a test of our holiness, not of God's goodness. The passage of St. John is more difficult; nor do those who quote it seem to be aware of its difficulty. For taken thus loosely, it were in direct contradiction with that other truth, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us[1];" and, therefore, we are of necessity forced to look more closely into it. Since, also, we know by sad experience, that all commit sin, then it would follow, that none were regenerate; and, as an old Predestinarian writer well said[2], "if this objection were of force against infants, it would be much more against persons of yeares actually converted. For it would prove that they have not the Spirit constantly abiding in them, because it doth not in great falls evidently show itself at all." And not in great falls only, but in lesser cases of human infirmity; for St. John saith peremptorily and absolutely, "doth not commit sin;" and to substitute for this, "is not guilty of deliberate and habitual sin," or "gross sin," or any other qualifying expression, is clearly tampering with God's words, and lowering His teaching. Glosses, such as these, in plain statements of Holy Scripture, cannot be too dili-
- ↑ Burges pp. 284–5, and p. 262. "In elect infants, ordinarily, no such worke appeares; rather, on the contrary, many of them shew manifest opposition to all grace and goodness for many years together, notwithstanding their Baptism."
- ↑ St. Augustine, ad loc. declares himself on this ground much perplexed, and explains "sinneth not," of the one commandment of love, "which whoso keepeth, to him his sins are forgiven; whoso breaketh, his are retained." His exposition, though far-fetched, admits, and is founded on the plain meaning of the words, that the Apostle speaks of an entire freedom from all sin. His application of the words shows also his conviction that they are a test, whether we retain, not whether we ever received, baptismal grace. "Behold a baptized person has received the Sacrament of the new-birth: he hath a Sacrament, a great Sacrament—divine, holy, ineffable. Think of what sort; one which, by the remission of all sins, maketh a new man. But let him observe the heart, whether what was done in the body has been perfected there; let him see, whether he have love, and then let him say, 'I am born of God.' If he have not, he has indeed received a certain stamp impressed upon him, but is a deserter." A different, and, I think, a better interpretation, with which St. Augustine elsewhere combines this, is that it is through love that we are enabled to fulfil the law: see below, p. 170, note 1.
