  for  the  purpose  of  advo 
cating  the  doctrine  that  the  second  coming  of 
Christ  is  not,  as  is  commonly  believed,  to  raise 
the  dead,  judge  the  living  and  the  dead,  and 
wind  up  the  history  of  the  human  race  on  the 
earth,  but  to  raise  the  righteous  dead,  to  set  up 
a  visible  kingdom,  and  to  reign  in  person  on 
the  earth  during  a  thousand  years.  This  is 
called  Chiliasm,  from  the  Greek,  and  Millenari- 
anism,  from  the  Latin,  word  for  a  thousand. 
But  the  more  exact  term  is  pre-millennialism  — 
a  term  which  describes  the  second  advent  as 
occurring  before  the  thousand  years.  It  may 
be  interesting,  before  discussing  its  teachings, 
to  look  for  a  moment  at  the  denominational 
complexion  of  the  Prophetic  Conference,  which 
was  composed  of  ministers  and  laymen,  the 
former  greatly  preponderating;  one  Lutheran, 
one  Dutch  Reformed,  one  Reformed,  ten  Con- 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  195 

gregational,  fifteen  Episcopal,  twenty-seven 
Baptist,  forty-three  Presbyterian,  seven  Meth 
odist,  and  ten  undenominational,  which,  we 
suppose,  means  Plymouth. 

The  first  impression  which  this  makes  on  the 
mind  of  a  Methodist  is  that  his  Church  has 
relatively  the  least  stock  in  this  concern.  If 
we  had  been  numerically  represented,  we  would 
have  had  nearly  a  hundred.  But  this  is  not  a 
matter  which  we  are  disposed  to  cry  over.  It 
indicates  that  Methodists  are  in  too  close  a 
grapple  with  this  present  wicked  world  to  sit 
down  and  waste  time  in  speculating  upon  the 
future.  It  indicates  that  as  a  Church  we  are 
by  no  means  so  discouraged  with  the  progress 
of  the  Gospel  as  to  pronounce  the  dispensation 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  inadequate  to  the  con 
quest  of  the  world  for  Christ.  We  shall  see, 
as  we  review  the  strong  Calvinism  involved  in 
the  pre-millennial  scheme,  that  there  are  theo 
logical  reasons  for  the  cold  shoulder  of  Meth 
odism.  Eighty-one  were  from  Calvinist  and 


196  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

twenty-two  from  Arminian  Churches.  Of  the 
papers  on  special  topics  read  at  the  Conference, 
twelve  were  by  Calvinists  and  three  by  Armin- 
ians. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  go  into  a  review  of 
these  papers  in  detail,  but  to  outline  the  doc 
trines,  and  point  out  some  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  our  assent. 

In  nearly  every  paper  and  address  there  was 
a  declaration  that  the  world  will  never  be  con 
quered  by  the  agencies  now  in  the  field  ;  not 
because  of  any  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Church 
to  co-work  with  the  Spirit,  but  because  Christ 
never  designed  that  the  present  dispensation 
should  enthrone  Him  over  the  world.  This  is 
a  merely  preparatory  dispensation  to  the  future 
kingdom.  The  Church  is  not  the  kingdom,  but 
a  temporary  institution  for  the  training  of  a 
people  whom  Christ  is  taking  out  of  the  Gen 
tiles  for  Himself.  The  kingdom  cannot  exist 
till  the  King  is  present  in  person,  destroying 
pagan  powers  by  force,  and  converting  the  peo- 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  197 

pie  by  the  wholesale,  by  the  majesty  of  His 
glorious  presence.  Yet  this  presence  is  to  be 
localized  at  Jerusalem ;  the  Jews  are  to  rally 
around  His  uplifted  standard,  and  to  be  con 
verted  immediately  after  His  mounting  the 
throne  of  David,  and  they,  with  all  the  zeal  of 
young  converts,  are  to  go  forth  and  preach 
Christ  to  the  Gentiles  with  marvellous  success. 
One  of  the  speakers  in  the  Conference  assures 
us  that  everybody  will  then  be  converted.  Just 
how  free  agency  is  adjusted  to  this  state 
ment  the  speaker  did  not  tell  us,  though  we  are 
aching  with  a  desire  to  know.  But  we  suppose 
Dr.  Imbrie  would  say  that  all  are  to  be  saved 
by  irresistible  grace.  Hear  him:  "Regenera 
tion  is  a  glorious  change  in  reference  to  this 
earth  and  the  race  upon  it.  It  comprehends 
the  appearing  of  the  Saviour  to  accomplish  it ; 
the  resurrection  by  Him  of  His  departed  saints, 
and  the  rapture  (catching  up)  of  His  living 
saints  to  take  part  in  His  acts  of  dominion 
(holding  offices  under  Him) ;  the  overthrow  of 


198  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

all  forms  of  evil  on  the  earth ;  the  repentance 
and  restoration  of  Israel ;  the  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit  on  all  flesh ;  the  renewal  of  the  earth  to 
far  more  than  its  original  beauty  before  the 
curse ;  the  entire  renewal  of  every  child  therein 
born,  and  thus  the  atonement  of  Jesus  made 
availing  and  applied  to  perpetual  generations ; 
the  removal  of  all  physical  evils  as  well  as 
moral" 

The  parantheses  and  italics  are  ours.  We 
cannot  see  why  moral  freedom  in  this  scheme  is 
not  to  be  crushed  out  by  almightiness,  and  con 
verts  to  Christ  are  not  to  be  made  by  sheer 
power,  as  the  Pope  converted  tribes  in  northern 
Europe  on  the  alternative  of  the  sword  or  bap 
tism.  To  our  Arminian  eye  we  see  no  differ 
ence.  In  the  present  dispensation  men  are 
converted  by  the  suasion  of  the  truth  under 
the  gentle  and  resistible  influences  of  the 
Spirit.  But  in  the  future  glorious  regeneration 
of  the  earth,  the  Spirit,  we  are  left  to  suppose, 
will  drop  the  sword  of  the  truth  which  failed 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  199 

before,  and  -will  come  down  upon  the  sinner 
with  the  trip-hammer  of  Omnipotence,  crush 
ing  him  into  the  die  of  sainthood  in  a  twink 
ling. 

But  here  comes  the  greatest  wonder  of  all ; 
why  cannot  a  power,  which  irresistibly  and 
infallibly  converts,  infallibly  keep  the  soul  in  a 
gracious  state  ?  Dr.  Imbrie  insists  that  every 
body  will  be  converted  in  the  millennium,  or 
world's  regeneration,  but  admits  that  when 
Satan  is  unchained,  a  countless  host  of  these 
converts  will  so  thoroughly  backslide  that  Satan 
will  deceive  them  into  enlisting  in  a  war  against 
Christ  in  numbers  "  as  the  sand  of  the  sea," 
going  up  on  the  breadth  of  the  earth  and  com 
passing  the  camp  of  the  saints  about,  and  fire 
will  come  down  from  God  out  of  heaven  and 
devour  them  (Rev.  xx.  7-9).  So  there  will  be 
a  possibility  of  total  apostasy  under  the  glori 
ous  reign  of  the  Person  of  King  Jesus,  while 
there  is,  according  to  Dr.  Imbrie's  Calvinism, 
no  such  possibility  under  the  dispensation  of 


^00  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  Holy  Spirit.  This  is  a  wonder,  indeed. 
But  to  us  it  is  no  surprise  that  machine-made 
Christians  should  fail  when  once  the  hand  of 
almighty  coercive  power  is  removed  from  them. 
Converts  made  by  force  must  be  kept  by  force ; 
those  made  by  the  suasion  of  truth  may  be  kept 
by  the  same  means,  though  Satan  constantly 
roars  along  their  path.  Hence  we  believe  that 
the  present  dispensation  is  the  most  favorable 
for  the  development  and  growth  of  virtue 
which  this  world  will  ever  see,  and  that 
the  future  dispensation  which  exists  in  the 
dreams  of  Chiliasts  —  the  personal  reign  of 
Christ  in  bodily  form  on  the  earth,  cowing  the 
wicked  into  subjection  by  the  awe  of  His 
majestic  and  glorious  presence  —  will  not  afford 
the  conditions  requisite  to  a  fair  probation. 
When  free  agency  is  overpowered  by  some 
motive  of  overwhelming  weight,  as  in  death 
bed  repentances,  we  are  always  on  the  lookout 
for  spurious  conversions.  It  is  exceedingly 
difficult  to  make  a  virtuous  choice  under  such  a 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  201 

preponderance  of  terror.  Hence  we  all  exhort 
sinners  not  to  defer  submission  to  Christ  till 
the  hour  of  death. 

Now,  the  second  coming  of  Christ  is  always 
represented  as  a  thousand-fold  more  awful  than 
death.  He  will  be  revealed  in  flaming  fire, 
with  the  holy  angels,  on  the  throne  of  His 
glory.  If  He  sets  up  that  throne,  not  as  a 
judgment  tribunal  for  the  day  of  doom,  but  as 
a  permanent  government  for  a  thousand  years, 
He  will  have  destroyed  the  very  genius  and 
spirit  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  the  sway  of 
human  hearts  by  truth  and  love,  and  He  will 
have  inaugurated  the  reign  of  force  instead. 
This  will  be  stripping  Christianity  of  its  essen 
tial  glory,  the  "grace  and  truth  by  Jesus 
Christ,"  and  going  back  to  the  iron  system  of 
law  which  came  by  Moses.  It  will  put  the 
mount  that  quaked  and  burned  with  fire  in  the 
foreground,  completely  hiding  Calvary  from 
the  sinner's  eye.  It  will  be  a  public  confession 
that  a  fallen  world  cannot  be  restored  by  the 


202  ANTINOMTAXISM   REVIVED. 

moral  power  of  truth  and  love  under  the  sua 
sion  of  the  Paraclete,  and  a  resort  to  force  for 
the  triumph  of  His  kingdom. 

We  can  see  how  an  old-fashioned  Calvinist, 
who  believes  in  irresistible  grace,  can  accept 
this  doctrine ;  but  how  an  Arminian,  trained 
to  magnify  human  freedom  and  the  suasive 
power  of  Gospel  motives  for  the  renovation  of 
the  will,  through  the  Holy  Spirit  applying 
truth  assented  to  by  the  intellect,  and  taught 
to  reject  salvation  by  mere  sovereignty,  can 
accept  the  Millenarian  idea  of  the  universal 
triumph  of  Christ,  surpasses  our  poor  under 
standing. 

But  there  is  a  greater  wonder.  If  the  world 
is  to  be  subdued  to  Christ  by  a  stroke  of  His 
omnipotence,  and  not  by  the  slow  process  of 
redeeming  love  —  the  story  of  the  Cross  told 
o'er  and  o'er  in  ever-widening  circles  down  the 
generations,  till  every  creature  has  heard  the 
glad  evangel  —  why  does  not  that  stroke  fall 
now,  or,  rather,  why  did  it  not  fall  thousands 
of  years  ago  ?  If  the  world  is  growing  worse 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  203 

and  worse,  and  there  is  no  hope  for  its  salva 
tion  under  the  present  Gospel  agencies,  it  can 
not  be  that  the  second  coming  of  Christ  to  set 
up  His  kingdom  is  delayed  through  the  Divine 
compassion  and  long-suffering ;  for  these  would 
prompt  God  to  interpose  immediately,  or  rather, 
it  would  have  prompted  Him  to  interpose  long 
ago  to  prevent  the  race  drifting  hopelessly 
down  to  inevitable  ruin.  But  if  the  coming  of 
Christ  is  to  institute  the  general  judgment  and 
execute  the  eternal  doom  of  the  incorrigible, 
and  there  is  a  remedial  system  gradually  ex 
tending  through  all  the  earth,  we  have  a  good 
reason  for  the  delay  of  Christ,  the  merciful 
Intercessor,  to  assume  the  office  of  an  inexora 
ble  Judge.  But  if  He  foresees  the  inevitable 
failure  of  the  gradual  triumph  of  the  Spirit, 
and  if  it  is  His  purpose  to  discard  this  mode  of 
saving  men,  and  to  disentangle  Himself  entirely 
from  it,  and  to  institute  His  kingdom  by  down 
right  omnipotence,  saving  the  race  by  force, 
why  does  He  delay  ?  The  pre-millenarian  can 
give  no  satisfactory  answer. 


CHAPTER  XL 

DIFFICULTIES    OF    LITERALISM. 

IN  our  attempt  to  accept  the  teachings  of 
this  body  of  good  men,  we  find  an  insuperable 
obstacle  in  their  literal  exegesis  of  Scriptures 
which  are  manifestly  figurative.  By  way  of 
illustration,  we  will  examine  their  method  of 
explaining  Zech.  xiv.  In  proof  of  the  person 
al  reign  of  Christ  at  Jerusalem,  no  Scripture  is 
quoted  more  frequently  and  more  confidently 
than  portions  of  this  chapter,  especially  the 
fourth  and  ninth  verses :  "  And  His  (the 
Lord's)  feet  shall  stand  in  that  day  upon  the 
mount  of  Olives."  "  And  the  Lord  shall  be 
king  over  all  the  earth  ;  in  that  day  shall  there 
be  one  Lord,  and  His  name  one."  Now,  we 
lay  down  as  a  canon  of  interpretation,  that  a 
homogeneous  passage  of  God's  Word  must  be 
expounded  homogeneously  ;  that  is,  it  must  be 
204 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  205 

entirely  literal  or  entirely  symbolical.  It  will 
not  do  to  mix  these  methods  and  dodge  an  ab 
surd  literalism  by  resorting  to  a  figurative  in 
terpretation  where  the  passage  is  a  homogene 
ous  unit.  In  the  light  of  this  principle  let  us 
go  through  this  chapter,  applying  a  literal  exe 
gesis. 

In  verse  2  "  all  nations  "  (not  some,  or  all  by 
representatives,  but  all  the  nations  of  the 
globe)  "  gather  against  Jerusalem  to  battle." 
This  is,  of  course,  to  be  as  real  and  visible  as 
Waterloo  or  Gettysburg,  only  a  myriad-fold 
more  bloody.  Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  in  the  field 
in  bodily  form  as  really  as  General  Grant  was 
in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness.  Whether  the 
Prince  of  Peace  will  "go  forth"  singly  "  and 
fight  against  those  nations,  as  when  He  fought 
in  the  day  of  battle,"  or  as  a  general  in  com 
mand  of  an  army,  is  a  question  which  is  deter 
mined  by  the  fifth  and  fourteenth  verses,  in 
which  we  find  the  Jewish  brigade  in  the  field 
and  "  all  the  saints  "  with  the  Lord. 


206  ANTQTOMIAOTSM  REVIVED. 

The  inference  is,  the  saints  will  not  stand  as 
idle  spectators,  but  will  all  have  a  hand  in  the 
fight.  These  saints  are  the  righteous  dead  of 
all  past  ages,  raised  from  their  graves,  and  the 
living  believers,  who  were  all  caught  up  to 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,  and  who  descended 
with  Him  at  His  appearing  after  receiving  their 
reward  —  some  office  in  the  millennial  king 
dom.  This  scene  brings  vividly  to  mind  the 
Homeric  battles  before  the  walls  of  Troy, 
where  bloodless  immortals  —  gods  and  demi 
gods —  sword  in  hand,  mingled  in  the  gory 
battles  of  the  Greeks  and  Trojans.  But  a 
scrutiny  of  our  Hebrew  Bible  develops  another 
difficulty :  "  And  Judah  also  shall  fight  against 
Jerusalem,"  not  at  Jerusalem.  This  compli 
cates  matters  ;  for  the  Jews  have  all  been  con 
verted,  and  have  become  Christ's  foremost  ad 
herents.  That  they  should  turn  against  the 
capital  city  of  their  Messiah  King,  after  He  had 
gathered  them  to  the  land  of  their  fathers,  is 
something  very  mysterious.  Will  some  Chiliast 
rise  and  explain  ? 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  207 

But,  in  addition  to  all  these  difficulties,  na 
ture  is  to  be  convulsed,  the  mount  of  Olives  to 
be  cleft  asunder,  and  a  great  valley  to  take  its 
place,  running  eastward  to  the  Dead  Sea, 
through  which  a  stream  of  water  is  to  run, 
and  another  stream  is  to  run  westward  to  the 
Mediterranean,  possibly,  making  a  sea-port  of 
Christ's  capital.  The  convenience  of  this  ar 
rangement  will  be  seen  when  we  read  that  every 
one  that  is  left  of  all  the  nations  which  come 
against  Jerusalem,  shall  even  go  up,  year  by 
year,  to  worship  the  King,  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
and  to  keep  the  "  feast  of  tabernacles."  This 
going  up  of  the  whole  world  annually  to  Jeru 
salem,  which,  according  to  the  Levitical  law, 
must  be  done  by  families  and  not  by  proxy, 
would  be  quite  impracticable  for  the  Western 
nations,  with  the  present  difficult  landing  at 
Joppa,  and  a  horse-back  ride  over  the  hills  to 
the  Holy  City.  How  many  ships  it  would  take 
to  carry,  every  year,  the  whole  human  family, 
or  one  half  —  say  700,000,000  —  counting  out 


208  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

the  children,  the  very  aged,  and  those  near 
enough  to  Jerusalem  to  go  by  land,  we  leave 
to  the  pre-millennial  arithmeticians.  It  would 
be  safe  to  predict  that  the  ocean-carrying  busi 
ness  would  be  exceedingly  lively,  and  that 
American  shipping  would  not  be  so  depressed 
as  it  has  been  since  the  great  Rebellion. 

In  answer  to  the  question  how  these  annual 
pilgrims  to  the  capital  of  the  millennial  king 
dom  are  to  be  fed,  and  who  is  to  carry  on  the 
world's  agriculture,  we  have  at  hand  the  reply 
of  Papias  (A.  D.  100),  the  first  great  millena- 
rian :  "  In  like  manner  a  grain  of  wheat  will 
produce  ten  thousand  heads,  and  each  head  will 
bear  ten  thousand  grains,  and  each  grain  will 
yield  ten  pounds  of  clear  white  flour ;  and  oth 
er  seeds  will  yield  seeds  and  herbage  in  the 
same  proportion."  This  fecundity  of  nature 
reduces  the  difficulty  to  that  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  harvesters,  millers  and  bakers.  We 
infer  from  the  statement  of  Irenaus  that  there 
may  be  some  difficulty  in  securing  the  grape 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  209 

crop ;  "  The  days  "will  come  when  vines  shall 
grow,  each  bearing  ten  thousand  branches,  and 
on  each  branch  there  will  be  ten  thousand 
twigs,  and  on  each  twig  ten  thousand  clusters  of 
grapes,  and  each  grape,  when  expressed,  will 
yield  twenty-five  metratai  of  wine  (i.  e.,  about 
two  hundred  and  nine  gallons).  And  when 
any  one  of  the  saints  shall  take  hold  of  a  clus 
ter,  another  cluster  will  cry  out,  '  I  am  a  better 
cluster,  take  me,  and  on  my  account  give  thanks 
unto  the  Lord.' "  We  infer  that  when  each 
grape-vine  will  produce  wine  to  the  amount  of 
one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  billions  of 
gallons,  there  will  be  plenty  of  work  for  Gough, 
Murphy,  Dr.  Re}rnoldsand  Frances  E.  Willard, 
during  the  thousand  years  of  the  good  time 
coming ;  for  even  the  saints  may  be  in  danger 
of  repeating  the  folly,  in  their  regenerated 
earth,  that  Noah  did,  in  his  renewed  world, 
after  all  the  sinners  were  drowned. 

But  let  us  return  from  this  digression  to  our 
literal  exposition.     What  are  the  human  family 


210  ANTIKOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

to  do  after  they  have  all  been  transported  to 
Palestine  ?  They  are  to  keep  the  feast  of  taber 
nacles.  They  are  to  build  booths  in  the  streets 
of  the  city  and  on  the  house-tops.  This  will 
require  considerable  more  space  than  Palestine 
itself  can  afford ;  for  when  people  are  on  a  joy 
ous  picnic  it  will  not  be  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  occasion  to  crowd  them  together 
like  Africans  in  the  hold  of  a  slave-ship. 

But  this  difficulty  ot  literalism  we  must  pass 
by,  and  inquire  into  the  kind  of  religious  ser 
vice  these  pilgrims  are  expected  to  render. 
We  find  that  in  everything  except  circumcision 
they  are  commanded  to  be  Jews.  They  must 
attend  a  localized  worship  as  did  the  Jews  ;  they 
must  keep  one  of  the  great  Jewish  feasts,  under 
pains  and  penalties  for  disobedience ;  "  the 
Lord's  house  "  will  be  standing,  and  there  will 
be  the  "  bowls  " — literally,  "  sprinkling  bowls  " 
for  blood-sprinkling,  and  the  "  pots  "  for  seeth 
ing  the  peace-offerings.  In  short,  it  is  said  that 
"they  that  sacrifice  "  shall  come  and  take  of 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  211 

them  and  seethe  therein.  "  The  altar "  is 
spoken  of,  and  its  whole  ritual  is  certainly  im 
plied  as  obligatory.  The  sacrificial  slaughter 
of  animals  at  the  Lord's  altar  and  in  the  Lord's 
house  is  spoken  of  undeniably.  What  will  be 
the  significance  of  these  animal  sacrifices  after 
the  one  and  sufficient  sacrifice  of  the  Lamb  of 
God?  Will  some  literalist  who  insists  that 
Jesus  will  set  up  His  throne  at  Jerusalem,  be 
so  kind  as  to  tell  us  ?  It  will  not  do  to  spiritu 
alize  the  sacrifice  unless  you  spiritualize  the 
whole  chapter. 

Our  explanation  is  very  simple.  When  God 
would  convey  to  the  Jews  the  idea  that  in  some 
future  time  all  the  human  race  would  be  wor 
shippers  of  Him,  he  condescended  to  their  own 
narrow  notions  of  true  worship,  namely,  com 
ing  to  Jerusalem  and  offering  sacrifice.  The 
whole  chapter  is  to  be  interpreted  spiritually. 
The  waters  going  eastward  and  westward  sym 
bolize  a  spiritual  Christianity  going  forth  from 
Jerusalem  to  refresh  and  save  the  world.  The 


212  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

rending  of  the  mountain  to  make  way  for  the 
stream  is  the  prophetic  imagery  in  which  is 
couched  the  prediction  of  the  providential 
removal  of  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel.  Thus  most  of  the  difficulties  of 
this  obscure  chapter  vanish  when  we  take  a 
spiritual  view. 

Other  difficulties  press  upon  the  literal  inter 
pretation  of  this  chapter.  We  mention  only 
one.  If  any  people  refuse  to  go  up  to  Jeru 
salem,  they  are  threatened  with  drought  and 
the  plague.  Here  both  moral  and  natural  evil, 
or  suffering  in  consequence  of  sin,  are  treated 
as  possibilities,  in  the  very  millennium.  But, 
according  to  Dr.  Imbrie,  both  natural  and 
moral  evil  will  be  excluded.  Who  will  relieve 
this  discrepancy  between  millenarian  teaching 
and  the  threatened  punishments  in  this  their 
favorite  prophecy  ? 

If  any  reader  of  Zech.  xiv.  still  insists  that 
the  language  must  be  literally  interpreted,  we 
advise  him  to  read  the  eighteenth  Psalm,  in 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGT.  213 

which  David  describes  his  deliverance  from  his 
enemies  by  divine  interposition.  Can  the  same 
reader  believe  that  it  is  literally  true  of 
Jehovah  —  "  There  went  np  a  smoke  out  of  His 
nostrils,  and  fire  out  of  His  mouth  devoured; 
coals  were  kindled  by  it,"  etc.  ?  Then  let  the 
reader  turn  to  Joel  ii.  28-32,  and  read  the 
graphic  account  which  will  convulse  all  nature, 
if  understood  literally.  Then  read  Peter's 
exegesis  of  this  Scripture  as  descriptive  of  the 
coming  of  the  Paraclete  (Acts  ii.  17). 

We  venture  to  say  that  if  Peter's  exegesis 
were  not  on  record,  the  modern  pre-millenialists 
would  stoutly  assert  that  no  event  in  past  his 
tory  corresponds  to  this  picture  of  "  the  great 
and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord ; "  and  they 
would  be  applying  the  passage  to  some  future 
upheaval  of  nature  and  miraculous  revolution 
of  society,  whereas  it  related  only  to  the  com 
ing  and  gentle  sway  of  the  Holy  Spirit  over  be 
lievers  and  His  work  of  couvicting  shiners. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PREDESTINARIAN   BASIS. 

WE  cannot  receive  the  teachings  of  the  Pro 
phetic  Conference  by  reason  of  its  quite  clearly- 
pronounced  Calvinism.  This  is  not  a  non- 
essential  part  of  the  scheme  lugged  in  by  the 
predestinarian  essayists,  but  is  fundamental  in 
the  system.  The  design  of  the  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  to  save  all  men,  but  to 
take  out  of  the  Gentiles  a  people  for  Christ's 
name.  These  constitute  His  chosen  Bride.  He 
meets  her  for  the  first  time  in  the  air.  She  is 
to  have  special  honors  ever  after.  A  large  mil 
lennial  family  may  spring  from  her,  but  they 
are  inferior  in  dignity  and  privilege  to  the 
Bride,  the  Lamb's  wife.  Here  we  have  an 
attempt  to  revive  the  moribund  doctrine  of 
unconditional  election,  by  detaching  and  sup 
pressing  the  twin  tenet,  unconditional  reproba 
tion.  214 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  215 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  in  his  attempt  to 
disprove  the  simultaneous  resurrection  of  the 
human  race  at  the  second  advent,  and  in  his 
advocacy  of  the  resurrection  of  the  righteous, 
as  "special  and  eclectic,"  a  thousand  years 
before  the  rising  of  the  wicked,  speaks  thus : 
"  The  doctrine  of  election,  which  we  profess  to 
hold,  should  not  be  a  mere  abstraction  of  the 
ology,  an  article  of  faith  which  we  find  it 
necessary  to  adopt  in  order  to  insure  a  con 
sistent  and  Scriptural  body  of  divinity,  while 
we  ignore  its  practical  application.  It  is,  per 
haps,  the  most  solemn  and  awful  of  all  Scriptu 
ral  revelations.  It  certainly  can  only  be  dis 
cussed  and  preached  effectively  by  us  in  those 
rare  states  of  mind  where  the  exquisite  balance 
has  been  reached  between  tender  adoration 
of  the  sovereignty  and  holiness  of  God,  and 
pathetic  sympathy  with  the  helplessness  and 
sinfulness  of  man.  While,  therefore,  it  is  the 
instinct  of  the  truest  piety  to  leave  God  to 
carry  out  what  belongs  wholly  to  the  domain 


216  ANTDJOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

of  His  will,  it  should  be  equally  the  care  of  an 
exact  and  loyal  theology  to  note  the  application 
of  this  principle  at  the  various  stages  of 
redemption,  and  speak  accordingly.  Thus  we 
speak  very  constantly  of  our  missionary  enter 
prises  as  destined  to  convert  the  heathen 
nations  to  Christ.  The  Holy  Spirit  says  that 
God  has  visited  the  Gentiles,  *  to  take  out  of 
them  a  people  for  His  name.'  We  speak  about 
the  world  being  converted.  The  Lord  said  to 
His  first  disciples  what  He  says  to  us,  and  what 
He  will  say,  we  believe,  to  the  last  that  shall  be 
converted  under  this  dispensation :  '  Ye  are  not 
of  this  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the 
world.'  We  speak  of  Christ's  coming  at  the 
last  day  to  a  race  that  has  been  redeemed  and 
saved  under  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel. 
Christ,  in  speaking  of  that  event,  says  that  *  the 
Son  of  Man  will  send  His  angels  to  gather 
together  his  elect,'  etc.  We  speak  of  all  men 
being  raised  up  together  at  the  appearance  of 
the  Lord  to  be  judged.  Clirist  speaks  of  those 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  217 

who  shall  be  *  accounted  worthy  to  obtain  that 
age  and  the  resurrection  from  among  the 
dead.' " 

In  this  long  quotation  the  reader  will  note  a 
quiet  rebuke  for  what  "  we  say,"  in  the  use  of 
terms  which  indicate  the  universality  of  the 
divine  regards,  and  of  the  redemptive  plan,  and 
he  will  observe  a  narrowing  of  it  down  to  the 
elect,  the  selection  of  whom  "  belongs  wholly  to 
the  domain  of  God's  will."  Thus  it  seems  that 
we  modern  Christians,  theologians  and  mission 
ary  boards,  have  become  broader  in  our  views 
and  aims  than  our  great  Founder,  Christ  Him 
self.  To  be  sure,  He  once  said  something  about 
preaching  His  gospel  to  every  creature,  but  He 
intended  that  it  should  be  only  a  common  call 
to  all,  while  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  had  looked 
into  the  depths  of  the  Father's  secret  will,  and 
had  seen  the  names  of  the  elect — a  definite 
number  —  written  there,  would  infallibly  give 
these  a  special  call,  accompanied  by  irresistible 
grace.  Hence  it  was  absolutely  certain  before 


218  ANTINOMIANISM  EEVIVED. 

the  foundation  of  the  world  that  every  person 
whose  name  was  on  that  precious  register, 
hidden  in  the  bosom  of  God,  would  be  found 
arrayed  in  white  at  the  descent  of  His  Son,  the 
Bridegroom. 

Dr.  Gordon's  resurrection  for  the  elect  only, 
needs  only  an  atonement  for  the  elect  alone  to 
put  a  very  handsome  finish  upon  the  system, 
making  it  symmetrical  and  beautiful.  This 
lacking  ornament  is  supplied  by  Rev.  H.  M. 
Parsons,  in  his  paper  on  "  The  Present  Age  and 
the  Development  of  Anti-Christ."  Hear  him : 
"Each  age  (religious  dispensation)  had  its 
assigned  work  in  the  recovery  of  heaven.  Our 
own  age  has  its  section.  It  is  to  gather  from 
out  the  nations  (Gentiles)  the  redeemed  people 
of  God."  Here  is  plainly  taught  the  doctrine 
that  the  Gentiles  are  not  redeemed,  but  only  a 
people  scattered  among  them  are  redeemed. 
The  old  doctrine  of  a  limited  atonement, 
preached  in  New  England  a  century  ago,  but 
now  almost  universally  banished  by  the  pres- 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGT.  219 

ence  of  a  biblical  Arminianism,  creeps  forth 
again  into  the  light  of  day  in  this  convention 
of  the  prophets.  Hear  the  peroration  of  Mr. 
Parsons :  "  Brethren  and  friends,  we  are  called 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature  during 
this  age,  that  from  every  nation,  and  tongue, 
and  people,  the  Lord  Jesus  may  gather  in  His 
dear  Bride."  We  have  always  supposed  that 
our  commission  was  to  every  creature  because 
Jesus  Christ  tasted  death  for  every  man.  But 
according  to  Calvinian  Millenarianism,  we  are 
to  preach  to  every  creature  only  because  Christ 
omitted  to  put  a  chalk-mark  on  His  Bride.  If 
this  mark  had  been  made,  it  would  have  simpli 
fied  our  work,  and  we  could  pass  by  those  whom 
Christ  did  not  intend  to  woo  and  to  wed,  and 
devote  all  our  efforts  to  the  affianced  ones,  on 
whom  He  has  set  His  heart.  What  a  pity  that 
preachers  should  be  required  to  waste  so  much 
labor  I 

Many  things  in  the  paper  of  Dr.  James  H. 
Brooks  were  to  us  a  means  of  grace,  especially 


220  ANTDTOMIANISM  KEViVED. 

his  vigorous  and  exhaustive  presentation  of 
the  bearing  of  the  coming  of  Christ  on  the 
fidelity  and  purity  of  believers.  But  we  found 
no  nutriment  to  our  spiritual  life  when  we  read 
the  following  sentence :  "  The  pre-millennial 
coming  of  our  Lord  alone  indicates  the  divine 
honor  and  sovereignty.  Those  who  reject  the 
doctrine,  constantly  affirm  that  it  disparages 
the  Gospel  by  representing  it  as  a  failure,  and 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  intimating 
that  it  is  inadequate  to  the  conversion  of  the 
world.  But  a  moment's  reflection  is  sufficient 
to  show  that  it  exalts  the  Gospel  by  proving 
that  it  accomplishes  all  it  was  designed  to  effect, 
and  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  by  demon 
strating  that  lie  saves  all  He  intended  to  save 
during  the  present  dispensation"  If  the  words 
we  have  italicized  "  exalt  the  Gospel,"  they 
certainly  blacken  the  character  of  its  Author 
with  a  heartless  indifference  to  the  well-being 
of  a  portion  of  our  race  while  pretending  a 
deep  interest  in  their  salvation,  and  in  mockery 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  221 

offering  them  everlasting  life  which  they  could 
not  appropriate  without  the  assistance  of  the 
Spirit.  Whittier  tells  us  that  the  indignant 
women  of  Marblehead  "tarred  and  feathered 
the  sea  captain,  Floyd  Ireson,  and  rode  him  on 
a  cart "  for  not  saving  some  poor  fellows  on  a 
raft  at  sea  when  he  saw  their  signals  of  dis 
tress.  That  he  did  not  intend  to  save  them 
was  his  crime  against  humanity,  which  out 
raged  the  moral  sense  and  philanthropic  in 
stincts  of  these  plucky  women.  It  would  have 
made  the  case  no  better,  but  rather  worse,  if 
that  seaman  had  changed  his  course,  gone  to 
the  wreck,  taken  off  all  that  he  intended  to, 
and  then  sailed  away,  with  abundant  room  in 
his  cabin  and  provisions  in  his  larder  for  those 
whom  he  had  left  to  perish  on  the  raft. 

It  would  certainly  be  an  alleviation  of  Dr. 
Brooks'  doctrine,  to  attach  to  it  the  grand 
scheme  of  restorationism  advocated  by  Mr. 
Barbour,  of  Rochester,  by  which  all  those 
whom  the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  intend  to  save 


222  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

under  the  present  dispensation,  will  be  raised 
from  the  dead  and  have  a  fair  chance  for  salva 
tion  in  the  millennial  age.  The  only  difficulty 
in  this  theodicy  is  the  fact  that  the  wicked 
dead  must  remain  in  their  graves,  and  not  be 
raised  till  after  the  millennium  is  past,  when 
they  will  be  raised,  judged,  and  cast  into  the 
lake  of  fire.  So  our  suggested  alleviation  is  an 
adjustment  which  cannot  be  applied. 

A  class  of  millenarians,  not  represented  in 
the  report  of  the  Prophetic  Conference,  have 
found  out  just  the  number  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
intends  to  save  and  to  present  to  Christ  as  His 
bride  — 144,000.  By  scrupulously  keeping  the 
seventh  day,  and  abstaining  from  meats  cere 
monially  unclean,  they  are  endeavoring  to  be 
among  that  number.  They  are  the  dolefulest 
saints  we  ever  met.  We  think  they  should  be 
despondent,  with  such  a  slender  hope  of  salva 
tion. 


CHAPTER 

EXEGETICAL    ABSUKDITIE8. 


•—  The  birth  of  Christ,  the  King  of  the  Tews.    Matt 
ii.  2. 

t  —  The  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ 
A  —  Ascension  of  Christ.    Acts  i.  9. 
D — Descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost.    Acts  ii. 


224  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

Church— Mystical  body  of  Christ  (Eph.  i.  22,  23; 
iii.  3-6;  Rom.  xii.  4,  5;  Col.  i.  24-27;  1  Cor.  xii.  12-27,) 
and  the  Brido  of  Christ.  Eph.  v.  21-23. 

De  —  Descent  of  the  Lord  (1  Thess.  iv.  14)  to  receive 
His  Bride.  John  xiv.  3. 

R  —  Resurrection  of  the  just.  Luke  xiv.  14;  Acts 
xxiv.  15;  1  Thess.  iv.  15,  16;  and  change  of  living  be 
lievers.  1  Cor.  xv.  23,  51,  52. 

Rapture  —  Translation  of  the  saints  who  (like  Enoch) 
are  caught  up  to  meet  Christ  in  the  air.  1  Thess.  iv.  17. 

M  —  The  meeting  of  Christ  and  His  Bride.  1  Thess. 
iv.  17;  Eph.  v.  21-32;  2  Cor.  xi.  2.  Thus  the  Church 
escapes  the  tribulation.  Luke  xxi.  30;  2  Peter  ii.  9;  Rev. 
iii.  10. 

T  —  Period  of  unequalled  tribulation  to  the  world 
(Dan.  xii.  1;  Matt.  xxiv.  21;  Luke  xxi.  25,  26)  during 
which  —  the  Church  having  been  taken  out  —  God  begins 
to  deal  with  Israel  again  (Acts  xv.  16,  17;  Psa.  li.  18; 
cii.  16,)  and  will  restore  them  to  their  own  land.  Isa. 
xi.  11-16;  Jer.  xxx.  3;  xxxi;  xxxii.  36-44;  Amos  ix.  15; 
Zech.  viii.  3-8;  Rom.  xi.  Anti-Christ  will  be  revealed. 
2  Thess.  ii.  8.  The  vials  of  God's  wvath  poured  out, 
Psa.  ii.  1-5;  Rev.  vi.  16, 17;  Rev.  xiv.  10;  xvi.  But  men 
only  blaspheme  God.  Rev.  xvi.  11,  21.  Israel  accepts 
Christ  (Zech.  xii.  10-14;  xiii.  6,)  and  are  brought  through 
the  fire.  Zech.  xiii.  9.  They  pass  not  away.  Matt. 
xxiv.  34;  Psa,  xxi  i.  30. 

Rev  —  The  revelation  of  Christ  and  His  saints  (Col. 
iit.  4;  1  Thess  iii.  13)  in  flaming  lire  (2  Thess.  i.  7-10)  to 
execute  judgment  on  the  earth.  Judo  14,  15.  This  is 
Christ's  second  coming  to  the  earth.  Acts  i.  11;  Deut. 
xxxiii.  2;  Zech  xiv.  4,  5;  Matt.  xvi.  27;  xxiv.  29,  30. 

J  — Judgment  of  the  nations,  or  tho  quick.    Matt.  xxv. 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  225 

32-40;  xix.  28;  Acts  x.  42;  1  Peter  iv.  5.  Anti-Christ  is 
destroyed.  2  Thess.  ii.  8.  The  Beast  and  the  False 
Prophet  are  taken.  Rev.  xix.  20.  Gog  and  His  allies  are 
smitten.  Ezek.  xxxviii. ;  xxxix.  Satan  is  bound.  Rev. 
xx.  1-3;  Rom.  xvi.  20. 

R.  L. —  Resurrection  of  the  Tribulation  Saints,  which 
completes  the  First  Resurrection.  Rev.  xx.  4-6. 

Mill'm  —  The  Millennium.  Christ's  glorious  reign  on 
earth  for  1,000  years  (Rev.  xx.  4)  with  His  bride.  2  Tim. 
ii.  12;  Rev.  v.  10;  Isa.  ii.  2-5;  iv. ;  xi.  1-12;  xxv.  G-9;  Isa. 
Ixv.  18-25;  Mic.  iv.  1^1;  Zeph.  iii.  14-20;  Zech.  viii.  3-S, 
20-23;  xiv.  10-21. 

S  — Satan  loosed  for  a  little  season,  and  destroyed  with 
Gog  and  Magog.  Rev.  xx.  7-10;  Hcb.  ii.  14. 

Res. —  The  Resurrection  of  Judgment.  Rev.  xx.  12- 
15;  John  v.  29;  Dan.  xii.  2. 

J.  W.  T.— Judgment  at  the  Great  White  Throne  of 
all  the  remaining  dead.  Rev.  xx.  11-15.  Death  and  Hell 
destroyed.  Rev.  xx.  14;  1  Cor.  xv.  26. 

E.  E. — Eternity.    Isa.  Ivii.  15. 

[THE  above  diagram  is  taken  from  a  pam- 
plilet  circulated  at  the  Conference  with  the 
endorsement  of  its  president.  It  is  also  found 
in  a  book  entitled  "  Maranatha,"  by  Rev.  J.  H. 
Brooks,  one  of  the  speakers  in  the  Conference, 
and  the  first  signer  of  the  call.  It  is  the  basis 
of  most  of  the  papers  as  reported  in  the  Tri 
bune.] 


226  ANTINOMIANISM  EEVT7ED. 

The  most  vulnerable  point  of  this  pre-millen- 
arian  theory  is  found  in  the  exegesis  of  Matt. 
xxv.  31-46.  The  necessities  of  the  theory  re 
quire  its  advocates  to  do  violence  to  this  most 
solemn  utterance  of  the  Son  of  God  while  on 
the  earth.  It  is  indisputable  that  He  discloses 
four  facts  in  this  passage :  (1)  The  judgment 
will  be  general,  including  the  whole  human 
race.  (2)  The  righteous  and  the  wicked  will 
be  simultaneously  judged  and  sentenced.  (3) 
The  judgment  will  be  individual,  and  not 
national ;  each  person  will  be  rewarded  or 
condemned  according  to  his  treatment  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  persons  of  His  brethren,  either 
believers  or  human  beings  generally.  (4)  This 
day  of  judgment  is  a  finality,  a  winding-up  of  the 
history  of  man  on  the  earth.  Henceforth  man 
kind  will  be  found  in  only  two  conditions  —  in 
everlasting  punishment  or  in  life  eternal  —  with 
the  intimation  that  the  former  is  a  place  prepared 
for  the  devil  and  his  angels.  The  pre-millena- 
rian,  finding  it  impossible  to  wedge  in  an  earthly 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  227 

reign  of  Christ,  called  the  millennium,  between 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  His  Glory 
and  His  final  sentence,  "  Come,  ye  blessed  ! " 
and  "  Depart,  ye  cursed  !  "  deliberately  goes  to 
work  to  pervert  these  awful  words  by  whittling 
them  down  to  a  review  of  living  nations,  ending 
in  the  infliction  of  certain  temporal  punishments 
which  do  not  sweep  them  from  the  earth,  but 
leave  them  still  living,  to  be  converted  or  held 
hi  check,  by  millennial  agencies. 

This  is  the  teaching  of  the  Prophetic  Confer 
ence.  We  call  this  the  willful  perversion  of 
the  plain  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Judge 
eternal.  If  the  reader  will  look  at  the  above 
diagram,  he  will  find  the  letter  J  descriptive  of 
the  place  which  the  judgment  in  Matt.  xxv. 
31-46,  occupies  in  the  Chiliast's  eschatology.  In 
stead  of  being  the  end  of  man  on  the  earth,  it  is 
about  the  middle  point  of  his  earthly  history, 
and  he  will  be  found,  after  the  sentence  of 
eternal  doom,  begetting  children  (Isa.  xi.  6,  8 ; 
Ixv.  23),  black-smithing  (Isa.  ii.  4),  house- 


228  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

building  and  vine-planting  (Isa.  Ixv.  21),  the 
old  man  with  his  staff  in  hand  for  very  age, 
and  the  boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets 
(Zech.  viii.  4,  5)  ;  while  others  shall  suffer 
from  plagues  inflicted  on  them  and  their  cattle, 
and  still  others  will  go  to  battle  and  gather 
great  spoil  (Zech.  xiv.  13-15).  The  references 
are  those  which  accompany  the  diagram. 

One  of  the  essayists,  Dr.  J.  T.  Cooper, 
argued  that  only  the  Gentiles  are  judged  in 
Matt.  xxv.  31-46,  and  that  the  Jews  were 
exempt.  According  to  this  writer,  and  the 
Plymouth  teachers  generally,  this  judgment 
turns  upon  the  question  how  each  nation  has 
treated  Christ's  brethren,  the  Jews.  Let  the 
reader  peruse  this  whole  passage,  putting  nations, 
or  Gentiles,  after  the  pronouns  "ye  "  and  "you," 
and  in  place  of  "  them,"  and  substitute  Jews 
for  "my  brethren,"  and  he  will  get  some  idea 
of  the  monstrous  misinterpretation  which 
Chiliasm  is  forced  to  put  upon  this  plain  pas 
sage,  in  defiance  of  common  sense. 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOQY.  229 

By  making  two  last  (?)  days,  or  judgment 
days  —  one  for  the  living  and  one  for  the  dead 
(Rev.  xx.  11-15)  —  a  space  is  gained  for  the 
millennium  after  the  Second  Advent.  It  is 
nothing  to  these  expositors  that  the  words,  the 
"  quick  "  and  the  "  dead,"  in  Acts  x.  42  ;  2  Tim. 
iv.  1 ;  1  Peter  iv.  5,  are  thus  violently  riven 
asunder  by  thrusting  in  a  thousand  years  be 
tween  them.  Jesus  says:  "For  the  hour  is 
coming  in  the  which  all  that  are  in  their  graves 
shall  hear  His  voice,  and  shall  come  forth; 
they  that  have  done  good  unto  the  resurrection 
of  life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil  unto  the 
resurrection  of  damnation."  Here  Dr.  Gordon 
finds  no  difficulty,  by  stretching  "  the  hour,"  to 
make  two  resurrections,  a  thousand  years  apart! 
The  millenarians  find  no  difficulty  in  splitting 
the  judgment  day  into  fragments,  locating  one 
in  the  air  before  the  Epiphany,  or  appearing  of 
Christ,  another  on  the  earth  after  that  event, 
and  still  another  after  a  thousand  years.  The 
Plymouth  Brethren  add  a  fourth  judgment  day, 


230  ANTINOMIANISM  HEVIVED. 

when  the  sins  of  believers  were  judged  on  the 
Cross  —  the  only  judgment  of  their  persons  as 
distinguished  from  their  works.  But  since  the 
resurrection  is  always  intimately  connected 
with  the  judgment,  this  theory  easily  invents 
as  many  resurrections  as  are  requisite  to  its 
demands.  Hence  we  have  a  resurrection  of 
the  saints,  to  meet  Christ  before  He  descends 
to  the  earth ;  then  the  resurrection  of  the  mar 
tyrs,  who  by  some  unaccountable  agency  have 
been  converted  and  beheaded  while  Christ  was 
reviewing  the  saints  in  the  air,  and  not  a  holy 
soul  was  left  on  the  earth,  but  Antichrist  was 
for  years,  and  perhaps  centuries,  riding  rough 
shod  over  the  God-forsaken  earth,  and  all  the 
woes  and  vials  of  the  Apocalypse  were  being 
poured  upon  the  human  race,  amid  the  crash  of 
all  the  regular  governments  and  the  horrors  of 
anarchy.  Then  we  have  a  third  resurrection  — 
that  of  the  wicked  —  after  a  thousand  years 
plus  the  period  in  which  Satan  is  loosed,  whicli 
may  be  ten  thousand  years  more.  For  all 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGY.  231 

these  resurrections  and  judgments  Scripture 
proofs  are  quoted  with  great  profusion  and 
perfect  confidence,  although  the  Church  from 
the  beginning  till  the  present  day  has  believed 
in  one  resurrection  and  one  judgment  of  the 
whole  human  family. 

But  still  greater  difficulties,  not  to  say  ab 
surdities,  are  encountered  when  we  examine 
the  mixed  state  of  tilings  on  the  earth  after 
the  judgment  of  the  living  nations,  or  "the 
quick."  Here  we  find  living  side  by  side  in 
the  millennium  the  remnant  who  have  survived 
the  judgment,  and  are  still  flesh  and  blood; 
the  saints  who  were  changed  when  the  Judge 
reached  the  air ;  and  the  righteous  dead  who 

have  been  raised  and  endowed  with  spiritual 
\ 
I  bodies.     How  these  three  sorts  of  folks  are  to 

have  intercourse  —  mortals  and  immortals  thus 
mixed  together  —  is  inconceivable.  But  as 
children  are  to  be  born,  still  more  difficult 
social  problems  arise.  There  will  be  a  class 
capable  of  marriage,  because  they  are  still  in 


232  ANflNOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  flesh ;  a  class  incapable  of  that  estate,  be 
cause  they  are  "  in  the  resurrection ; "  and  a 
class  of  whom  we  are  doubtful,  namely,  the 
changed  saints.  This  exceeding  complex  state 
of  society  is  entirely  out  of  analogy  with  the 
constitution  and  course  of  nature,  and  is  en 
tirely  abnormal  and  incongruous. 

The  moral  government  of  such  a  world  by 
the  second  Person  of  the  Trinity  in  person  will 
be  one  continued  reign  of  supernaturalism, 
wholly  unadapted  to  the  purposes  of  probation. 
The  change  will  be  so  great  that  there  will  be 
need  of  a  new  Bible,  for  the  new  state  of  things 
will  render  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  obsolete  as 
Noah's  almanac.  This  is  admitted  by  distin 
guished  pre-millenarians.  One  of  them  is 
quoted  by  Bickersteth  as  saying  that  "  the 
Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament,  written  for 
a  tempted  and  suffering  Church,  are  unapplica- 
ble  to  this  state  of  things."  Dr.  McNeile  says  : 
"  It  is  obvious  that,  in  the  passage  from  our 
present  state  to  a  state  of  universal  holiness, 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  233 

these  characteristic  sayings  of  the  New  Testa 
ment  must  cease  to  have  any  application,  and 
become  obsolete,  not  to  say  false." 

If  the  human  race  is  to  be  continually  propa 
gated  throng] i  a  thousand,  or,  as  some  assert, 
through  three  hundred  and  sixty-live  thousand 
years,  and  none  die,  the  world  would  soon  be 
so  uncomfortably  crowded  that  there  would  not 
be  standing  room.  But  if  death  does  his  work 
of  depletion  then  as  now,  only  after  a  longer 
average  longevity  —  the  child  dying  an  hun 
dred  years  old  —  there  must  be  another  resur 
rection  distinct  from  that  of  the  wicked  for  the 
accommodation  of  these  deceased  millennial 
saints.  This  will  make  four  resurrections  in 
all.  Thus  the  difficulties  thicken  as  we  dwell 
on  this  theory  of  the  personal  reign  of  Christ 
on  earth  before  the  last  day,  which  is  certainly 
"  another  gospel  "  from  that  which  Paul 
preached. 

To  the  people  of  the  United  States  this 
judgment  of  nations  by  the  test  of  our  national 


234  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

treatmemt  of  the  Jews,  is  one  which  we  may 
approach  with  greater  boldness  than  any  other 
nation  of  modern  civilization,  for  we  have  never 
discriminated  against  the  Hebrews,  "  these  my 
brethren,"  in  our  legislation,  though  we  have 
abused  the  African,  the  Indian,  and  the  China 
man,  who  are  not  supposed  to  be  so  closely 
related  to  Jesus  Christ.  Hence  the  great 
American  Republic  stands  a  good  chance  to  be 
the  dominant  nation  in  the  regeneration,  or 
millennial  age,  which  begins  immediately  after 
the  award  to  the  nations  of  eternal  life  or  ever 
lasting  punishment. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

DIFFICULTIES    IN  THE  THOUSAND   YEARS. 

WE  object  to  the  millemirian  scheme,  because 
it  is  grounded  chiefly  on  those  portions  of  the 
Bible  which  are  symbolic,  and  enigmatic,  and 
difficult  to  be  understood.  The  personal  reign 
of  Christ  a  thousand  years  is  not  found  in  the 
Gospels,  nor  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  nor 
in  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  Peter,  James  or  John, 
but  only  in  the  Apocalypse,  which  is  the  dark 
est  book  in  the  New  Testament.  Its  striking 
symbols  and  gorgeous  imagery  impress  the 
imagination  and  awaken  the  feelings.  The 
visitor  in  London  will  find  in  one  library  a 
thousand  commentaries  on  this  book,  all  pro 
fessing  to  unfold  its  mysteries,  all  differing,  so 
that  only  one  of  them  can  be  true.  These 
writers  have  tried  to  interpret  the  apocalyptic 
numbers,  and  they  have  signally  failed.  From 
236 


236  ANTESTOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

Ben  gel's  date  of  the  binding  of  Satan  in  183C 
down  to  the  present  time,  the  years  fixed  for 
the  coming  of  Christ  have  passed  away,  and 
the  expositors  who  have  survived  their  disap 
pointment  have  courageously  tried  again,  by 
shifting  their  ground  into  the  safer  future. 
There  are  three  great  schools  of  interpreters  of 
the  Revelation  :  (1)  The  Prseterists,  or  those 
who  teach  that  the  whole,  or  by  far  the  greater 
part,  has  been  fulfiled.  Some  of  the  most  emi 
nent  German  expositors,  as  Ewald,  De  "Wette, 
Lucke,  and  Dusterdieck,  belong  to  this  school ; 
also  Dr.  Davidson  in  England,  and  Moses 
Stuart  in  America.  (2)  The  Historicals,  who 
hold  that  the  Revelation  embraces  the  whole 
history  of  the  Church  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
(3)  The  Futurists,  who  insist  that  this  book, 
after  the  third  chapter,  relates  entirely  to 
future  events.  Some  include  the  first  three 
chapters,  and  assert  that  they  refer  to  the 
future  also. 

This  is  the  grand  outline  of  opinions  held  by 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  237 

men  equally  learned  and  honest ;  yet  on  a  book 
whose  interpretation  is  in  so  great  dispute,  the 
doctrine  of  a  thousand  years'  personal  reign  of 
Christ  on  the  earth  before  the  last  judgment  is 
grounded  by  those  who  would  interpret  the 
plain  and  the  literal  teachings  respecting  the 
last  things  by  the  symbolic  and  typical,  thus 
inverting  an  acknowledged  canon  of  interpre 
tation.  The  twentieth  chapter  of  the  Revela 
tion  is  the  basis  of  pre-millenarianism.  Let  us 
now  examine  this  chapter,  and  see  what  is  not 
proved  by  its  testimony. 

1.  There  is  no  mention  of  the  second  advent 
of  Christ  before  the  thousand  years.  The 
chapter  opens  with  the  vision  of  an  angel 
descending  from  heaven  with  a  chain  in  his 
hand.  This  angel  can  never  be  proved  to  be 
Christ.  Says  Alford  :  "  Angelas^  in  this  book, 
is  an  angel;  never  our  Lord"  Thus  far  in  the 
Apocalypse  there  is  not  the  slightest  intimation 
that  He  has  made  His  second  advent  in  visible 
form.  In  chapter  xix.  11-21,  He  wars  against 


238  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  beast,  and  the  kings  of  the  earth  and  their 
armies  ;  but  the  assumption  that  this  is  a  literal 
battle  fought  on  the  earth  by  Jesus  in  person, 
riding  on  a  white  horse,  with  a  sharp  sword 
going  out  of  His  mouth,  is  a  literalism  which 
cannot  be  endured,  besides  being  a  begging  of 
the  very  question  in  dispute.  John  saw  the 
things  in  the  opened  heaven,  and  he  saw  "  the 
armies  which  were  in  heaven."  The  Scriptures 
are  unanimous  in  making  heaven  the  fixed 
abode  of  Christ,  until  He  shall  come  to  judge 
mankind  at  the  last  day. 

2.  John  saw  only  the  souls  of  the  martyrs. 
He  makes  no  mention  of  their  bodies.  There 
is  a  grave  doubt  whether  a  bodily  resurrection 
is  here  intended ;  but  we  are  inclined  to  the 
literal  resurrection  of  these  martyrs.  In  John 
v.  25,  we  have  a  resurrection  of  souls,  followed 
in  verse  28  by  a  bodily  resurrection.  This,  in 
the  opinion  of  many,  explains  the  first  and  the 
second  resurrections  in  this  chapter.  The  pas 
sage  is  obscure,  admitting  of  different  interpre 
tations. 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  239 

3.  There  is  here  no  proof  of  the  resurrec 
tion  of  all  the  righteous  dead,  but  only  of  the 
beheaded  martyrs ;  so  that  allowing  the  literal 
resurrection  of  these  does  not  prove  that  all 
the  saints  rise  at  this  time.  Every  man  is  to 
rise  in  his  own  order.  Some  arose  at  the  resur 
rection  of  Christ,  and  doubtless  were  His  con 
voy  to  heaven.  It  may  be  that  a  special  honor 
and  blessedness  await  the  beheaded  martyrs  in 
the  fact  of  their  resurrection  and  translation  to 
heaven  before  the  rest  of  the  dead  saints  :  "  for 
one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory." 
This  does  not  preclude  these  from  standing 
with  Enoch  and  Elijah,  in  holy  boldness,  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  in  the  last  day. 
This  may  explain  Paul's  aim  at  a  martyr's 
death  and  the  resurrection  of  the  beheaded 
(Phil.  iii.  10,  11).  "  On  such  the  second  death 
hath  no  power."  The  dying  of  these  martyrs, 
in  a  manner  so  heroic,  utterly  vanquished  the 
mighty  enemy.  An  early  restoration  from  the 
dominion  of  death,  suffered  prematurely  for 


240  ANTINOMIANISM  KEVIVED. 

Christ,  is  an  eminently  appropriate  reward: 
"  Holy  and  blessed  is  lie  that  hath  part  in  the 
first  resurrection." 

4.  There  is  in  this  chapter  a  total  absence 
of  proof  that  these  raised  martyrs  reigned  with 
Christ  on  the  earth.     The  visions  thus  far  have 
been  located  in  heaven.     Consistency  with  the 
whole  context  requires  that  they  should  reign 
with    Christ  in   heaven,   and   not   that   Christ 
should  reign   with   them    on    earth.      Bengel, 
Wesley,  Moses  Stuart,  and  many  others,  say, 
"in  heaven  and  not  on  the  earth." 

5.  There  is  no  evidence  here  that  a  single 
millennium   is   spoken  of.     The  best  scholars, 
and    among    them    Bengel,    Wesley,   and   Dr. 
Owen,  assert  that  there  are  two  distinct  periods 
of  a  thousand   years  spoken  of   in  verses  1-7. 
The  Greek  article  sustains  this  view.     The  first 
period  extends  through  the  repression  of  Satan 
which,   Bengel   says,   indicates  the  great  pros 
perity  of  the  Church.     The  second  is  the  reign 
of  martyrs.     Both  of   these  periods  are  before 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOQY.  241 

the  second  coming  of  Christ.  Thus  Beugel 
and  Wesley,  instead  of  being  pre-millenarians, 
were,  in  fact,  what  most  modern  Methodists 
are,  post-millenarians.  Beugel  styles  those  who 
confound  these  two  distinct  millennial  periods, 
"  pseudo-Chiliasts."  The  Prophetic  Conference 
thus  falls  under  Bengel's  censure  as  pseudos. 
He  says :  "  Whilst  Satan  is  loosed  from  his 
imprisonment  of  a  thousand  years,  the  martyrs 
live  and  reign,  not  on  the  earth,  but  with 
Christ ;  then  the  coming  of  Christ  in  glory  at 
length  takes  place  at  the  last  day  ;  then,  next, 
there  is  the  new  heaven,  the  new  earth,  and 
the  new  Jerusalem."  Thus  the  coming  of 
Christ  is  two  thousand  years  plus  a  little  season 
after  the  binding  of  Satan.  A  harmless  sort  of 
Chiliasm  is  this.  Says  Bengel :  "  The  con 
founding  of  the  two  millennial  periods  has 
long  ago  produced  many  errors,  and  has  made 
the  name  of  Chiliasm  hateful  and  suspected." 
6.  It  is  a  very  important  point  for  the  mil- 
lenarian  to  prove,  that  the  judgment  of  the 


242  ANTLNOMIANISM  KEVIVED. 

dead  before  the  great  white  Throne  is  that  of 
the  wicked  dead  only.  But  this  vital  point  is 
not  proven  by  this  chapter.  In  fact,  the  bring 
ing  forth  of  the  Book  of  Life  and  the  casting 
into  the  lake  of  fire  of  those  whose  names  are 
not  written  therein,  imply  that  some  were 
found  inscribed.  Dr.  Brooks'  declaration  that 
this  Book  of  Life  is  a  blank  book,  is  a  baseless 
assumption.  This  is  not  proved  by  the  words, 
"  the  rest  of  the  dead  lived  not,"  etc.  Says  so 
eminent  a  Greek  scholar  as  Dr.  Owen  :  u  Yet 
as  the  words  here  stand,  we  cannot,  without 
great  violence,  make  '  the  rest '  (in  Greek)  em 
brace  any  other  than  the  class  of  the  pious 
dead,  from  which  the  martyr  saints  have  been 
previously  taken  to  participate  in  the  first 
resurrection."  We  quote  Dr.  Owen,  not  to 
endorse  him,  but  to  show  the  difficulty  of  prov 
ing  that  this  is  a  judgment  of  the  wicked  dead 
alone. 

We  believe  that  it  is  the  general  judgment 
of  the  race  described  in  Matt.  xxv.  31-40,  and 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  243 

that  "  the  rest  of  the  dead  "  include  all  the 
human  dead,  both  righteous  and  wicked,  except 
the  martyr  saints,  and  that  the  good  and  the 
bad  will  be  raised  in  the  general  resurrection 
and  sentenced  in  the  general  judgment. 

7.  We  look  in  vain,  in  this  account  of  the 
millennium,  or  millenniums,  for  any  reference 
to  the  Jews  as  being  gathered  to  Jerusalem. 
The  Revelation  strangely  omits  to  associate 
them  with  either  of  these  chiliads.  In  chapter 
seven,  the  angels  seal  exactly  twelve  thousand 
of  each  of  the  twelve  tribes,  but  there  is  no 
hint  of  the  restoration  of  the  Hebrew  nation 
to  their  own  land.  After  the  day  of  general 
doom,  the  last  great  day,  there  descends  a  new 
Jerusalem  into  the  new  earth  which  has  no 
more  sea.  Even  then  "  the  tabernacle  of  God 
is  with  men,"  not  with  the  Jews. 

Considering  the  fact  that  the  old  Testament 
prophecies  are  constantly  quoted  by  the  millen- 
arians  in  proof  of  the  personal  reign  of  Christ 
on  earth,  with  the  Jews  as  His  most  loyal  sup 
porters,  it  is  to  us  an  insuperable  objection  to 


244  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  doctrine,  that  the  book  of  Revelation  omits 
to  place  the  restored  Hebrew  nation  in  any 
such  relation  to  Christ,  either  in  the  old  or  the 
new  Jerusalem. 

If  there  is  to  be  a  personal  reign  of  Christ 
on  the  earth,  during  a  thousand  years,  to  sub 
due  the  nations,  as  a  substitute  for  the  conquest 
now  being  made  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  is 
remarkable  that  these  seven  esseniial  facts 
should  be  absent  from  the  only  account  in  the 
whole  Bible  where  the  millennial  period  is 
spoken  of. 

These  important  items  are  culled  from  dark 
prophecies,  often  violently  wrenched  from  the 
context,  and  are  fitted  together  on  the  pedestal 
of  this  chapter  of  a  book  which  has  been  an 
inexplicable  enigma  to  the  scholarship  of  all 
the  Christian  ages.  This  style  of  interpretation 
may  be  satisfactory  and  convincing  to  those 
who  accept  imagery  for  doctrine,  symbol  for 
substance,  and  rhetoric  for  logic ;  but  there  are 
Christian  minds  which  have  an  unconquerable 
aversion  to  stitching  together  selections  from 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  245 

the  symbolry  of  the  prophets,  literalizing  the 
whole  patchwork,  and  holding  it  up  to  the 
world  as  God's  truth.  Yet  this  is  what  the 
pre-millcnarians  rire  perpetually  doing.  They 
opened  their  recent  Conference  with  the  dis 
claimer  that  they  had  not  brought  their  ascen 
sion  robes  with  them.  But  such  is  the  perilous 
fascination  of  their  method  of  prophetic  stud 
ies,  that  they  will  soon  be  attracted  to  an 
interpretation  of  the  apocalyptic  numbers  and 
a  determination  of  the  year  and  day  when,  in 
the  language  of  Mr.  Barbour,  "  Christ  is  due," 
as  we  say  of  an  express  train.  History  always 
repeats  itself.  This  has  been  the  outcome  of 
every  great  millenarian  movement.  The  leaders 
may  keep  their  own  intellectual  balance  quite 
well,  but  by  deluging  Christendom  with  their 
literature,  they  will  soon  shake  the  minds  of 
Christians  of  less  steadiness  who  will  insist  on 
bringing  to  the  next  Prophetic  Conference 
their  arithmetical  charts  of  Daniel's  animals,  if 
not  their  ascension  robes.  We  who  survived 
1843  know  the  sequel. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  CHURCH  NOT  THE   KINGDOM. 

WE  object  to  the  pre-rnillenarian  theory  be 
cause  its  definition  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
makes  it  an  institution  altogether  different 
from  the  Church,  and  entirely  in  the  future.  A 
glance  at  the  diagram  will  show  the  church  as 
coming  to  an  end  on  the  earth  before  the  king 
dom  is  set  up.  The  Chiliast  represents  the 
kingdom  as  coming  only  at  the  descent  of  the 
King  in  person,  and  as  then  set  up  suddenly  by 
almightiness  without  the  aid  of  human  agency. 
But  when  we  look  into  the  New  Testament,  we 
find  no  such  difference  in  the  use  of  the  terms 
"Church "and  "kingdom."  They  seem  to  be 
used  interchangeably.  The  kingdom  is  to  be 
established  by  preaching,  and  it  is  to  develop 
gradually  till  its  ultimate  triumph.  The  gener 
ation  to  whom  John  the  Baptist  and  Christ 
216 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  247 

preached,  were  urged  to  repent  because  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  was  at  hand.  We  fail  to 
see  the  cogency  of  this  motive  if  the  kingdom 
was  not  to  be  set  up  till  after  1,800  or  18,000 
years.  St.  Paul  writes  a  thanksgiving  epistle 
to  the  Colossians  in  which  he  expresses  his 
gratitude  to  the  Father  "who  hath  translated 
us  into  the  kingdom  of  His  dear  Son."  Christ 
himself  spoke  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  within, 
or  among,  His  hearers.  The  disciples  were 
taught  to  pray  for  its  complete  triumph  on  the 
earth.  Parables  illustrative  of  its  slow  progress, 
but  ultimate  universality,  were  spoken.  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,  which  becomes  a  tree  so  great  that  the 
birds  lodge  in  the  branches.  The  astonishing 
development  of  Christ's  kingdom  from  small 
beginnings  through  long  ages  is  here  plainly 
taught.  It  is  perfectly  puerile  to  assume  that 
these  birds  are  foul  birds  of  prey,  symbolizing 
the  gigantic  corruptions  of  the  Christian 
Church!  Yet  we  have  again  and  again  met 


248  ANTIKOMTANISM  REVIVED. 

with  this  exegesis  in  the  writings  of   modern 
millenarians. 

In  Christ's  comparison  of  the  kingdom  to 
leaven  deposited  in  the  meal,  He  intended  to 
teach  the  gradual  diffusion,  the  pervasive  and 
assimilative  power,  and  the  universal  prevalence 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Every  unprejudiced 
reader,  even  in  the  infant  Sunday-school,  sees 
this  meaning  in  the  parable.  How  do  the 
Chiliasts  dispose  of  this  parable  ?  The  wise 
ones  do  as  the  Scotch  preacher  did  with  a  pas 
sage  which  he  could  not  harmonize  with  pre 
destination  :  "  My  brethren,  let  us  look  this 
verse  square  in  the  face  and  pass  on."  But 
some  millennarians  are  not  wise  enough  to 
follow  so  good  an  example,  but  confidently  ex 
pound  it  thus :  "  Leaven  is  always  used  in  the 
Bible  to  represent  evil  or  corruption."  Hence 
in  the  language  of  Rev.  H.  M.  Parsons :  "  The 
parable  of  the  leaven  represents  the  results 
which  will  be  manifested  in  the  same  kingdom 
during  the  age  from  the  corruptions  introduced 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATO-L-uGY.  249 

by  those  who  are  within  the  Church.  The 
meal  will  be  leavened  with  heresies  and  perver 
sions  during  all  this  dispensation." 

Well  may  Dean  Alford  say :  "  It  will  be  seen 
that  such  an  interpretation  cannot  for  a  moment 
stand,  on  its  own  ground  ;  but  much  less  when 
we  connect  it  with  the  parable  of  the  mustard- 
seed.  The  two  are  intimately  related.  The 
latter  was  of  the  inherent,  self-developing  power 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  a  seed  containing 
in  itself  the  principle  of  expansion  ;  the  former 
(the  leaven)  represents  the  power  which  it  pos 
sesses  of  penetrating  and  assimilating  a  foreign 
mass,  till  all  be  taken  up  into  it.  This  gifted 
annotator,  a  strong  Chiliast,  but  not  run  mad 
with  millenarian  vagaries,  proceeds  at  length 
to  show  the  power  of  the  Gospel  leaven  (1)  to 
penetrate  the  whole  mass  of  humanity,  and  (2) 
the  transforming  power  of  the  "new  leaven" 
on  the  whole  being  of  individuals.  Says  Trench: 
"  In  fact,  the  parable  does  nothing  less  than  set 
forth  to  us  the  mystery  of  regeneration,  both  in 


250  ANTINOMIANISM  BEVIVED. 

its  first  act,  which  can  be  but  once,  as  the  leaven 
is  but  once  hidden  ;  and  also  in  the  consequent 
renewal  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which,  as  the  ulte 
rior  working  of  the  leaven,  is  continual  and 
progressive."  Thus  we  array  these  scholarly 
and  sober  expositors  against  the  strange  and 
erroneous  exegesis  of  millenarians  so  intent  on 
removing  a  difficult  text  out  of  their  way  that 
they  foist  upon  it  a  meaning  never  intended  by 
Christ,  in  order  to  make  Him  teach  their  dole 
ful  doctrine,  that  the  church  is  becoming  more 
and  more  corrupt,  the  world  is  hopelessly  ship 
wrecked,  and  the  pentecostal  dispensation  is  a 
stupendous  failure.  From  such  a  dismal  view 
of  Christianity,  and  from  such  a  misinterpreta 
tion  of  a  plain  parable,  giving  a  hopeful  view 
of  the  expansion  and  universal  prevalence  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  established  by  Christ, 
we  beg  to  be  delivered. 

We  believe  with  Neander  that  the  relation 
of  the  Church  to  the  kingdom  is  that  of  a 
species  to  a  genus,  or  of  a  part  to  a  whole. 
The  Church  is  the  kingdom  begun. 


PLYMOUTH   ESGHATOLOGY.  251 

The  millenarian  conception  of  the  earthly 
kingdom  of  Christ,  entirely  different  from  His 
present  spiritual  reign  in  the  Church,  is  strik 
ingly  like  the  Jewish  idea  of  the  Messianic 
kingdom,  founded  on  a  literal  interpretation  of 
the  prophecies.  If  their  gross  literalism  is  at 
last  to  be  realized  in  an  earthly  and  visible 
kingdom,  we  do  not  see  the  culpability  of  the 
Jews  in  rejecting  the  Nazarene,  who  failed  to 
exhibit  those  signs  of  Messiahship  which  their 
own  prophets  had  taught  them  to  expect  when 
His  kingdom  should  be  set  up.  For  it  has  been 
well  said  that  there  is  no  perspective  in  proph 
ecy.  Hence  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for 
the  Jews  to  discriminate  between  Christ's  first 
coming  to  found  His  Church,  and  His  second 
advent  to  found  His  kingdom.  The  brightness 
of  the  earthly  kingdom  so  entirely  eclipsed  the 
colorless,  spiritual  kingdom,  or  Church,  that 
the  Hebrew  nation  seems  to  be  justified  in  dis 
carding  the  spiritual  kingship  of  Jesus  Christ, 
who  was  attended  by  no  such  signs  of  world- 


252  ANTINOMIAOTSM   REVIVED. 

wide  temporal  dominion  as  the  millenarians 
now  find  in  the  Old  Testament  prophecies. 
But  there  is  no  such  vindication  of  the  Jews 
possible,  because  their  culpability  lies  in  the 
fact  that  while  there  is  but  one  kingdom  of 
Christ  on  earth,  and  that  is  spiritual,  they  were, 
as  a  nation,  not  dwelling  in  those  spiritual  alti 
tudes  which  would  have  enabled  them  to  view 
the  Star  of  Bethlehem  in  its  true  character, 
undimmed  by  the  clouds  of  sensuality  and 
worldliness.  Hence,  on  the  commonly-received 
view  that  the  Church  is  the  spiritual  kingdom 
of  Christ,  and  the  only  kingdom  which  He  will 
establish  on  earth,  the  ancient  and  modern  Jews 
have  no  excuse.  On  the  theory  of  the  Chiliast, 
they  have  an  excuse  for  rejecting  Him  who  came 
to  them  without  the  prophetic  insignia  of  a  king. 

No  MOTIVE  FOR  A  JEW  TO  BELIEVE  IK 
CHRIST. 

Another  very  curious  fact  in  the  millenarian 
scheme  is  that  the  nearer  the  Second  Advent, 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  253 

the  less  influential  is  it  to  induce  in  the  Jew 
submission  to  Christ.  Let  me  amplify  this 
point :  My  commission  is  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature.  This  includes  the  Jews. 
Let  me  suppose  that  I  have  a  congregation  of 
Hebrews  whom  I  wish  to  lead  to  Christ.  My 
first  effort  would  be  to  gain  an  intellectual 
assent  to  the  proposition  that  Jesus  is  the  true 
Messiah,  by  reasoning  with  them  in  Pauline 
style  out  of  the  Scriptures.  Having  produced 
an  intellectual  conviction,  I  should  next  proceed 
to  sway  their  wills  to  an  immediate  acceptance 
of  the  Nazarene  as  their  personal  Saviour. 
What  would  be  my  great  argument  ?  "  The 
Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven,  with 
His  mighty  angels,  in  flaming  fire,  taking  ven 
geance  on  them  that  know  not  God  and  that 
obey  not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruc 
tion  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  from 
the  glory  of  His  power."  My  Israelites,  in 
terror,  ask  me  if  this  is  a  final  and  irreversible 


254  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

sentence  for  disobedience  to  Christ.  I  tell 
them,  with  tears,  that  it  is  even  so.  Under  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  attending  the  Word,  some 
are  constrained  to  bow  the  knee  to  Christ  cru 
cified  who  had  been  a  stumbling-block  to  them 
all  their  lives,  Knowing  the  terrors  of  the 
Lord,  I  have  saved  some.  But  suppose  I  had 
called  in  a  millenarian  to  do  this  critical  work 
of  presenting  motives  to  sway  their  stubborn 
Jewish  wills  ?  His  course  of  argument  would 
be  thus :  Repent  of  your  sins,  and  receive 
Jesus  as  your  Saviour  and  Lord  because  He  is 
soon  coming  to  set  up  a  kingdom,  gathering  the 
Jews,  at  least  a  third  of  them,  to  Jerusalem, 
where  they  will  all  be  suddenly  converted  and 
be  the  chief  promoters  of  His  kingdom  among 
the  Gentiles.  "  How  long,"  ask  they,  "  before 
this  great  event  ?  "  "  It  may  occur  to-day ;  all 
the  signs  indicate  that  it  is  near,"  is  the  answer. 
"  If  this  is  so,  we  think  that  we  will  not  put 
ourselves  to  the  inconvenience  and  suffering  of 
the  persecution  of  our  brethren  for  embracing 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  255 

Jesus.  We  will  wait  and  take  our  chances  of 
being  alive  and  of  being  converted  en  masse  when 
Jesus  comes.  This  will  be  easier,  and  will  be 
attended  by  no  persecution  by  a  stubborn  re 
mainder."  Thus  the  nearer  the  Second  Advent, 
the  less  is  its  motive  power  for  the  Jew  to  be 
lieve  in  Christ. 

Can  such  a  system  of  doctrine  be  true  which 
thus  weakens  the  grand  motive  to  evangelical 
faith?  The  common,  or  othodox,  view  of  the 
second  coming  of  Christ  to  pass  final  sentence 
upon  the  race,  affords  just  as  great  inducements 
to  repent  to  the  Jew  as  to  the  Gentile,  and  the 
motive  in  both  cases  is  intensified  by  the  near 
approach  of  the  Judge  eternal. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

ELECT  NUMBER   OF  THE   GENTILES. 

HAVING  shown  that  the  personal  reign  of 
Christ  for  a  thousand  years  before  the  general 
judgment  is  not  found  in  Rev.  xx.,  we  proceed 
to  examine  other  passages  in  the  New  Testa 
ment  perpetually  quoted  as  proofs  of  Chiliasm. 
Matt.  xix.  28  is  literally  expounded  by  Chili- 
asts,  and  the  "  regeneration  "  is  explained  as 
the  new  order  of  things  on  the  earth  after 
Christ  has  set  up  a  visible  throne.  Then  the 
twelve  apostles  are  to  have  inferior  thrones,  or 
governorships,  over  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel. 
In  answer  to  this  we  cannot  do  better  than  to 
condense  the  comment  of  Dr.  Whedon,  one  of 
the  ripest  Greek  scholars  in  America,  and  second 
to  none  as  an  exegete :  The  words  "  in  the 
regeneration  "  are  in  contrast  with  "  in  my  temp 
tations  "  in  the  parallel  passage  in  Luke  xxii. 
256 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGY.  257 

23-30.  The  contrasted  periods  are  before  His 
death  and  after  His  ascension,  when  the  Church 
was  renewed  and  regenerated  from  the  old  to 
the  new  dispensation.  Then  Jesus  would  sit 
on  the  throne  of  his  glory  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Majesty  on  high  till  He  shall,  on  the  same 
throne,  descend  to  judge  the  world.  The 
twelve  apostles  were  to  receive  twelve  apostol- 
ates,  or  thrones  —  not  thrones  of  glory  —  sym 
bolizing  the  fact  that  Christ  is  King  over  Israel, 
and  that  the  New  Testament  kingdom  is  only 
another  form  of  the  Old  Testament  Church. 
Then  follows,  in  verse  29,  a  promise  of  the 
hundred-fold  now  in  this  time  (Mark  x.  30), 
with  persecutions,  showing  that  the  time  spoken 
of  when  the  twelve  should  enjoy  their  apostol- 
ates,  or  sit  on  their  spiritual  thrones,  is  during 
their  present  lives,  after  which  they  will  receive 
life  everlasting.  Hence  we  are  living  in  the 
regeneration,  or  new  dispensation.  Another 
text,  quoted  in  nearly  every  paper  read  in  the 
Prophetic  Conference,  as  a  proof  that  the  whole 


258  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

world  is  not  to  be  converted  under  the  dispen 
sation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  only  a  definite 
number  —  the  Bride  of  Christ  —  is  Rom.  xi.  25. 
The  word  "  fullness,"  Dr.  E.  R.  Craven,  and 
the  millenarians  generally,  interpret  as  the 
completion  of  the  definite  "  elect  number  of 
the  Gentiles  "  who  are  to  be  saved ;  if  but  a 
thousand,  then  the  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  saved  persons  lack  but  one  to  complete  the 
fullness.  Since  quite  a  parade  has  been  made 
of  the  great  scholarship  of  the  millenarians, 
we,  in  Pauline  style,  in  self-defense,  wish  to 
magnify  the  scholarship  on  our  side. 

Our  limits  forbid  giving  Meyer's  extended 
note.  We  insert  only  his  conclusion :  "  A  part 
of  Israel  is  hardened,  until  the  Gentiles  collec 
tively  shall  have  come  in,  and  when  that  shall 
have  taken  place,  then  all  Israel  will  be  saved. 
The  conversion  of  the  Gentiles  ensues  by  suc 
cessive  stages ;  but  when  their  totality  shall  be 
converted,  then  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  in 
their  totality  will  ensue  ;  so  that  Paul  sees  the 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  259 

latter  (which  up  to  that  epoch  certainly  also 
advances  gradually  in  individual  cases)  ensuing, 
after  the  full  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  as  the 
event  completing  the  assemblage  of  the  Church 
and  accomplishing  itself,  probably,  in  rapid 
development.  All  this,  therefore,  is  before  the 
Parousia  (personal  coming),  not  by  means  of 
it."  The  italics  are  Meyer's.  Turning  to  Dr. 
Robinson's  Lexicon,  we  find  him  defining 
pleroma  (fullness),  in  his  text,  as  "  all  the  mul 
titude  of  the  Gentiles."  But  lest  Dr.  Robinson 
may  be  considered  obsolete,  we  turn  to  Cremer's 
Biblico-Theological  Lexicon,  1878,  fresh  from 
the  living  author.  His  rendering  is,  "  the 
totality  or  completeness  of  the  Gentiles,"  under 
the  same  sub-heading  of  definitions  as  "the 
fullness  of  the  God-head  "  —  "  the  sum  total  of 
all  that  G-od  is."  After  this  presentation  of  the 
latest  and  most  erudite  researches  into  the 
meaning  of  this  text,  the  challenge  of  the  Pro 
phetic  Conference  to  produce  one  proof-text 
for  the  conversion  of  the  entire  world  under 


260  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

the  present  dispensation,  does  not  exhibit  an 
acquaintance  with  the  best  sacred  scholarship 
of  the  age. 

RESTITUTION  OP  ALL  THINGS. 

Another  text,  supposed  beyond  all  dispute  to 
contain  an  unanswerable  proof  of  Chiliasm,  is 
Acts  iii.  21.  We  are  told  that  "  the  restitution 
of  all  things  "  is  the  renovation  of  the  earth  at 
the  second  coming  of  Christ.  But  how  can  all 
things  be  restored  so  long  as  the  vast  majority 
of  the  dead  are  in  their  graves  during  a  thou 
sand  years  ?  The  word  "  restitution  "  in  the 
Greek  is  found  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testa 
ment.  It  is,  therefore,  of  doubtful  meaning. 
But  the  cognate  verb  is  used  in  Matt.  xvii.  11 : 
"  Elias  shall  first  come  and  restore  all  tilings" 
Christ  declares  that  "  Elias  has  already  come." 
But  did  he  restore  all  things  in  the  sense  thrust 
upon  the  derivative  noun  by  millenarians  ? 
John  the  Baptist  as  the  forerunner  of  Christ 
fulfiled  all  things  spoken  concerning  him  by 


PLYMOUTH    ESCHATOLOGY.  261 

the  prophets.  Now  read  Acts  iii.  21,  substitut 
ing  fulfilment  for  restitution,  and  see  how  com 
plete  is  the  sense  and  how  perfect  the  harmony 
with  the  next  verse  :  "  Whom  the  heaven  must 
receive  until  the  times  of  the  fulfilment  of  all 
things  spoken  of  by  the  mouth  of  all  his  holy 
prophets  since  the  world  began.  For  Moses 
truly  said  unto  the  fathers,"  etc.  Whatever  is 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "restitution,"  the 
work  must  be  completed  before  Christ  comes, 
not  by  His  coming.  Says  Meyer :  "  Before  the 
times  set  in  which  all  things  will  be  restored, 
Christ  comes  not  from  heaven.  Consequently 
the  age  to  come  cannot  be  meant;  but  onl}T 
such  times  as  shall  precede  the  Parousia,  and 
by  the  emergence  of  which  it  is  conditioned 
that  the  Parousia  shall  ensue."  "Christ's 
reception  into  heaven  continues  —  this  is  the 
idea  of  the  apostle  —  until  the  moral  corruption 
of  the  people  of  God  is  removed,  and  the  thor 
ough  renovation  of  all  their  relations  shall 
have  ensued."  Even  Bengel  can  find  no  foot- 


262  ANTINOMJANISM  REVIVED. 

hold  for  millenarianism  in  this  speech  of  Peter. 
"  Peter  comprises  the  whole  course  of  the  times 
of  the  New  Testament  between  the  Ascension 
of  the  Lord  and  His  Advent  in  glory,  times  in 
which  that  apostolic  age  shines  forth  pre-emi 
nent  (ver.  24),  as  also  corresponding  to  the 
condition  of  the  Church,  which  was  to  be  con 
stituted  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  together.  Justas 
Jonas  says,  '  Christ  is  that  King,  who  has  now 
received  heaven,  reigning  in  the  meantime 
through  the  Gospel  in  the  Spirit  until  all 
things  be  restored,  i.  e.,  until  the  remainder  of 
the  Jews  and  Gentiles  be  converted.' "  Ben- 
gel  seems  to  endorse  Jonas.  This  certainly 
teaches  that  the  world  is  to  be  converted  before 
the  Advent,  and  not  by  it. 

WHY  CHKIST  DELAYS  His  COMING. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  third  chapter  of  the 
second  epistle  of  Peter  for  a  commentary  on 
his  meaning  in  Acts  iii.  21.  He  gives  in  this 
chapter  an  answer  to  the  scoffers  who  say, 


PLYMOUTH   ESCHATOLOGY.  263 

"  Where  is  the  (fulfiled)  promise  of  His  com 
ing  ?  "  He  then  gives  two  reasons  for  Christ's 
delay  in  coming  to  burn  up  the  earth  and  the 
works  therein,  namely :  (1)  The  different  con 
ception  of  time  in  the  divine  Mind,  a  thousand 
years  being  as  one  day ;  and  (2)  the  long-suf 
fering  of  God  in  affording  a  further  space  for 
repentance.  From  this  second  reason  the 
inference  is  irresistible  that  there  will  be  no 
chance  for  repentance  unto  salvation  after  the 
Christ's  advent.  If  this  be  so,  what  becomes 
of  the  theory  that  He  will  come  to  supersede 
the  dispensation  of  the  Paraclete  by  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  dispensation  in  which  Jews  and 
Gentiles  will  be  converted  in  a  wholesale  way  ? 
If  a  thousand  people  were  perishing  on  an 
ocean  steamer  wrecked  at  the  entrance  of  the 
harbor  of  New  York,  and  a  small  dory  were 
rescuing  two  or  three  at  a  time  while  a  well- 
equipped,  life-saving  government  steamer  was 
lying  in  sight  of  the  wreck,  could  it  be  believed 
that  the  commander  delayed  to  hasten  to  help 


264  ANTINOMIANISM  REVIVED. 

the  unfortunate,  through  his  excessive  compas 
sion  for  them?  This  is  the  exact  attitude  of 
Christ  towards  a  perishing  world  according  to 
millenarianism,  purposing  to  institute  a  dispen 
sation  more  favorable  to  the  salvation  of  the 
lost  world,  and  delaying  out  of  pity  ! 

When  we  ask  why  does  Christ  delay  His 
coming  to  set  up  a  more  effective  scheme  of 
salvation,  we  are  told  that  this  question  is  like 
the  conundrum,  why  did  not  God  create  the 
world  sooner?  But  Peter  has  answered  our 
question  in  a  way  which  grinds  millenarianism 
to  powder.  He  delays  through  a  long-suffering 
which  implies  that  He  will  come,  not  to  save, 
but  to  condemn ;  not  to  set  up  a  visible  king 
dom  on  the  earth,  but  to  wind  up  His  media 
torial  reign  and  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God, 
even  the  Father.  This  is  what  St.  Paul  avers 
will  be  done  at  the  second  advent  (1  Cor.  xv. 
23,  24).  Also  contrast  John  iii.  16,  17 ;  xii. 
47,  with  Matt.  xxv.  31-46 ;  2  Tliess.  i.  6-10.. 


PLYMOUTH  ESCHATOLOGY.  265 

CONCLUSION. 

I  have  discussed  this  subject  from  a  sense  of 
duty  to  my  fellow-Christians.  I  believe  that 
the  general  prevalence  of  pre-millenialism 
would  be  disastrous  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ,  now  being  spread  over  the 
earth  by  the  joint  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  consecrated  believers.  The  command, 
"  Grieve  not  the  Spirit,"  cannot  be  fully  kept 
by  any  person  whose  theories  belittle  His  effi 
ciency  in  the  work  of  His  office.  Nor  can  any 
man  put  forth  his  best  endeavors  while  dis 
trusting  the  agency  with  which  he  co-works 
and  looking  for  a  superior  one  soon  to  appear. 
Against  all  the  disclaimers  of  diminished  zeal 
for  the  evangelization  of  the  whole  world,  put 
forth  by  pessimists  of  the  Second  Advent 
school,  they  fail  to  convince  me  that  men,  how 
ever  good,  will  ever  exert  themselves  to  the 
utmost  to  prove  themselves  false  prophets. 


266  ANTINOMIANISM   REVIVED. 

This  is  contrary  to  human  nature  even  in  its 
highest  state  of  grace.  Gen.  Grant  would 
have  failed  to  conquer  Gen.  Lee,  if  he  had  be 
lieved  it  impossible. 


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By  FATHER  LAMBERT, 

Author  of  "Tactic*  of  Injldelt,"  etc. 


SOME  OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS  AND  OTHERS. 

"  There  is  neither  Truth,  nor  Life,  nor  Argument  left  in  Ingersoll  when 
Father  Lambert  has  done  with  him." 

"  It  is  a  masterly  refutation  of  Ingersoll.  It  should  be  widely  circulated. " 

"Father  Lambert's  book  is  as  acceptable  to  any  good  Methodist  or 
Baptist  as  it  is  to  any  good  Catholic.  Successful  beyond  any  of  the  efforts 
in  that  direction  heretofore  made." 

"  Father  Lambert  is  an  earnest  and  keen  reasoner,  and  his  books  should 
have  many  readers." 

Paper  Covers,  Price  Reduced  to  Only  15  Cents. 
Mailed  post-free  on  receipt  of  price. 

WILLIAM  BRIGGS,  78  &  80  KING  ST.  EAST,  TORONTO. 

C.  W.  COATES.  Montreal.  Que.          3.  F.  EtoBSTis,  Halifax,  N.S. 


SAM    P.  JONBS'    BOOKS. 

ONLY  AUTHORIZED  EDITIONS  IN  CANADA. 

"I'll  Say  Another  Thing;" 

OR,  SERMONS  AND   LECTURES  DELIVERED 

BY  REV.  SAM:  P.  JONKS, 

DURING  HIS  SECOND  VISIT  TO  TORONTO. 

With  Introduction  by  REV.  E.   A.   STAFFORD,  M.A.,  LL.B., 

Pastor  of  Metropolitan  Church. 


PAPER  COVERS          -         PRICE  25  CENTS. 

Me  Shots  at  the  King's  Enemies ! 

BEING  SERMONS  DELIVERED  IN  TORONTO 

BY  THE  REV.  SAM  P.  JONES. 


SAM  SMALL'S  FAMOUS  SERMON, 

"DELIVERANCE   FROM    BONDAGE." 

With  Introduction  by  REV.  JOHN  POTTS,  D.D.,  Chairman   <>.' 
Mr.  Jones'  Executive  Committee. 


PAPER  COVERS          -         PRICE  25  CENTS. 


Soronto : 

WILLIAM  BRIGGS,  78  &  80  KING  STREET  EAST, 
C  W.  COATES,  MONTREAL,  Qum.  8.  K.  HUE8TI8,  HAUCAZ.   N.8 


A  SERIES  OF  FITE  DISCOURSES 


BY  TOT 


REV.  HUGH  JOHNSTON,  M.A.,  B.D. 


SUBJECTS  DISCUSSKD: 

'WINE '-'CARDS '-'THE  DANCE '-'THE  THEATRE1 

'WHAT  SHALL  WE  DO?1 


Paper,  160  pp.,  25  Cents. 


"Full  of  cogent  argument  and  stirring  and  pointed  appeal." 

—Daily  Examiner,  Peterboro'. 

"Thoughtfully  and  reasonably  written. "—The  Week. 

"  The  use  of  intoxicating  liquors,  card  playing,  dancing  and 
^heatre-going  are  discussed  in  these  discourses  in  a  practical, 
pointed,  persuasive  manner.  They  take  strong  ground  on  the 
safe  side,  which  is  the  right  side,  and  maintain  it  by  strong 
arguments." — Southern  Christian  Advocate. 


WILLIAM  BRIGGS.  78  &  80  KING  ST.  EAST,  TORONTO. 

C  W.  COATES,  S.  F.  HUESTIS, 

Qv*  HAJUTAX,  K.ft.