Sin and Holiness.
Reading edition
The preceding, then, warrants the definition of sin as “the transgression of law,” whether known or unknown. The question of the rectitude of penalties added to the natural consequences of violated laws, is confined to those sins which are attended by a knowledge of law and ability to understand and obey.
These distinctions and definitions are important because a large class of theologians maintain that sin is [pg 150] the voluntary transgression of known law, and make this definition the foundation of their assertion that all men have power to be perfect in conformity to all law, meaning by this all the laws of God that they know and believe. On this theory sin is the transgression of known law, and not of that which is unknown. And on this theory one way to keep children from sin would be to keep them in ignorance of God's laws.
The writer maintains that this limited use is not the common meaning. Mankind do not stop to settle the question whether men were ignorant of what was right, before they decide that they sin. Often such ignorance results from an unwillingness or indolence that prevents attention, and few can decide how far our ignorance of law results from guilty neglect. It is true that when a perfect and innocent inability to know law is proved, the added penalties of statute law are remitted. But still the natural penalties are unremitted.
The word holy in its original use signifies set apart or consecrate to the special service of some deity. Thus the vessels of a temple, the priests and the building are called holy in this sense. In reference to moral acts or choices, this term is used as recognizing the fact that a mind may be voluntarily consecrated or devoted to the service of God by right action, or obedience to his laws. God himself is called holy on the supposition that there are rules of right and wrong in the nature of things, independent of his will, and that his will is conformed to these rules, while men are called holy in reference chiefly to the will or service of their Creator.
In the Creator holiness signifies perfect voluntary conformity to that which is for the best according to the [pg 151] eternal nature of things. In men perfect holiness is perfect conformity of will to the laws or will of God, both absolutely and in motive or intention. A mind is consecrated to God when its ruling purpose is to obey him in all things. In this use of the term holiness in man, is what can not be created, as it is a voluntary act of his own mind.
The question whether Adam was created with “a holy nature,” while his posterity begin existence here with an “unholy nature,” must be settled by a clear definition of the words employed.
If the term “nature” refers to the construction of the mind itself as made by God, a holy nature must signify that organization and combination of the natural powers of mind, which is the best possible for a mind in its appointed place in the best possible system.
If, on the contrary, the term “nature” refers to that character of mind consequent on its own volitions, then a holy nature can be caused or created only by man himself as the sole producing cause of his own volitions, God being the author or cause of this nature only in the sense in which men are causes of voluntary action in other minds, viz., occasional causes by the use of motives or objects that excite desires.