HOLINESS CONSIDERED HISTORICALLY Part 1

188. Where has the doctrine of Christian perfection been in the past history of the church that we seem only to hear of it now?

The implication of this question is not the fact in the case. This doctrine is not new. It is as old as the Bible, and some parts of the Bible are nearly four thousand years old. It is taught and enforced in the moral law given at Sinai to the Israelites. When Abraham was ninety years old, the Lord appeared unto him, and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." This is proof that this doctrine was inculcated four hundred years before the giving of the law.

This doctrine has always existed in the church with more or less clearness. That the Apostolic Fathers, Martyrs, and primitive Christians believed in, and walked in the light of this grace, is very evident. They lived and died abiding in Christ, under the cleansing blood of the atonement. It was this grace that gave them their great success, and afforded them sustaining power in the jaws of death. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who was given to the wild beasts at Rome when one hundred and seven years of age, said, "I thank thee, O Lord, that thou hast vouchsafed to honor me with a perfect love towards thee."

The primitive Christians received Christ and his word in such searching thoroughness and fullness, as to disarm death of its terrors in its most sudden, violent, or tormenting forms; they were ready to go and meet their Lord. When threatenings were sent to Chrysostom from the hand of the Empress, he replied, "Go tell Eudoxia that I fear nothing but sin."

Irenaeus taught that those were perfect "who present soul, body, and spirit faultless to the Lord. Therefore those are perfect who have the spirit and perseverance of God, and have preserved their souls and bodies without fault."

Clement, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, says: "Ye see, then, beloved, how great and wonderful a thing love is, and that no words can declare its perfection. Let us beseech Christ that we may live in love unblamable."

Macarius taught the doctrine more clearly than any of the Fathers. Of our duty and privilege, he says: "It is perfect purity from sin, freedom from all shameful lusts and passions, and the assumption of perfect virtue; that is, the purification of the heart by the plenary and experimental communion of the perfect and divine Spirit."