The law of God cannot but be perfect, and demand of us perfection; full and entire conformity to it, in heart, in word, in deed.——Can any one pretend to have this perfection? No person can pretend to have, who hath any just sense either of himself, or of the pure nature and strictness of the divine law. He who says that he conforms perfectly to this law, in heart, speech, and behaviour, must be considered as ignorant of the very nature and strictness of the divine law, and of what perfect conformity to it means.
3dly. The nature of God and his glorious attributes, prove to a demonstration the folly and presumption of any professions of, or pretences to, a perfect conformity to his will, and moral glories. Sinless holiness is being entirely, fully, and perfectly conformed to the divine will and moral character of God. It is having no wrong ideas of him—his law—character—attributes—word—glories—and ways: no wrong ideas of Jesus or the Gospel: or any of its duties—precepts—calls—offers—doctrines—and ordinances. And in addition to all this; having a full belief of, and perfect conformity in heart and life to them all. For example, as high, and exalted, and reverential thoughts of God, of his majesty and glory, as we ought to have: as much love to, fear and reverence of, trust in, and dependence on God as we ought to have:—as much love to the Redeemer, reliance on his atonement, and gratitude for his grace, as we ought to have. But, my brethren, who alas! has a deep sense enough of so much as one duty—one moral obligation, one attribute of the Deity—either his wisdom, power, omnipresence, holiness, mercy, or grace, much more of all!—He who says he is perfect, or hath a full, complete and perfect conformity to God, to his glorious moral character—to his will: to his son, his Gospel, in heart, in life, in word, and in thought, is impious and profane, is presumptuous, and ignorant of the very nature of duty and the divine character.——
4thly. Again, the extreme deceitfulness of the human heart, and difficulty of knowing it fully, prove that sinless conformity to the law of God is not among the attainments of Christians in this life. If it be true that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, it will follow that no mere man doth perfectly obey the law of God in this life, but daily doth break it in thought, word, and deed. But, says the prophet Jeremiah, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his way, and according to the fruit of his doing.—Under a sense of the difficulty and impossibility of fully knowing all our secret sins: David cries out, who can understand his errors, cleanse thou me from secret faults. Does any one perfectly understand all his errors:—all his secret faults:—all the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of his own heart? If so, the word of God is not true. What vanity, what presumption, what spiritual pride, and ignorance to pretend to know all the windings, and turnings, and deep iniquity of the human heart—and all one’s own most hidden sins; and to be perfectly free from all evil in heart, in life, in conduct and passions! Who dare say he has fully explored the deep mysteries of iniquity—the plague of his own heart?—And that he has as great a sense of the evil of sin, as he ought to have?——
5thly. A further argument to prove that sinless perfection is unattainable in this life, is that it would render null and void, some of the duties and exercises, in which the essence of piety and godliness consists. He who is perfect, must say, if self-consistent, that he knows all duty, every duty, the whole extent of duty in all conditions, in all circumstances whatever. He must also fully know all doctrines, all divine ordinances: that he has, a full and perfect sense of every moral, social, relative, and religious tie; and lives up completely and perfectly to them all. With him is no defect, not even the smallest, in piety or morality. There is no omission of duty. There is no want of fervour and sincerity. There is no deficiency in faith, in repentance, in Godly sorrow for sin, in hope, in Charity, in meekness, in humility, in benevolence, in alms, in justice. There is no corner of the heart but what is completely purged of all deceit, malice, envy and hypocrisy.—We may add,—further, if we have no sin, we need no pardon, no repentance, no Saviour to wash away present guilt, no prayer to God to keep us at present from Satan’s devices. If we have no sin in thought, word, and deed, we can have no mourning over sin at present, and need not seek for renewed forgiveness. But our blessed Master has taught us to pray—forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. But if we have no sin, we have no debts to be forgiven. The perfectly righteous need no repentance. They may be sorry that they were once sinners, but not that they are now vile and unworthy. But the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart; a broken and a contrite spirit, O God thou wilt not despise. If we have no sin, we can offer no such sacrifices. The man who is sinlessly holy may say, “I was once a sinner, but I am not a sinner now. I could once say God be merciful to me a sinner; but now I can say, God be thanked, I am not as other men are, I have no sin.” What impiety, what insufferable spiritual pride in this language! And before any one can feel thus, he must be destitute of all humility, self-abasement, and just sense of God, and of himself.——
6thly. A pretence to sinless perfection is contrary to the experience of saints recorded in scripture. The faith of assurance is attainable in this life. But this is a very different thing from perfection in grace. The good man in the exercise of grace is afraid of being deceived, of mistaking the nature of religion. He sees so much remaining sin, so much depravity, want of more ardent love to God, so many failings in duty, that he wonders how God can pardon him. He feels that he is the chief of sinners, unworthy even to stand before God, and that his holiest duties need to be sprinkled afresh with the all-atoning blood of Jesus, and that he deserves to perish in his sins unpitied. He feels his own unworthiness of eternal life.——The more grace any one has, the more he wishes it to be increased. He hungers and thirsts after righteousness more and more. From day to day, he sees more and more of his sins, their number, their several aggravations, and the extent of the divine law. He never thinks that he hath done enough for God and religion, or can do enough, or now does enough. He rejoices, if he may be honoured, though it be only as the smallest means, of advancing the cause of God in the world, even at the risk of his own reputation, or the scoffs of impiety. He knows that he is bound to love God with all his heart, with all his strength, with all his soul; and his neighbour as himself; and to be wholly conformed to the divine will, and duty: to worship God with all the ardor, purity, and sincerity of which his nature is capable.
So far from having attained perfection, those who have the most grace and the deepest experience of religion, have innumerable sins daily to confess, many failings and deficiencies of duty, cold and dead frames, and much remaining corruption over which to mourn, and of which to repent. And the more holy any are, the more humble will they be, the more sensible of their sins, of their hypocrisy, their want of faith, of love, of hope, and of every grace; and of course the more ready will they be to cry out as St. Paul did, O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death! So eminent a Christian as St. Paul was, utterly discarded the notion of sinless holiness being among his attainments. And it is a common opinion that this remarkable man had made higher advances in holiness, and really felt more of the power of Religion than any one that ever lived, or was ever received to heaven from this Apostate world. He says, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which I also am apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth toward those things that are before. I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If so holy a man and distinguished an Apostle, if the best Christian that ever was, peremptorily assert that he hath not reached to perfection, though it were the mark which he had set before him, what presumption in any to pretend to surpass him, and to have attained it! He says of himself, what indeed is true of all good men. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate that do I. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! Here is remaining sin in St. Paul. There is, with respect to him no such thing as entire freedom from it. He mourns over it. He cries out in bitterness to be freed from it. There was a time, indeed, when he thought he was perfect, but that was in his ignorant pharisaical state. Circumcised, says he, the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law a pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; touching the righteousness of the law, blameless. But after he was converted to christianity, he saw and bewailed his imperfections and remaining sin. When he thought he was perfect, he was a poor deluded, self-boasting, and self-righteous Pharisee.—In the pharisee who went up to the temple to pray, we have an instance of a man who thought himself perfect. But our Lord thought very differently of him. He was a singular instance of self-righteous spirit. Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a pharisee and the other a publican.—The pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tythes of all that I possess. And the publican stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying God be merciful to me a sinner. Here was a man boasting of his perfection: and another who saw, felt, and confessed his sinfulness. God be merciful to me a sinner. Persons of the most knowledge, longest standing and deepest experience in Religion, are the farthest from supposing that they are perfect.——
To all these arguments to disprove the doctrine of the attainableness of sinless perfection in this life, it may be proper to add all the protestant public confessions of faith, wholly disavow the idea. It would be tedious to mention them all.—As a specimen, we appeal to the shorter catechism of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster convened, to draw up a concise confession of faith. In answer to this question “is any man able in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God?”—They judiciously and scripturally reply: “no mere man since the fall is able perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but daily doth break them in thought, word, and deed.”—I shall close this branch of the subject with the words of Mr. Mason.
“It is very extraordinary,” says he, “that this sinless perfection is pretended to by persons among whom we should least of all expect to find it; persons of low, narrow, contracted minds; who discover very little of the genuine spirit of the Gospel, humility, meekness, and charity; and then seem never once to suspect themselves capable of any such thing as spiritual pride, false zeal, and heart-delusion.—But these pretences to sinless holiness carry in them so much ignorance, rashness, presumption, and secret pride that they contradict themselves, and evidently demonstrate the falsehood of what they assert; unless it can be proved, that there is nothing sinful in those forementioned principles and dispositions, from whence they evidently spring.—So that he who says he has no sin, not only maketh God, but maketh himself a liar. And such a palpable extravagance as this, must needs throw a great discredit and strong suspicion upon any that espouse it.”
II. The second thing proposed, was to remove some objections or cavils, which have been raised on this subject.—The objector does not fail to remind us that the scripture often speaks of, or mentions the words, Perfect and Perfection. In reply we grant it, and remark that it uses them in three senses; or that there are three sorts of perfection—absolute, indefective, and relative or moral. The first is particular to God, the second to angels and saints in heaven, and the third is possessed by good men on earth.—How unfounded all claims to the second sort of perfection, that is, sinless holiness, are, we have largely considered. The third or last kind of perfection, usually termed relative or moral, is a gracious sincerity. And this is all the perfection attainable in this present world. The faith of assurance is the highest attainment of christians on earth. And but few comparatively arrive at this. How happy those who have! To attain this, every exertion should be made.—In the last sense of the word perfect or perfection, good men in scripture are said to be perfect: that is, sincere upright men, free from hypocrisy. Thus Job and others are called perfect men.—Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Here the perfect man is the upright man. That the man of God, says the Apostle, may be perfect; not sinlessly holy, but furnished to all duty.—All may know very easily that the word perfect, when applied to pious believers or righteous men, is used for gracious sincerity.—Scripture must expound itself; it is its own best expositor.——
2dly. But says the objector, the Apostle John, declares, that he that is born of God, cannot sin, for the seed of God remaineth in him. The meaning of this evidently is, that those who are born of God, do not, and cannot sin and live as others do allowedly, habitually and with such strength of heart. On the other hand, they mourn over sin, hate it, and lament all remains of it in themselves and others.