Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

Holiness, Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots by J.C. Ryle The Foreword One of the most encouraging and hopeful signs I have observed for many a long day in evangelical circles has been a renewed and increasing interest in the writings of Bishop J.C. Ryle. In his day he was famous, outstanding, and beloved as a champion and exponent of the evangelical and reformed faith. For some reason or other, however, his name and his works are not familiar to modern evangelicals. His books are, I believe, all out of print in this country and very difficult to obtain second-hand. The differing fates suffered in this respect by Bishop Ryle and his near contemporary, Bishop Mowell, have always been to me a matter of great interest. But Bishop Ryle is being rediscovered and there is a new call for the republication of his works. All who have ever read him will be grateful for this new edition of his great book, Unholiness. I shall never forget the satisfaction, spiritual and mental, with which I read it some twenty years ago after having stumbled across it in a second-hand bookshop. It really needs no preface or word of introduction. All I will do is to urge all readers to read the Bishop's own introduction. It is invaluable as it provides the setting in which he felt compelled to write the book. The characteristics of Bishop Ryle's method and style are obvious. He is preeminently and always scriptural and expository. He never starts with a theory into which he tries to fit various scriptures. He always starts with the word and expounds it. It is exposition at its very best and highest. It is always clear and logical and invariably leads to a clear enunciation of doctrine. It is strong and virile and entirely free from the sentimentality that is often described as devotional. The Bishop had drunk deeply from the wells of the great classical Puritan writers of the 17th century. Indeed, it would be but accurate to say that his books are a distillation of true Puritan theology, presented in a highly readable and modern form. Ryle, like his great masters, has no easy way to holiness to offer us and no patent method by which it can be attained. But he invariably produces that hunger and thirst after righteousness, which is the only indispensable condition to being filled. May this book be widely read, that God's name be increasingly honored and glorified. Written by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. The Introduction The twenty papers contained in this volume are a humble contribution to a cause which is exciting much interest in the present day. I mean the cause of spiritual holiness. It is a cause which everyone who loves Christ and desires to advance his kingdom in the world should endeavor to help forward. Everyone can do something, and I wish to add my might. The reader will find little that is directly controversial in these papers. I have carefully abstained from naming modern teachers and modern books. I have been content to give the result of my own study of the Bible, my own private meditations, my own prayers for light, and my own reading of Old Divines. If in anything I am still in error, I hope I shall be shown it before I leave the world. We all see in part and have a treasure in earthen vessels. I trust I am willing to learn. I have had a deep conviction for many years that practical holiness and entire self-consecration to God are not sufficiently attended to by modern Christians in this country. Politics or controversy or party spirit or worldliness have eaten out the heart of lively piety in too many of us. The subject of personal godliness has fallen sadly into the background. The sense of living has become painfully low in many quarters. The immense importance of adorning the doctrine of God our Savior, Titus 2.10, and making it lovely and beautiful by our daily habits and tempers has been far too much overlooked. Worldly people sometimes complain with reason that religious persons, so-called, are not so amiable and unselfish and good-natured as others who make no profession of religion. Yet sanctification in its place and proportion is quite as important as justification. Sound Protestant and Evangelical doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless. It does positive harm. It is despised by keen-sighted and shrewd men of the world as an unreal and hollow thing and brings religion into contempt. It is my firm impression that we want a thorough revival about scriptural holiness and I am deeply thankful that attention is being directed to the point. It is, however, of great importance that the whole subject should be placed on right foundations and that the movement about it should not be damaged by crude, disproportionate and one-sided statements. If such statements abound, we must not be surprised. Satan knows well the power of true holiness and the immense injury which increased attention to it will do to his kingdom. It is his interest, therefore, to promote strife and controversy about this part of God's truth. Just as in time past he has succeeded in mystifying and confusing men's minds about justification, so he is laboring in the present day to make men darken counsel by words without knowledge about sanctification. May the Lord rebuke him. I cannot, however, give up the hope that good will be brought out of evil, that discussion will elicit truth, and that variety of opinion will lead us all to search the scriptures more, to pray more, and to become more diligent in trying to find out what is the mind of the Spirit. I now feel it a duty in sending forth this volume to offer a few introductory hints to those whose attention is specially directed to the subject of sanctification in the present day. I know that I do so at the risk of seeming presumptuous and possibly of giving offense, but something must be ventured in the interests of God's truth. I shall therefore put my hints into the form of questions, and I shall request my readers to take them as cautions for the time on the subject of holiness. Number one. I ask in the first place whether it is wise to speak of faith as the one thing needful and the only thing required, as many seem to do nowadays in handling the doctrine of sanctification. Is it wise to proclaim in so bald, naked, and unqualified a way, as many do, that the holiness of converted people is by faith only, and not at all by personal exertion? Is it according to the proportion of God's word? I doubt it. That faith in Christ is the root of all holiness, that the first step towards a holy life is to believe on Christ, that until we believe we have not a jot of holiness, that union with Christ by faith is the secret of both beginning to be holy and continuing holy, that the life that we live in the flesh we must live by the faith of the Son of God, that faith purifies the heart, that faith is the victory which overcomes the world, that by faith the elders obtained a good report, all these are truths which no well-instructed Christian will ever think of denying. But surely the scriptures teach us that in following holiness, the true Christian needs personal exertion and work as well as faith. The very same apostle who says in one place, the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, says in another place, I fight, I run, I keep under my body, and in other places, let us cleanse ourselves, let us labor, let us lay aside every weight. Galatians 2 verse 20, 1 Corinthians 9 verse 26, 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1, Hebrews 4 verse 11, and Hebrews 12 verse 1. Moreover, the scriptures nowhere teach us that faith sanctifies us in the same sense and in the same manner that faith justifies us. Justifying faith is a grace that worketh not, but simply trusts, rests, and leans on Christ. Romans 4 verse 5, Sanctifying faith is a grace of which the very life is action, it worketh by love, and like a mainspring moves the whole inward man. Galatians 5 verse 6. After all, the precise phrase, sanctified by faith, is only found once in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus said to Saul, I send thee that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Yet even there I agree with Alford that by faith belongs to the whole sentence and must not be tied to the word sanctified. The true sense is that by faith in me they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified. Compare Acts 26.18 with Acts 20 verse 32. As to the phrase holiness by faith, I find it nowhere in the New Testament. Without controversy, in the matter of our justification before God, faith in Christ is the one thing needful. All that simply believe are justified. Righteousness is imputed to him that worketh not, but believeth. Romans 4 verse 5. It is thoroughly scriptural and right to say, faith alone justifies. But it is not equally scriptural and right to say, faith alone sanctifies. The saying requires very large qualification. Let one fact suffice. We are frequently told that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. By Saint Paul. But not once are we told that we are sanctified by faith without the deeds of the law. On the contrary, we are expressly told by Saint James that the faith whereby we are visibly and demonstratively justified before man is a faith which, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Footnote. There is a double justification by God, the one authoritative, the other declarative or demonstrative. The first is Saint Paul's scope when he speaks of justification by faith without the deeds of the law. The second is Saint James' scope when he speaks of justification by works. T. Goodwin on Gospel Holiness. Works, Volume 7, page 181. The end of the footnote. I may be told, in reply, that no one, of course, means to disparage works as an essential part of a holy life. It would be well, however, to make this more plain than many seem to make it in these last days. Number 2. I ask in the second place whether it is wise to make so little as some appear to do, comparatively, of the many practical exhortations to holiness in daily life which are to be found in the Sermon on the Mount and in the latter part of most of Saint Paul's epistles. Is it according to the proportion of God's Word? I doubt it. That a life of daily self-consecration and daily communion with God should be aimed at by everyone who professes to be a believer. That we should strive to attain the habit of going to the Lord Jesus Christ with everything we find a burden, whether great or small, and casting it upon Him. All this, I repeat, no well-taught child of God will dream of disputing. But surely the New Testament teaches us that we want something more than generalities about holy living which often prick no conscience and give no offense. The details and particular ingredients of which holiness is composed in daily life ought to be fully set forth and pressed on believers by all who profess to handle the subject. True holiness does not consist merely of believing and feeling, but of doing and bearing, and a practical exhibition of active and passive grace. Our tongues, our tempers, our natural passions and inclinations, our conduct as parents and children, masters and servants, husbands and wives, rulers and subjects, our dress, our employment of time, our behavior in business, our demeanor in sickness and health, in riches and in poverty. All, all these things are matters which are fully treated by inspired writers. They are not content with a general statement of what we should believe and feel, and how we are to have the roots of holiness planted in our hearts. They dig down lower. They go into particulars. They specify minutely what a holy man ought to do and be in his own family, and by his own fireside, if he abides in Christ. I doubt whether this sort of teaching is sufficiently attended to in the movement of the present day. When people talk of having received such a blessing, and of having found the higher life, after hearing some earnest advocate of holiness by faith and self-consecration, while their families and friends see no improvement and no increased sanctity in their daily tempers and behavior, immense harm is done to the cause of Christ. True holiness, we surely ought to remember, does not consist merely of inward sensations and impressions. It is much more than tears and sighs and bodily excitement, and a quickened pulse and a passionate feeling of attachment to our own favorite preachers and our own religious party, and a readiness to quarrel with everyone who does not agree with us. It is something of the image of Christ, which can be seen and observed by others in our private life and habits and character and doings. Romans 8 verse 29 Number 3 I ask in the third place whether it is wise to use vague language about perfection and to press on Christians a standard of holiness as attainable in this world for which there is no warrant to be shown either in Scripture or experience. I doubt it. That believers are exhorted to perfect holiness in the fear of God or go on to perfection, to be perfect, no careful reader of his Bible will ever think of denying. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 Hebrews 6 verse 1 and 2 Corinthians 13 verse 11 But I have yet to learn that there is a single passage in Scripture which teaches that a literal perfection, a complete and entire freedom from sin in thought or word or deed is attainable or ever has been attained by any child of Adam in this world. A comparative perfection, a perfection in knowledge, an all-around consistency in every relation of life, a thorough songness in every point of doctrine, this may be seen occasionally in some of God's believing people. But as to an absolute literal perfection, the most eminent saints of God in every age have always been the very last to lay claim to it. On the contrary, they have always had the deepest sense of their own utter unworthiness and imperfection. The more spiritual life they have enjoyed, the more they have seen their own countless defects and shortcomings. The more grace they have had, the more they have been clothed with humility. 1 Peter 5.5 What saint can be named in God's Word of whose life many details are recorded, who is literally and absolutely perfect? Which of them all, when writing about himself, ever talks of feeling free from imperfection? On the contrary, men like David and St. Paul and St. John declare in the strongest language that they feel in their own hearts weakness and sin. The holiest men of modern times have always been remarkable for deep humility. Have we ever seen holier men than the martyred John Bradford, or Hooker, or Usher, or Baxter, or Rutherford, or Machine? Yet no one can read the writings and letters of these men without seeing that they felt themselves debtors to mercy and grace every day, and the very last thing they ever laid claim to was perfection. In face of such facts as these, I must protest against the language used in many quarters in these last days about perfection. I must think that those who use it either know very little of the nature of sin, or of the attributes of God, or of their own hearts, or of the Bible, or of the meanings of words. When a professing Christian coolly tells me that he has got beyond such hymns as Just As I Am, and that they are below his present experience, though they suited him when he first took up religion, I must think his soul is in a very unhealthy state. When a man can talk coolly of the possibility of living without sin while in the body, and can actually say that he has never had an evil thought for three months, I can only say that in my opinion he is a very ignorant Christian. I protest against such teaching as this. It not only does no good, but does immense harm. It disgusts and alienates from religion far-seeing men of the world who know it is incorrect and untrue. It depresses some of the best of God's children who feel they can never attain to perfection of this kind. It puffs up many weak brethren who fancy they are something when they are nothing. In short, it is a dangerous delusion. Number four. In the fourth place, is it wise to assert so positively and violently as many do that the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans does not describe the experience of the advanced saint, but the experience of the unregenerate man, or of the weak and unestablished believer? I doubt it. I admit fully that the point has been a disputed one for eighteen centuries, in fact ever since the days of St. Paul. I admit fully that eminent Christians like John and Charles Wesley and Fletcher a hundred years ago, to say nothing of some able writers of our own time, maintain firmly that St. Paul was not describing his own present experience when he wrote this seventh chapter. I admit fully that many cannot see what I and many others do see, that is, that Paul says nothing in this chapter which does not precisely tally with the recorded experience of the most eminent saints in every age, and that he does say several things which no unregenerate man or weak believer would ever think of saying and cannot say. So at any rate, it appears to me, I will not enter into any detailed discussion of the chapter. Footnote. Those who care to go on into the subject will find it fully discussed in the commentaries of Willett, Elton, Chalmers, and Haldane, and in Owen on Indwelling Sin, and in the work of Stafford on the Seventh of Romans. End of the footnote. What I do lay stress upon is the broad fact that the best commentators in every era of the Church have almost invariably applied the seventh chapter of Romans to advanced believers. The commentators who do not take this view have been, with a few bright exceptions, the Romanists, the Sassians, and the Armenians. Against them is arrayed the judgment of almost all the Reformers, almost all the Puritans, and the best modern evangelical divines. I shall be told, of course, that no man is infallible, that the Reformers, Puritans, and modern divines I refer to may have been entirely mistaken, and that the Romanists, Sassians, and Armenians may have been quite right. Our Lord has taught us, no doubt, to call no man master. But while I ask no man to call the Reformers and Puritans masters, I do ask people to read what they say on this subject and answer their arguments if they can. This has not been done yet. To say, as some do, that they do not want human dogmas and doctrines is no reply at all. The whole point at issue is what is the meaning of a passage of Scripture? How is the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans to be interpreted? What is the true sense of its words? At any rate, let us remember that there is a great fact which cannot be got over. On one side stand the opinions and interpretation of Reformers and Puritans, and on the other the opinions and interpretations of Romanists, Sassians, and Armenians. Let that be distinctly understood. In the face of such a fact as this, I must enter my protest against the sneering, taunting, contemptuous language which has been frequently used of late by some of the advocates of what I must call the Armenian view of the seventh of Romans in speaking of the opinions of their opponents. To say the least, such language is unseemly and only defeats its own end. A cause which is defended by such language is deservedly suspicious. Truth needs no such weapons. If we cannot agree with men, we need not speak of their views with discourtesy and contempt. An opinion which is backed and supported by such men as the best Reformers and Puritans may not carry conviction to all minds in the nineteenth century, but at any rate it would be well to speak of it with respect. Number five. In the fifth place, is it wise to use the language which is often used in the present day about the doctrine of Christ in us? I doubt it. Is not this doctrine often exalted to a position which it does not occupy in Scripture? I am afraid that it is. That the true believer is one with Christ and Christ in him, no careful reader of the New Testament will think of denying for a moment. There is, no doubt, a mystical union between Christ and the believer. With him we died, with him we are buried, with him we rose again, with him we sat in heavenly places. We have five plain texts where we are distinctly taught that Christ is in us. Romans 8 verse 10, Galatians 2 verse 20, Galatians 4 verse 19, Ephesians 3 verse 17, and Colossians 3 verse 11. But we must be careful that we understand what we mean by the expression that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith and carries on his inward work by his Holy Spirit is clear and plain. But if we mean to say that beside and over and above this there is some mysterious indwelling of Christ in a believer, we must be careful what we are about. Unless we take care we shall find ourselves ignoring the work of the Holy Ghost. We shall be forgetting that in the divine economy of man's salvation, election is the special work of God the Father, atonement, meditation, and intercession, the special work of God the Son, and sanctification, the special work of God the Holy Ghost. We shall be forgetting that our Lord said when he went away that he would send us another Comforter who should abide with us forever and as it were take his place. John 14 verse 16, In short, under the idea that we are honoring Christ we shall find that we are dishonoring his special and peculiar gift the Holy Ghost. Christ no doubt as God is everywhere in our hearts, in heaven, in the place where two or three are met together in his name. But we really must remember that Christ as our risen Head and High Priest is specially at God's right hand interceding for us until he comes the second time. And that Christ carries on his work in the hearts of his people by the special work of his Spirit whom he promised to send when he left the world. John 15 verse 26, A comparison of the ninth and tenth verses of the eighth chapter of Romans seems to me to show this plainly. It convinces me that Christ in us means Christ in us by his Spirit. Above all the words of St. John are most distinct and express. Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1 John 3 verse 24, In saying all this I hope no one will misunderstand me. I do not say that the expression Christ in us is unscriptural. But I do say that I see great danger in giving an extravagant and unscriptural importance to the idea contained in the expression. And I do fear that many use it nowadays without exactly knowing what they mean and unwittingly perhaps dishonor the mighty work of the Holy Ghost. If any readers think that I am needlessly scrupulous about the point I recommend to their notice a curious book by Samuel Rutherford author of the well-known letters called The Spiritual Antichrist. They will there see that two centuries ago the wildest heresies arose out of an extravagant teaching of this very doctrine of the indwelling of Christ in believers. They will find that Salt Marsh and Dell and Town and other false teachers against whom good Samuel Rutherford contended began with strange notions of Christ in us and then proceeded to build on the doctrine antinomianism and fanaticism of the worst description and vilest tendency. They maintain that the separate personal life of the believer was so completely gone that it was Christ living in him who repented and believed and acted. The root of this huge error was a forced and unscriptural interpretation of such texts as I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me. Galatians 2.20 And the natural result of it was that many of the unhappy followers of this school came to the comfortable conclusion that believers were not responsible whatever they might do. Believers forsooth were dead and buried and only Christ lived in them and undertook everything for them. The ultimate consequence was that some thought they might sit still in a carnal security their personal accountableness being entirely gone and might commit any kind of sin without fear. Let us never forget that truth distorted and exaggerated can become the mother of the most dangerous heresies. When we speak of Christ being in us let us take care to explain what we mean. I fear some neglect this in the present day. Number 6 In the sixth place is it wise to draw such a deep wide and distinct line of separation between conversion and consecration or the higher life so called as many do draw in the present day. Is this according to the proportion of God's word? I doubt it. There is unquestionably nothing new in this teaching. It is well known that Romish writers often maintain that the church is divided into three classes sinners penitents and saints. The modern teachers of this day who tell us that professing Christians are of three sorts the unconverted the converted and the partakers of the higher life of complete consecration appear to me to occupy very much the same ground. But whether the idea be old or new Romish or English I am utterly unable to see that it has any warrant of scripture. The word of God always speaks of two great divisions of mankind and two only. It speaks of the living and the dead in sin the believer and the unbeliever the converted and the unconverted the travelers in the narrow way and the travelers in the broad the wise and the foolish the children of God and the children of the devil. Within each of these two great classes there are doubtless various measures of sin and of grace but it is only the difference between the higher and lower end of an inclined plane. Between these two great classes there is an enormous gulf. They are as distinct as life and death light and darkness heaven and hell. But of a division into three classes the word of God says nothing at all. I question the wisdom of making newfangled divisions which the Bible has not made and I thoroughly dislike the notion of a second conversion. That there is a vast difference between one degree of grace and another that spiritual life admits of growth and that believers should be continually urged on every account to grow in grace all this I fully concede. But the theory of a sudden mysterious transition of a believer into a state of blessedness and entire consecration at one mighty bound I cannot receive. It appears to me to be a man-made invention and I do not see a single plain text to prove it in scripture. Gradual growth in grace growth in knowledge growth in faith growth in love growth in holiness growth in humility growth in spiritual mindedness all this I see clearly taught and urged in scripture and clearly exemplified in the lives of many of God's saints. But sudden instantaneous leaps from conversion to consecration I fail to see in the Bible. I doubt indeed whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be and will be as his grace increases. But if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again I do not know what conversion means. Are not men in danger of undervaluing and underrating the immense blessedness of conversion? Are they not when they urge on believers the higher life as the second conversion underrating the length and breadth and depth and height of that great first change which scripture calls the new birth the new creation the spiritual resurrection? I may be mistaken but I have sometimes thought while reading the strong language used by many about consecration in the last few years that those who use it must have had previously a singularly low and inadequate view of conversion if indeed they knew anything about conversion at all. In short I have almost suspected that when they were consecrated they were in reality converted for the first time. I frankly confess I prefer the old paths. I think it wiser and safer to press on all converted people the possibility of continual growth in grace and the absolute necessity of going forward increasing more and more and every year dedicating and consecrating themselves more in spirit soul and body to Christ. By all means let us teach that there is more holiness to be attained and more of heaven to be enjoyed upon earth than most believers now experience. But I decline to tell any converted man that he needs a second conversion and that he may someday or other pass by one enormous step into a state of entire consecration. I decline to teach it because I cannot see any warrant for such teaching in scripture. I decline to teach it because I think the tendency of the doctrine is thoroughly mischievous depressing the humble-minded and meek and puffing up the shallow the ignorant and the self-conceited to a most dangerous extent. Number seven In the seventh and last place is it wise to teach believers that they ought not to think so much of fighting and struggling against sin but ought rather to yield themselves to God and be passive in the hands of Christ? Is this according to the proportion of God's word? I doubt it. It is a simple fact that the expression yield yourselves is only to be found in one place in the New Testament as a duty urged upon believers. That place is in the sixth chapter of Romans and there was within six verses the expression occurs five times. See Romans 6 verses 13 through 19 But even there the word will not bear the sense of placing ourselves passively in the hands of another. Any Greek student can tell us that the sense is rather that of actively presenting ourselves for use employment and service. See Romans 12 verse 1 The expression therefore stands alone but on the other hand it would not be difficult to point out at least 25 or 30 distinct passages in the epistles where believers are plainly taught to use active personal exertion and are addressed as responsible for doing energetically what Christ would have them do and are not told to yield themselves up as passive agents and sit still but to arise and work. A holy violence a conflict a warfare a fight a soldier's life a wrestling are spoken of as characteristic of the true Christian. The account of the armor of God in the 6th chapter of Ephesians one might think settles the question. Footnote Old Sib's sermon on victorious violence deserves the attention of all who have his works. See volume 7 page 30 End of footnote. Again it would be easy to show that the doctrine of sanctification without personal exertion by simply yielding ourselves to God is precisely the doctrine of the antinomian fanatics in the 17th century to whom I have referred already described in Rutherford's Spiritual Antichrist and that the tendency of it is evil in the extreme. Again it would be easy to show that the doctrine is utterly subversive of the whole teaching of such tried and approved books as Pilgrim's Progress and that if we receive it we cannot do better than put Bunyan's old book in the fire. If Christian in Pilgrim's Progress simply yielded himself to God and never fought or struggled or wrestled I have read the famous allegory in vain. But the plain truth is that men will persist in confounding two things that differ that is justification and sanctification. In justification the word to be addressed to man is believe only believe. In sanctification the word must be watch pray and fight. What God has divided let us not mingle and confuse. I leave the subject of my introduction here and hasten to a conclusion. I confess that I lay down my pen with feelings of sorrow and anxiety. There is much in the attitude of professing Christians in this day which fills me with concern and makes me full of fear for the future. There is an amazing ignorance of scripture among many and a consequent want of established solid religion. In no other way can I account for the ease with which people are like children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Ephesians 4 verse 14 There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular and in the beaten path of our forefathers. Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true. There is an incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational and exciting and rousing to the feelings. There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dream drinking and the meek and quiet spirit which St. Peter commends is clean forgotten. 1 Peter 3 verse 4 Crowds and crying and hot rooms and high-flown singing and an incessant rousing of the emotions are the only things which many care for. Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide and so long as the preacher is clever and earnest hundreds seem to think that it must be all right and call you dreadfully narrow and uncharitable if you hint that he is unsound. Moody and Hayweath Dean Stanley and Cannon Libbon McConaughey Pearsall Smith all seem to be alike in the eyes of such people. All this is sad, very sad. But if in addition to this the true-hearted advocates of increased holiness are going to fall out by the way and misunderstand one another, it will be sadder still. We shall indeed be in evil plight. For myself I am aware that I am no longer a young minister. My mind perhaps stiffens and I cannot easily receive any new doctrine. The old is better. I suppose I belong to the old school of evangelical theology and I am therefore content with such teaching about sanctification as I find in the life of faith of Sibbes and of Manton and in the life, walk and triumph of faith of William Romaine. But I must express the hope that my younger brethren who have taken up new views of holiness will beware of multiplying causeless divisions. Do they think that a higher standard of Christian living is needed in the present day? So do I. Do they think that clearer, stronger, fuller teaching about holiness is needed? So do I. Do they think that Christ ought to be more exalted as the root and author of sanctification as well as justification? So do I. Do they think that believers should be urged more and more to live by faith? So do I. Do they think that a very close walk with God should be more pressed on believers as the secret of happiness and usefulness? So do I. In all these things we agree. But if they want to go further, then I ask them to take care of where they tread and to explain very clearly and clearly. Finally I must appreciate, and I do it in love, the use of uncouth and newfangled terms and phrases in teaching sanctification. I plead that a movement in favor of holiness cannot be advanced by new-coined phraseology, or by disproportioned and one-sided statements, or by overstraining and isolating particular texts, or by exalting one truth at the expense of another, or by allegorizing and accommodating texts and squeezing out of them meanings which the Holy Ghost never put in them, or by speaking contemptuously and bitterly of those who do not entirely see things with our eyes and do not work exactly in our ways. These things do not make for peace. They rather repel many and keep them at a distance. The cause of true sanctification is not helped, but hindered, by such weapons as these. A movement in aid of holiness which produces strife and dispute among God's children is somewhat suspicious. For Christ's sake, and in the name of truth and charity, let us endeavor to follow after peace as well as holiness. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. It is my heart's desire and prayer to God daily that personal holiness may increase greatly among professing Christians in England. But I trust that all who endeavor to promote it will adhere closely to the proportion of Scripture, will carefully distinguish things that differ, and will separate the differences between And who endeavor to promote holiness will adhere to the Scripture, will carefully and the of between Christians in I make no apology for beginning this volume of papers about holiness by making some plain statements about sin. The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all salvation. The truth of holiness lies at of all The truth of lies at the root of all salvation. The truth of lies at the root of all salvation. The truth of of all salvation. and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul's disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the chief wants of the church in the 19th century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin. Number one, I shall begin the subject by supplying some definition of sin. We are all of course familiar with the terms sin and sinners. We talk frequently of sin being in the world, and of men committing sins. But what do we mean by these terms and phrases? Do you really know? I fear there is much mental confusion and haziness on this point. Let me try as briefly as possible to supply an answer. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's revival books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.SWRB.com. We can also be reached by email at SWRB at SWRB.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to his commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship, in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words then are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind. As though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.