In a rather informative public note on facebook Daniel McClellan has provided many examples of "after" (as in "after all we can do" [2 Nephi 25;23]) to denote "despite all we can do" in works contemporary with the Book of Mormon, serving as another nail in the coffin that 2 Nephi 25:23 teaches a form of legalistic soteriology. Here are the examples he provides:
"She replied, 'Could not me help it. My heart, he would wicked for all. Could not me make him good, (meaning, she saw it was right she should go to hell, because her heart was wicked, and would be so after all she could do to mend it.)"
- Sereno Edwards Dwight, Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd, 1822, p. 261
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"But your own wisdom and greatness must be laid in the grave—it is after all you can do, the free and unmerited gift of God."
- John Hersey, The Importance of Small Things, 1831, p. 20
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". . . the Son of man, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister: yet, after all we can do or bear for him, let our trust still be in the merits of his righteousness and blood who gave his life a ransom for many."
- Edward Greswell, A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 1833, pp. 278–79
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"The reason is, they have no desire for that in which holiness consists; the fountain still remains corrupt. And after all they can do, without this Divine influence on the heart, they remain utterly unprepared for the kingdom of heaven."
- The Evangelical Magazine, vol. II, 1834, pp. 493–94
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"True, you cannot merit heaven by this. Most true, that your salvation must be at last ‘by grace through faith;’ and that the only righteousness of your Lord and Saviour. But then though this be true,—though after all you can do, you will still find reason to mourn over the hardness of your heart and the coldness of your affections, and be forced to acknowledge yourselves unprofitable servants . . ."
- John H. Hopkins, The Importance of Providing Religious Education for the Poor, 1835, p. 29
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"Here there is an evident misstatement; there is no merit in the performance of the conditions; after all we can do we are unprofitable servants, the performance of any condition can no more obtain for us eternal life than our own natural strength can move the universe; eternal life is the free gift of God."
- William Brudenell Barter, Observations on a Work by Mr. Bickersteth, 1836, p. 17
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"This satisfaction is to be made by means of fasts, alms, penances, and other meritorious deeds, performed in obedience to priestly injunction. But after all that the poor papist can do, though he be ever so obedient and dutiful, there is a heavy balance against him; for this, however, holy church has not forgotten to provide."
- Joseph Frederick Berg, Lectures on Romanism, 1840, p. 207
