Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

in what I have laid down. If we appeal to Reason, no man can doubt, but that an habit of virtue has much more of excellence and merit in it, than fingle accidental acts, or uncertain fits and paffions; fince an habit is not only the fource and fpring of the nobleft actions and the most elevated paffions, but it renders us more regular and fteady, more uniform and conftant in every thing that is good. As to good natural difpofitions, they have little of ftrength, little of perfection in them, till they be raifed and improved into habits: and for our natural faculties, they are nothing else, but the capacities of good or evil; they are undetermined to the one or other, till they are fixed and influenced by moral princi., ples. It remains then, that religious Perfection must confift in an habit of righteoufnefs. And to prevent all impertinent scruples and cavils, I add a confirmed and well eftablished one.

That this is the fcripture notion of Perfection, is manifeft; First, From the use of this word in fcripture. Secondly, From the characters and defcriptions of the best and higheft ftate which any ever actually attained, or to which we are invited and exhorted.

1. From the ufe of the word: whereever we find any mention of Perfection in fcripture, if we examine the place well,

r

we shall find nothing more intended, than uprightness and integrity, an unblameable and unreproveable life, a ftate well advanced in knowledge and virtue. Thus upright and perfect are used as terms equivalent, Job i. And that man was perfect and upright, fearing God and efchewing evil; and Pfalm xxxvii. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright man, for the end of that man is peace. Thus again, when God exhorts Abraham to Perfection, Gen. xvii. 1 I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect, all that he exhorts him to, is a fteady obedience to all his commandments, proceeding from a lively fear of, and faith in him; and this is the general use of this word Perfect throughout the Old Teftament, namely to fignify a fincere and juft man, that feareth God, and efcheweth evil, and is well fixed and eftablished in his duty. In the New Testament, Perfection fignifies the fame thing which it does in the Old; that is, univerfal righteoufnefs, and strength, and growth in it. Thus the perfect man, 2 Tim. iii. 17. is one who is throughly furnished to every good work. Thus St. Paul tells us, Col. iv. 12. that Epaphras laboured fervently in prayers for the Coloffians, that they might stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God. In James i. 4. the perfect man is one, who is entire, lacking nothing, i. e. one who is advanced to

a matu

a maturity of virtue through patience and experience, and is fortified and established in faith, love, and hope. In this fenfe of the word Perfect St. Peter prays for those to whom he writes his epiftle, i Pet. v. 10. But the God of all grace, who called us into his eternal glory by Chrift Jefus, after that ye have fuffered a while, make you perfect, ftablifh, ftrengthen, fettle you. When St. Paul exhorts the Hebrews to go on to Perfection, Heb. vi. he means nothing by it, but that ftate of manhood which confifts in a well fettled habit of wisdom and goodness. This is plain, first, from ver. 11, 12. of this chapter, where he himself more fully explains his own meaning; and we defire that every one of you do fhew the fame diligence, to the full affurance of hope unto the end; that ye be not flothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promife. Next, from the latter end of the 5th chapter; where we difcern what gave occafion to this exhortation; there diftinguishing Chriftians into two claffes, babes and Strong men, i. e. perfect and imperfect, he defcribes both at large thus: For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the firft principles of the oracles of God, and are become fuch as have need of milk, and not of Strong meat, for every one that ufeth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he

is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of ufe have their fenfes exercifed to difcern both good and evil. And tho' here the apostle feems more immediately to regard the perfection of knowledge; yet the perfection of righteousness mult never, in the lan guage of the fcripture, be feparated from it. Much the fame remark muft I add concerning the integrity of righteoufnefs, and the Chriftians progrefs or advance in it. Tho' the fcripture, when it speaks of Perfection, doth fometimes more directly refer to the one, and fometimes to the other; yet we must ever suppose that they do mutually imply and include one another; fince otherwife the notion of Perfection would be extremely maimed and incompleat. I will infift therefore no longer on the ufe of the words Perfect and Perfection in fcripture: but as a further proof that my notion of Perfection is truly fcriptural, I will fhew,

[ocr errors]

2. That the utmoft height, to which the feripture exhorts us, is nothing more than a fteady habit of holiness; that the brigh teft characters it gives of the perfect man, the lovelieft defcriptions it makes us of the perfecteft ftate, are all made up of the natural and confeffed properties of a ripe ba bit. There is no controverfy that I know of, about the nature of a babit, every

a

man's

man's experience inftructs him in the whole philofophy of it; we are all agreed, that it is a kind of fecond nature, that it makes us exert our felves with defire and earnestness, with fatisfaction and pleasure; that it renders us fixed in our choice, and conftant in our actions, and almost as averfe to those things which are repugnant to it, as we are to those which are diftafteful and difagreeable to our nature. And that, in a word, it fo entirely and abfolutely poffeffes the man, that the power of it is not to be refifted, nor the empire of it to be fhaken off; nor can it be removed and extirpated without the greateft labour and difficulty imginable. All this is a confefs'd and almoft palpable truth in habits of fin: and there is no reason why we fhould not afcribe the fame force and efficacy to babits of virtue; efpecially if we confider that the ftrength, eafiness, and pleasure which belong naturally to thefe habits, receive no small acceffion from the supernatural energy and vigour of the Holy Spirit. I will therefore in a few words fhew how that state of righteousness which the fcripture invites us to, as our Perfection, directly anfwers this account I have given of an habit.

Is habit in general a fecond nature? This ftate of righteousness is in fcripture called the new man, Ephef. iv. 24. the new

B 4

creature,

« AnteriorContinuar »