SECT. I.

Of Religious Perfection in general.

CHAP. I.

Perfection a confirmed habit of holiness. This notion conformable to reafon and fcripture The nature of an habit confidered, according to four properties of it.

OST difputes and controverfies arife from falfe and miftaken notions of the matter under de

bate; and fo I could fhew it has happened here. Therefore, to prevent miftakes, and cut off all occafions of contention (which ferves only to defeat the influence and fuccefs of practical difcourses) I think it neceffary to begin here with a plain account what it is I mean by Religious Perfection.

Religion is nothing elfe, but the purifying and refining nature by grace, the raifing and exalting our faculties and capacities by wisdom and virtue. Religious Perfection,

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Religious Perfection expla

tion, therefore, is nothing elfe but ral accomplishment of human natu a maturity of virtue as man in is capable of; Converfion begins, confummates the habit of right in the one, religion is, as it we infancy; in the other, in its ftre manhood; fo that Perfection, in nothing elfe, but a ripe and fet of true holiness. According to on of religious Perfection, he is man, whofe mind is pure and vig his body tame and obfequious faith is firm and fteady, his lo and exalted, and his hope full rance; whofe religion has in it th and conftancy, and his foul that lity and pleasure, which befpea child of the light, and of the dễ taker of the Divine Nature, above the corruption which is in through luft.

This account of religious Pe fo natural and eafy, that I fand will demand a proof of it; nor f about one, were it not to ferve ther ends than the mere confirma It has manifeftly the countenan reafon and fcripture; and how co ry foever fome ancient and latt of Perfection feem to be, or rea one another; yet do they all agr

in what I have laid down. If we appeal to Reafon, 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 noblest 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 principles. It remains then, that religious Perfection must confift in an habit of righteoufnefs. And to prevent all impertinent fcruples and cavils, I add a confirmed and well eftablifhed 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 highest state which any ever actually attained, or to which we are invited and exhorted.

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

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 established in his duty. In the New Teftament, Perfection fignifies the fame thing which it does in the Old; that is, univerfal righteoufnefs, and ftrength, 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, 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, stablifh, 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 diftinguifhing 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 first 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