NINETEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY AND HOLINESS THEOLOGY: A Study in the Thought of Asa Mahan

By

James E. Hamilton

God hath joined Philosophy and Religion together. We do violence to the nature which he has given us when we attempt to put them asunder. False Philosophy is the mother of false religions. A correct Philosophy is the handmaid of true religion. '

So wrote Oberlin College's sage and saint, president, professor of philosophy, and chief propagator of Christian perfection. His words do not have the ring of familiarity to twentieth century ears, particularly Wesleyan holiness ears. Significantly, however, two of the most widely read holiness authors of the last century, Asa Mahan and Thomas Upham, were internationally known philosophers.2

Asa Mahan is identified in the Wesleyan Theological Journal, Spring, 1974, in terms of Academic Orthodoxy, 3 Scottish Common Sense Philosophy, and the theology of the holiness movement. The focus in this paper will be upon one aspect of the relation between Mahan's philosophy and his theology of scriptural holiness. Our procedure will be the following: 1) to give a brief exposition of Mahan's understanding of the nature and purpose of philosophy; 2) to analyses his concept of the philosophic spirit; 3) to show how he relates philosophy and theology in general; 4) to discuss his analysis of the idea of perfection; 5) to explain his view of the simplicity of moral action; 6) to apply the philosophical ideas of perfection and simplicity of moral action to his theology of holiness in terms of the crisis of entire sanctification, growth in grace and the unity of personal and social aspects in a holy life.

Although an independent thinker who eludes neat categories of classification, Asa Mahan may be located both methodologically and in terms of the substance of his thought within the broad stream of Scottish Common Sense Realism. He saw the teachings of Thomas Reid as effectively reversing the trend of modern philosophy "in the direction of fundamental truth."4 He writes of "the Christian system of Reid," meaning by this that philosophical realism both prepares the mind to recognize and receive an authenticated revelation from God, fi and tends in every way to complement and confirm the truth and influence of the Bible.

1. The Nature of Philosophy

What, then, is the philosophical method which Mahan conceives to be thus fruitful and which lies at the heart of his conception of philosophy. It is this: to observe, to analyses, to order, to elucidate and to account for the facts of conscious experience. "All mankind," he says, "have a quenchless thirst for knowledge, and the profession of world-thinkers is to furnish food for thought...."' The philosopher's raw material is the data of human consciousness. The philosopher must explain this data and its implications without transforming it into something different. 3 He must give reflective form to knowledge through organizing and elucidating it on the basis of fundamental principles.9 In his researches he seeks to find and explain the causes of things and especially the ultimate reason why things are as they are and not otherwise.10 The philosopher can discover and increase our understanding of truth, not just point out the mistakes of others. Philosophy's "heaven-appointed mission," he writes, includes not only pointing out the errors of others, but attempting to mark out the line on which truth leads and "where and why error, in all its forms, takes its departure from that line. "11 In this way, philosophy can prepare us to recognize and embrace bibilical revelation.

2) The Philosophic Spirit

In Mahan's view human beings are philosophers by birth, so much so "that almost nothing delights us so much as philosophic truths and principles, when once we become acquainted with them."l2 However, the philosophic spirit requires cultivation. Five correlated ingredients are basic: love of truth, intellectual humility, a teachable spirit, an independent mind, and a spirit of wonder issuing in reflective curiosity. The greatest need of universal humanity, says Mahan, "is a knowledge of truth and a state of feeling and action in harmony with truth manifested to the mind. "13 "The true idea of education is mental development in fixed correlation to this great end."14 The Church, he says, should counsel her sons and daughters to "buy the truth and sell it not, " and to let truth be the everlasting dwelling place of their souls. 16 Speaking personally, Mahan writes in his Autobiography that during his long life "truth and duty were the golden pavement on which (he) was immutably determined to walk" and that he never advocated "any doctrine but under the conviction that it was true. or any measure but under the persuasion that it was right and wise. "16 Looking ahead to the great final Day of Judgment, Mahan declares:

For ourselves, we would much rather have the artillery of the entire universe directed against us, than to have this thought light upon our souls . . ., that we had failed to maintain the most sacred aim to know the whole truth just as God had revealed it, irrespective of all other considerations, and to give to the world an undisguised report of what God had taught us. 17

Insofar as Christianity or education fosters a love of truth, it fosters the spirit of genuine philosophy. When the philosophic spirit is fully developed, he says, "the love of truth, for her own sake, takes full possession of the mind."18

Complementing devotion to truth is a sense of intellectual humility. There are good reasons for us to be humble. First, the human mind is "adapted to a state of endless growth and expansion."19 However pure our character may be, our finite mental powers are still in a relatively imperfect state of development. Second, in contemplating various objects of thought, each, of us has a standpoint peculiar to himself. Our perspective is not complete but partial. Third, even the holiest person has a "continued liability to erroneous judgment. "20 The true philosopher, aware of these limitations, has what Mahan labels, "an omnipresent apprehension of his limited knowledge and liability to error."21

Love of truth together with intellectual humility produces the third quality, a teachable spirit. With this spirit, in the words of Proverbs, the mind "cries after knowledge, and lifts up her voice for understanding; it seeks for her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasures."22 Valuing truth supremely, the true philosopher will be equally ready to learn from a child or from an enemy. He will weigh the arguments of those who differ from him with child-like simplicity and candor. A teachable spirit, says Mahan, "is the true and only true philosophic spirit. "23

The fourth characteristic, an independent mind, is essential to the growth and development of our mental faculties. Like our physical powers, our minds can achieve healthy growth only by exercise.

Passively receiving the thoughts of others tends to weigh the mind down and "palsy its energies instead of strengthening and developing them."25 The very constitution of our mental nature as God created it requires us to be "in the highest and best sense of the words, " independent thinkers, and to surrender to no man, or class of men the prerogative of thinking or judging for us."26

Independence of mind is a condition of recognizing truth as truth. Mahan tells the story in this connection of a pastor who set out to imitate John Wesley's precise schedule of sleeping, praying, studying, eating and carrying on his various activities. The result? In less than one year he was forced to leave the ministry, a hopeless dyspeptic.27 Suppose, says Mahan, the preacher had instead determined to think as Wesley did, passively receiving Wesley's teachings as the perfect and infallible exposition of Scripture. In that case, says Mahan, the man would have become as hopeless a spiritual dyspeptic as he had a physical one.

Suppose, on the other hand, the preacher had sought to copy the vital principles of Wesley's inner life and

Truth has sanctifying influence upon the heart, says Mahan, only when it is perceived to be in fact truth.

Mahan regards this fundamentally philosophic quality of independent judgment as a distinguishing mark of a Christian mentality. A biblical Christian, he says, proves all things for himself, holding fast to that which is good. He recognizes that "this side the eternal throne there are no infallible interpreters of truth, that God alone is the Lord of the intellect and the conscience," and that he must receive all other men's thoughts, not passively, but "as an independent judge of what is true and of what is false, of what is right and of what is wrong."29 He spoke the following words in 1850 to the Y. M. C. A. of London, England:

The final characteristic of the philosophic spirit is a pervasive sense of wonder issuing in reflective curiosity. Mahan's words reveal something of his own spirit.

By way of contrast, how melancholy the spectacle of idle unreflective sightseers, passing through life without ever

Such people forfeit the basic condition of human dignity and excellence, a well-developed philosophic spirit.

3) The Relation Between Philosophy and Theology

In order to analyse Mahan's view of the relation between philosophy and theology, it will be useful to employ the categories of understanding and of evidence. Regarding evidence, Mahan holds that the function of philosophy is to assess theological truth claims. Three areas of application must be distinguished: (1) theism in general; (2) Christian theism; and (3) special teachings of the Bible, such as the doctrine of sanctification. Mahan argues that (1) and (2) are susceptible of rational verification. The chief source for his discussion of (1) is his Natural Theology.33 His justification of (2) takes the form of a defense of the whole Bible as a revelation from God. The most complete discussion of this subject is found in Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed. 34 In this connection we should note Mahan's confidence that research into the nature and characteristics of evidence itself will clearly illumine the ground of our assent to the claims of Christianity.35

The specific concern of this study is (3). How much and what kind of evidence may a doctrine of special revelation be expected to have? Mahan credits his thinking at this point to Thomas Aquinas.36 On some doctrines there is overlap. Nature as well as the Bible teaches us of God as creator, of the soul and of moral duty. These teachings may be rationally verified. Doctrines peculiar to the Bible, however, such as those of the Trinity, Incarnation and Atonement are not contrary to but above reason. These may be vindicated by virtue of "their conscious accordance with the known condition and wants of man,"37 though not strictly verified. Mahan's concept of "internal evidence" is crucial at this point.

Mahan contends that all people have a basic conviction that human nature, like the compass, must vibrate to the real, not to the unreal "The direction of the needle to the pole," he says, "indicates the existence of a reality adequate and adapted to draw it in that direction."38 Man, for example, is a religious being and needs an object of his worship; he is a fallen being and needs a redemptive provision to restore him to purity and peace; he is "an endlessly progressive being, and needs to be in the presence of realities adapted to draw out his immortal powers, and cause them to expand towards absolute intellectual and moral beauty and perfection forever."39 Whenever man finds himself confronted with ideas and facts perfectly correlated to his fundamental needs, then like a thirsty man who finds water, he believes himself to be in the presence of truth. Thus, as a person becomes more conscious of the correspondence between the great truths of Christianity and the basic requirements of human nature, he becomes increasingly convinced of the truth of Christianity. 40 It should be noted here that Mahan regards the doctrine of entire sanctification as meeting fully the demand of our moral being for perfect rectitude.41 When we try the doctrine by this principle, he claims, "we find it to have all the evidence in its favor" that any truth of special revelation can have. 42 It should be noted also that a philosophical analysis of human nature is a clear prerequisite for "a correct understanding of the bearing of the internal evidence of Christianity. 43

In addition to this positive vindication, the special teachings of the Bible may also be shown to be free from self-contradiction and from incompatibility with well-established facts. In other respects they are above reason and are addressed to faith in supernatural revelation.44

Mahan treats the philosophical assessment of theological truth claims as determinative for Christian experience. Faith, he argues, must be rooted in reason's assent. Far from being a leap in the dark, faith is "fixed fidelity of will to valid evidence, or rational conviction. "45 Initially, this evidence is not to be found in Christian experience. While it is true that "the experimental results of Christian faith are among the many sources of proof of the divinity of our religion," we still must ask, "What is the primal ground of that faith""46 The answer must come in terms of rational conviction rooted in solid evidence.

We turn now from the category of evidence to that of understanding. Consistently with his commitment to Christian theism, Mahan holds that God has revealed himself both in the natural order and in the Bible and that this revelation is harmonious and complementary. The revelation given in nature provides the context in terms of which bibilical revelation is to be understood, just as the Old Testament is the context for understanding the New Testament. Thus, for example, philosophical investigation "of the grounds of moral obligation will lead us to perceive distinctly and feel deeply our obligation to obey the moral precepts of Christianity."47 The Bible in turn provides many keys for understanding the world. The moral and spiritual teachings of Scripture illuminate philosophic conceptions, rendering them more distinct and impressive, and extend our vision far beyond what reason could discover by the light of nature alone.

Since natural and bibilical revelation are complementary, we should undertake the initial study of each independently. Then we should compare our conclusions. If we find harmony and unity, we shall normally discover that our understanding also is increased. However, if we find incompatibility, we should infer neither that philosophy is right nor that the Bible is right, but that we have erred in our researches. "We should renew our independent investigations in each domain for the purpose of detecting the error into which we have fallen."48 In the remainder of our paper we shall be concerned with the category of understanding rather than with evidence. We shall show how Mahan uses philosophical analysis to illumine the theological concept of Christian perfection.

4) The Idea of Perfection

In Mahan's view the judgments and voluntary activities of rational beings all have reference to fundamental ideas, such as the ideas of beauty, truth, goodness, justice and their opposites. One such regulative idea comprehends all others, the idea of perfection. Whenever we speak of something as good, true, beautiful or just, he says, we "contemplate it relatively to the idea of perfection."49

When applied to a moral agent, what does the term "perfection" signify? Mahan's somewhat technical definition reads as follows:

In other words, whenever a being's action is in full harmony with the requirements of its individual sphere, that being is perfect.51 In one sense, of course, the perfection of the creature must always fall infinitely short of the absolute perfection of deity. However, in terms of capabilities related to a given sphere of activity, there is a sense in which the creature may at each successive moment be as perfect as God.

In the case of man, the particular sphere to which our rational voluntary powers are adapted is the moral sphere. Consequently, man is "morally or ethically perfect when his entire moral activities are in full harmony with the moral law, or the idea of duty."52 To put the point another way, when our moral action is in full harmony with the revealed will of God according to all the light presently available to us, then our action is as perfect "as the action of God is, relatively to his knowledge and capacities. "53 If the great moral ideal of human existence is to devote ourselves to "the glory of God in the highest holiness and happiness of himself the world and the universe, " then whenever the achievement of this ideal becomes a person's controlling intention, so that he devotes his entire energies to its realization according to all the light in his reach and the use of the best means within his knowledge and control, " such action is in the nature of the case as perfect as it can be.54

5) The Simplicity of Moral Action

We turn now to consider Mahan's concept of the simplicity of moral action. Mahan is an intuitionist in moral philosophy.55 His method is reflective analysis of conscious moral experience. Such analysis, he argues, clearly evinces that the human mind affirms moral obligation in view of the intrinsic or relative worth of certain objects, such as the well-being of another person, or the glory of God. The object might even be moral action which is appropriate in view of a given relationship, such as gratitude to a benefactor or bedience to authority. Mahan agrees with Kant that personal moral character pertains exclusively to the will and is determined by the ultimate or controlling intention.

The conception of ultimate intention is crucial to Mahan's view of the simplicity of moral action. What is an ultimate intention? An intention is a choice of the will. Such a choice may be termed "ultimate" when two conditions are met. First, it must be subordinated to no other intentions. Rather, all other choices of the will must be subordinated to it. There cannot be two ultimate intentions. If there are two, one would not be ultimate. Neither can a particular volition exist which is incompatible with one's ultimate choice. Any choice contrary to a given ultimate intention implies, for the time being, a new ultimate intention supplanting the former one.56

Second, the final reason for the intention must belong exclusively to the object of choice. An ultimate intention according to this criterion is one whose object has intrinsic worth. If the choice of an object were made for some reason distinct from the object, then that reason would itself be the true chosen object. In terms of these two conditions combined, an ultimate intention is one in which an all-controlling choice is made of an intrinsically worthy or valuable object. Virtue, then, is a function of "the relation of willing to the intrinsic character of the . . . object of the intention."S7 Outward actions and states of mind or of feeling have moral character only derivatively in terms of their relation to the ultimate intention.

From this analysis it is an easy step to the simplicity of moral action. The question at issue is whether or not incompatible elements, such as sin and holiness, or right or wrong, can coexist in a single moral act.58 Mahan answers in the negative and roots much of his argument in the nature of ultimate intention.59 The character of a given moral act is determined exclusively by one's ultimate intention. An ultimate intention is a simple act of volition in which an all-controlling choice is made of an intrinsically worthy object. Consequently, incompatible elements, such as sin and holiness cannot coexist in a single moral act. It should be clear at this point that Mahan's views of perfection and of the simplicity of moral action are complementary. Only as moral actions are simple or unmixed in character may moral perfection be realized in human experience. Conversely, if the term "moral perfection" is ever correctly applied to human actions, then such actions must be morally pure or simple.

Before applying these philosophical views to the biblical teaching of sanctification, one distinction must be made. A person newly arrived at a .state or moral perfection may be in perpetual danger of falling from that state because of mental prejudices and disordered states of feeling generated by previous habits of wrongdoing. By way of contrast, a person may reach a point at which the mind and feelings so thoroughly support and so little oppose the ultimate intention of the will that the moral state is a confirmed one and the likelihood of falling is minimal. It is legitimate to say that the state of the first morally perfect person is very imperfect by comparison to the second, while the state of the second is thorough or entire in a way that that of the first is not.60" Evidently, moral perfection in the second sense precedes and is a condition of perfection in the second sense, while perfection in the second sense is "a good to be sought in the full discharge of present duty."61

6) Entire Sanctification

a) The Crisis

The application of Mahan's views to biblical holiness may be readily understood. He begins with the premise that perfection in the sense of full compliance with known duty is "an irreversible condition of eternal life."62 This he infers from the nature of repentance, from the fact that forgiveness in the Bible hinges upon intentional abandonment of known sin, and from the intrinsically simple nature of moral action, a doctrine which finds biblical expression in the teachings that no man can serve two masters; that one must forsake all to be a disciple of Jesus; and that the human heart, like a spring, cannot bring forth both sweet water and bitter. Mahan declares that "instead of its being true that none attain perfection in this form, none are actually saved who are not thus perfect. "63 Consequently, "the first holy act of the converted sinner is as perfect as any act of any intelligent being in existence."64

However, the moral state of the newborn Christian is of infantile weakness and must be preserved from decay and corruption by his pressing on to a condition of being confirmed, settled and strengthened in the way of holiness and peace.65 To this end he must be taught that there are two forms of perfection found in Scripture.

Thus it is, Mahan claims, that in such Scripture passages as Deuteronomy 30:1-6 God seems to promise perfection on the express condition of perfection. 37 There are simply two different types of perfection involved.

It is not our purpose to discuss Mahan's belief that the attaining of a mature and confirmed state of holiness involves a crisis. It is our purpose to show that the nature of this crisis is not a matter of passing from a state of moral imperfection to a state of moral perfection. Rather, the crisis is the crucial pivotal point in the passage from a relatively feeble and fragile state of moral purity to a thoroughly confirmed one.

The primary changes taking place in the crisis of entire sanctification, therefore, pertain not to the will's controlling choice as such, but to the enlightenment of the mind and the cleansing and subduing of the feelings. In the first case, "the Spirit sanctifies by presenting Christ to the mind in such a manner that we are transformed into his image."68 "The Holy Spirit is given for the express purpose of so presenting the Lord Jesus Christ to our minds that we may experience the full power of his redemption."69 Statements pertaining to the Spirit's enlightening of our minds in connection with the crisis of entire sanctification abound in Mahan's writings.

Similarly, one finds frequent statements referring to the propensities, dispositions and tempers. Scriptural terms, such as "crucifixion of the old man" or "destruction of the body of this death" mean that the propensities, dispositions and tempers are so renovated that the world with its affections and lusts have no more power over a sanctified person than they have over the dead.70 To be sanctified wholly is to receive a total renovation, purification and cleansing of all our propensities and tempers.71 This renovation does not free us from temptation, but restores our sensibilities to a perfectly normal state72 in which they are "subdued into harmony with the action of the intelligence and will."73

b) Growth in Grace

It should be evident at this point that in Mahan's view growth in grace cannot mean growth from a more sinful to a less sinful state either before or after the crisis of entire sanctification. If it were a matter of changing from more sinful and less holy to less sinful and more holy, then repentance would require gradual renunciation of sin, growth in grace would cease when perfect holiness were attained and Jesus Christ could never have grown in grace. All three inferences are contrary to Scripture. Sin is no more a requirement for growth in a spiritual babe than is disease in a physical baby. Sin like disease hinders and resists healthy growth.74

The necessity for growth in grace is not to be found in the moral defectiveness of the new birth or of entire sanctification, but in the structure of human nature. Says Mahan,

The destiny of the faculties of the human soul for continual expansion lays the foundation for growth, not from sin to holiness, but from grace to grace and from glory to glory.

c) The Unity of Personal and Social Aspects of a Holy Life

The unity of personal and social aspects of a holy life is rooted for Mahan in the twofold nature of ultimate intention. Ultimate intention refers inward to the controlling purpose of the will, the deeply personal source of the heart's motivation. Ultimate intention also refers outward to objects of choice: to God, to others, to the world of relationships. In the simplicity of moral action the two are united. It is morally impossible to choose to be pure of heart in a non-social sense. Purity of heart implies a right relationship to moral principles, and many moral principles have their roots in social relationships. Thus, Mahan could write that there are "forms of duty" which "bind us relatively to all social organizations, domestic and civil;"76 that the Church is or ought to be a universal reform society, 77 and that the great reform movements of his day were nothing other than "the idea of perfection, laboring for development, and demanding an external realization, in the public mind."78

By the same token, and finally, he alone is a true reformer in the social arena who is pure in heart. Social moralizing and crusading for particular reforms without heart holiness is hypocrisy. The true reformer, who is devoted to moral principle from the heart, will not ride hobbyhorses. He will oppose wrong and uphold right across the board, being devoted in principle to the glory of God, to human well-being and to social justice from the controlling source of motivation and in the simplicity of moral action.

REFERENCE NOTES

1. Asa Mahan, System of Intellectual Philosophy, revised and enlarged from the second edition (New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1855), p. 9.

2. Daniel Steele notes that holiness authors Mahan and Upham, along with Charles G. Finney, were the only well-known writers on mental philosophy who wrote on the psychology of Christian experience. Cf. Daniel Steele, Love Enthoned (Boston: Christian Witness Co., 1875- recently reprinted by Schmul), pp. 163- 64. Both Mahan and Upham had thorough training in the biblical languages under Moses Stuart of Andover, as well as in philosophy.

3. See E. H. Madden, "Oberlin's First Philosopher," Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 6 (1968), pp. 57-66; and James E. Hamilton and E. H. Madden, "Edwards, Finney and Mahan on the Derivation of Duties," Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 13 (1975), pp. 347-360. The entire issue of The Asbury Seminarian, Vol. 22 (October, 1977) is devoted to aspects of the background and development of Mahan's thought.

4. Asa Mahan, Critical History of Philosophy (London: Elliot Stock, 1883), II, 84.

5. Asa Mahan, Science of Natural Theology (Boston: Henry Hoyt, 1867), II, 299.

6. Ibid., pp. 392-393.

7. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 73.

8. Science of Natural Theology, p. 307.9. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 5.1o. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 4.1l. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 2.12. A System of Intellectual Philosophy, p. 1013. Asa Mahan, "Certain Fundamental Principles, Together with their Applications," Oberlin Quarterly Review, Vol. 2 (1846), p. 234.

14. Ibid., p. 236.15. Ibid.16. Asa Mahan, Autobiography: Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual (London: T. Woolmer, 1882), p. 72.17. "Certain Fundamental Principles, Together with their Applications," p. 234.

18. System of Intellectual Philosophy, p. 11.

19. Asa Mahan, "Relation of Christianity to the Freedom of Thought and Action, " p. 122. I do not have the bibliographical data for this lecture.

20. Asa Mahan, "Brotherly Love," Oberlin Quarterly Review, Vol. 4 (1849), p. 8

21. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 77.

22. System of Intellectual Philosophy, p. 11.

23. Ibid.

24. "Relation of Christianity to the Freedom of Thought and Action," p.123.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid., p. 126

27. A dyspeptic is one who suffers from chronic indigestion.

28. Autobiography: Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual, pp. 73-74

29. "Relation of Christianity to the Freedom of Thought and Action, " pp. 131-32.

30. Ibid., p. 154.

31. Ibid., pp. 150-151.

32. Ibid., p. 124.

33. Science of Natural Theology.

34. Asa Mahan, Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed (Boston: Jewett, 1855), pp. 344-422. See also Critical History of Philosophy,

35. System of Intellectual Philosophy, p. 8.36. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 416-418.37. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 418.38. Science of Natural Theology, p. 249.39. Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed, p. 395.

40. Ibid., pp. 396-397.

41. Asa Mahan, Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection (Boston: D. S. King, 1839-recently reprinted by Schmul), p. 176.

42. Ibid.

43. System of Intellectual Philosophy, p. 8.

44. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 418.

45. Critical History of Philosophy, I, 403.

46. Cr1tical History of Philosophy, I, 419.47. System of Intellectual Philosophy, p. 8.48. Asa Mahan, Doctrine of the Will (3rd ed.; Oberlin: J. M. Fitch, 1847), p.19.

49.Asa Mahan, Science of Moral Philosophy (Oberlin: J. M. Fitch, 1848),

p. 338.

50. Ibid., pp. 338-339.

51. Asa Mahan, "Idea of Perfection," Oberlin Quarterly Review, Vol. 1 (1846), pp. 465-466.

52. Science of Moral Philosophy, p. 339

53. "Idea of Perfection," p. 467.

54. Ibid.

55. Cf. "Oberlin's First Philosopher" and "Edwards, Finney and Mahan on the Derivation of Duties."

56. Science of Moral Philosophy, p. 137.

58. Mahan discusses this issue in Doctrine of the Will, "Idea of Perfection," and Science of Moral Philosophy.

59. He also argues from the intrinsic nature of moral law.

60. "Idea of Perfection," p. 468.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid.

63. Ibid., pp. 473-474

64. Ibid., p. 47965. Ibid.66. Ibid., pp. 479-480.

67. Ibid., p. 47468. Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection, p. 168.

69. Ibid., p. 169.

70. Asa Mahan, Out of Darkness Into Light (New York and Boston: Willard Tract Repository, 1876), pp. 269-270.

71. Ibid., 272, 276.

72. Ibid., p. 277. Mahan points out that Adam and Eve, prior to the Fall were free from all evil propensities, yet they were tempted and fell. (Ibid., p. 276).

73. "Idea of Perfection," p. 468.

74. Asa Mahan, Life Thoughts on the Rest of Faith (London: F. E. Longley, 1877), pp. 115-116.

75. Asa Mahan, The True Believer; His Character, Duty and Privileges (New York: Harper, 1847), p. 163.

76. Science of Moral Philosophy, p. 342.

77. Cf. Mahan's "Articles on Reform," which appeared in The Oberlin Evangelist, February-August, 1844;chapter40fDonaldW. Dayton, Discovering An Evangelical Heritage (New York: Harper & Row, 1976); Edward H. Madden, Civil Disobedience and Moral Law in Nineteenth Century American Philosophy (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968).

78. Science of Moral Philosophy, p. 343.