the representation of the Father, as the medium through whom we receive free, unpurchased mercy and redeeming grace, as the 'Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ;' and as a teacher of truth and righteousness, in whom God is ' reconciling the world unto himself.' But as Jesus ascribed all goodness to the Father, and as his mission, death and resurrection were the fruits of divine mercy, the assurances of God's impartial goodness, and commendations of his love to the whole world, we would offer to our Father in heaven our highest praise, and yield to him our most fervent gratitude, and ardent love. Nor can we admit, as true, any principle of doctrine, which, by directing the best and purest affections of our hearts to any other being, is calculated to weaken sincere and ardent piety towards 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' or to impair our confidence in the 'Rock of our salvation.'

In conclusion, we would express our sincere hope and confident belief, that the time is not far distant, when a doctrine, originating from heathen superstition, founded on such gross misapprehension of the divine character, so detrimental to genuine piety, and so replete with absurdity, will form no part of the Christian faith.

W. S.

ART. XVII.

'Commentators on the Sin unto death."

If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.'-1 John, v. 16.

THIS text, it will be perceived, recognizes some peculiar catastrophe, under the name of death, as the result, not of sins in general, but of a certain sin; without specifying, however, what kind of death is meant, nor of course what is the precise nature of that catastrophe. In this respect it is indefinite, and leaves room for conjecture. But for the very reason of its ambiguity, people have referred it, as they have nearly all the indefinite threatenings in the Scriptures, to the most fearful idea

which their creed embraced,-to endless torment, though it really contains no trace of such an allusion. So strong is the predisposition of the human mind to suspect the worst possible in what is obscure! To us, however, there appears, on the face of the passage, an exclusive reference to the state of things that existed while the Christians were endowed with miraculous gifts. Those whom St. John addresses, are here supposed capable of distinguishing between such sins of their brethren as were unto death, and such as were not unto death, and of procuring, by their prayers, the grant of life to the transgressors in certain cases. Now these are gifts which were confined to believers of the apostolic age; and of course, whatever explanation we give the text, it should be such as comports with the peculiar circumstances of that period. Our readers will perhaps find some useful suggestions in the following notes and paraphrases of Orthodox commentators on the passage. They will at least discover that it cannot be very easily applied to the doctrine of endless misery, whether that doctrine be true or false; and that the more careful and considerate of its believers themselves have long been aware of the fact.

MACKNIGHT paraphrases the text thus: 'If any one endowed with spiritual gifts is sensible that his brother has committed a sin which is not to be punished with bodily death, because he hath repented or is in a disposition to repent, let him pray to God, and he will grant at his request recovery to those who have not sinned to death. There is a sin which will be punished with death, because the sinner is impenitent. I do not say concerning it that the spiritual man should ask God to recover such a person by miracle.' To vindicate this representation he subjoins a note, too long to be inserted entire, the substance of which, however, is embraced in the following abstract and quotations: In the apostolic age, great and scandalous misdemeanors of Christians were sometimes punished in an extraordinary manner by the visible judgment of God, as in the case of the Corinthians, who had been guilty of great irregularities in the administration of the Lord's supper: For this cause,' said St. Paul, many of you are sick, and some are dead.' (1 Cor. xi. 30.) Macknight might here have added the instance of Ananias and Sapphira. (Acts v. 5.) On the other hand, continues he, there were certain persons endowed with the gift of healing diseases miraculously; as St. Paul observes: To one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom; ...... to another, the gifts of healing by the same

spirit.' (1 Cor. xii. 8, 9.) And to these peculiar circumstances we may suppose that St. John refers. 'According to this view of matters, John, in the passage before us, is treating briefly of the subject concerning which James had treated more at large, ch. v. 14-16. 'Is any sick among you? Let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up, and so although he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The inwrought prayer of the righteous man availeth much.' Now if John, in the passage before us is treating of the subject which James hath handled in the above verses, the any one who seeth his brother sinning a sin not unto death, of whom John speaks, was any elder of the church endowed with the gift of healing diseases miraculously; and the asking, prescribed by John, is what James calls the prayer of faith; and the life to be obtained by such asking, was a miraculous recovery of the sick sinner from the mortal disease under which he was laboring: called also the raising him up, namely to health, as is plain from James v. 16. . . . The life which was to be asked for those who sinned not unto death, and which God was to grant, could not be eternal life, because nowhere in Scripture is eternal life promised to be given to any sinner at the asking of another. Besides, right reason teaches that eternal life should not be granted to any sinner merely because another asks it for him; nay, that the prayers of the whole world united will not procure eternal life for an impenitent sinner. On the other hand, if a sinner truly repents of his sin, he will assuredly obtain eternal life through the intercession of Christ, whether any of his fellow men ask it for him or not. Since then, one

person's asking God to grant eternal life to another, hath no influence to procure that favor, the life which was to be asked for the person who had not sinned unto death, and which God promised to grant, must have been temporal life only; consequently, John's direction, 'let him ask God, and he will grant to him life,' is equivalent to that of James, Let them pray over them, and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and so, although he hath committed sins, they will be forgiven him:' that is, although he hath committed sins which have occasioned him to be punished with a mortal disease, he shall be delivered from that punishment. In calling a miraculous recovery from a mortal disease, which had been inflicted as a punishment for sins, the forgiving of sins, James hath followed his Master, who called the recove

ry of the sick of the palsy, 'the forgiving of his sins.' (Matt. ix. 2-5.) In like manner the Psalmist represents the healing of all his diseases, as the forgiving of all his iniquities.' &c, Macknight on the Epistles, Comment. and Note in loco.

BEAUSOBRE and LENFANT have the following Note: A sin unto death:] some understand this to be the sin against the Holy Ghost, (Matt. xii. 31,) which however is not very probable; others, that it is impenitence, (see Heb. vi. 4—6. x. 26.) But it appears rather that this passage treats of some of those sins which incur temporal death, as in Acts v. 5; 1 Cor. xi, 30-32. St. John here probably alludes to the distinction which the law made among sins. There were those which it pardoned, and for which a sacrifice was offered, the priest praying to God and obtaining his grace for the sinner; but there were others, as wilful murder, adultery, idolatry, for which there was no sacrifice. It did not follow that the sinner was condemned to eternal death; if he repented, he might be saved, though he should suffer the penalty of the law. So, likewise, under the Gospel, there were sins which God punished by diseases, as is intimated in those words of Jesus Christ on healing the sick, Your sins be forgiven you,' and in St. James v. 15, where the recovery of the sick by prayer is joined with the remission of sins which were regarded as the cause of the disease. When therefore any Christian had committed one of those sins which the law condemned without mercy, and had afterwards fallen into a dangerous sickness, that sickness was supposed to be the punishment of his sin. I do not say, observes St. John, that you should ask of God recovery and life for such a sinner; it is a sin unto death. God will do with it as he sees fit, and pardon it if he chooses.'-Le Nouveau Test. par Messrs. De Beausobre et Lenfant, in loco.

LIGHTFOOT, though not very definite in his explanation, inclines to the opinion that the sin unto death was such as, in the apostolic age, incurred natural death by the special judgment of God; of which we have examples in the case of Ananias and Sapphira.-Sermon on 1 John v. 16. Works, vol. vi p. 335, London. 1822.

WHITBY'S Paraphrase: If any man see his [sick] brother sin a sin which is not unto death, [i. e. for which God hath not peremptorily threatened and required that he should die for it, as he did to them that were guilty of murder, Gen. ix. 5, 6. Numb. xxxv. 30, 31, and for idolatry, Deut xvii. 2—5.] he shall ask [of God restoration of his life and health;] and he shall give him life for them that sin not [thus] unto death. There is a sin unto death; [of which God hath denounced

that he that doeth it, shall die for it;] I do not say that he shall pray for it [i. e. for deliverance of the person guilty of it, from death.'] He subjoins the following note: A sin unto death.] Note here that the phrase, He shall give him life, cannot reasonably be interpreted of eternal life, for that depends not on the prayers of other men; nor can they be certain that their intercession shall prevail for it, since it belongs only to them who truly repent and reform their lives. 2. Because the person to be prayed for, is one that hath not sinned unto death, i. e. hath not committed a sin which renders him obnoxious to death eternal. 3. They who interpret this phrase, A sin unto death, of a sin on which eternal death will certainly follow by the decree of God, 1. Make the duty here enjoined impracticable; for who can know when his brother's sin is thus to death or not? Who is acquainted with any such decree of God? 2. They make the difference betwixt a sin unto death and not to death, to consist not in the nature of the sins themselves, but in the decree by God passed upon the sinner. 3. They make the apostle say, He dares not encourage them to pray for the salvation of them who are at present in a state of death and condemnation, which is against the tenor of the Scripture. See Rom. x. 1. The words, If a man see his brother sin a sin not unto death,' seem like unto those of St. Paul, 'If he see him overtaken with a fault,' Gal. vi. 1; i. e. with an act of injustice against his brother, to awaken him out of which sin, God hath inflicted sickness on him, as he did on the Corinthians, 1 Cor. xi. 30. The words, 'Let him ask, and he shall give him life,' seem parallel to those of St. James, The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shalĺ raise him up.' See the Note on James v. 15. If this interpretation will not stand good, consider, that after all the miracles and distributions of the Holy Ghost, vouchsafed in confirmation of the gospel, too many of the Jews apostatized from the profession of it, relapsing to their former Judaism. And this apostacy may here be termed the sin unto death; it being also that which our Saviour represents as the sin against the Holy Ghost, which should not be forgiven, (Matt. xii. 32.) And they who commit it being men, saith the apostle, whom it is impossible to renew unto repentance,' (Heb. vi. 4-6,) and to whom there remaineth nothing but fearful looking for of judgment, (Heb. x. 26, 27,) the apostle might well add I do not say that you shall pray for them. Whitby on the New Test. Paraphrase and Annot. in loco.

HENRY is not decided with regard to the meaning of the text. He thinks the death and life here mentioned, may be, 1. temporal life and death; and he adduces the cases of Ana