must have been if he had not liberated us ; and what a death we must have undergone, if he had not died in our stead ! Verily, if we felt our obligations as we ought, we should scarcely pass a moment without adverting to them, and mag- nifying him with songs of praise and thanksgiving. Let us dwell on the delightful thought, which, wherever it is enter- tained, creates a heaven upon earth : and in a little time our deliverance shall be complete ; and we shall unite with all the hosts of heaven " in singing Hallelujah to God and to the Lamb for ever and ever."]
1 John iii. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
MANY mistakes in religion arise from not consi- dering sufficiently the style and manner in which the inspired writers are wont to express themselves. They speak strongly on all subjects ; and never con- template, for a moment, the niceties of criticism ; or dream of their words being weighed in a balance, so as that there shall be the minutest possible precision in their weight and import. They are content with speaking in popular language, and with conveying their sentiments in terms which every candid mind shall fully apprehend. St. Paul, speaking of the dan- ger of persons who are once enlightened, falling away from the truth which they have received, says, " It is impossible to renew them again to repentance3." We are not to suppose, from this, that the restoration of such an apostate is a work which God is not able to effect ; but only, that it is a work which we cannot reasonably hope to see effected by him. The same kind of interpretation must be given to the words which we have just read : we are not to suppose that a regenerate person is brought into such a state, that there is an absolute and physical impossibility for him to commit any the minutest sin : such an
a Heb. vi. 4—6. F F 2
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impossibility as that did not exist even in Paradise, when man was absolutely perfect ; no, nor does it exist in heaven itself; since millions of once holy angels actually did fall, and were cast out of heaven for their transgression. Not intending his words to be strained to such an extent as that, the Apostle declares,
I. The state of the regenerate man —
To consider the Apostle as saying only that a regenerate man ought not to commit sin, would be to make him speak what is altogether foreign to the context ; the whole of which evidently shews his meaning to be, that the regenerate man does not commit sin.
But, in what sense are we to understand this assertion ?
[If taken in its utmost latitude, this assertion would con- tradict the whole Scriptures. " There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth notb." " In many things we all offend0." St. John himself declares, that "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in usd:" and then, intimating that the scope of his observations was to deter men from sin, he adds, " But if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, who is also the propitiation for our sinse."
It is evident, therefore, that we cannot so construe his words, as to infer from them that a regenerate man has attained a state of sinless perfection. Nor, in reality, do his words properly admit of that sense : for the word which we translate " commit sin" must, of necessity, imply a continued act. In ver. 7, he says, " Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteous- ness*^ (it is the same word as is used in our text) is righteous, even as Christ is righteous." This can never mean, that the person who performs one righteous act must necessarily " walk in all things as Christ walked:" it must import a habit, and not a mere insulated act : and that is its proper meaning in the text ; ' Whosoever is born of God, does not wilfully and habit uall ;i commit sin.' The whole scope of the context, from the third verse, sanctions, and indeed requires, this inter- pretation. It is said, in ver. 3, that the person who has a