Use 1. Is to press and exhort you to labour after Christian perfection.
1. Motives. What you lost in Adam must be recovered in Christ, or else you dishonour your Redeemer. Now we lost in Adam inno- cency and perfect holiness, therefore you must seek to recover it by Christ, for certainly Christ is more able to save than Adam to destroy, Eom. V. 17. The abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness came by Jesus Christ. It is true, Christ doth his work by degrees ; but if we mind it not, and lazily expect that he should make us perfect, how will it ever be ? for God will not save us without us ; and as far as we hope for anything, we must endeavour after it, for Christian hope is not a devout sloth, but an encouragement to diligence.
2. We pray for perfection, and therefore we must endeavour after
64 AVIIAT KIND OF rERFECTION IS [PlIIL. III. 15.
it, otherwise our prayers are a mocker}'. We pray, Mat. vi. 8, and 1 Thes, V. 23, ' The God of peace sanctify you throughout, even your whole body, soul, and spirit.' We pray lor complete sanctificatiou in hope to obtain it. Prayer is not for God's sake, but ours — a solemn binding ourselves to use the means, that we may obtain the blessings that we ask.
3. In our making covenant, we purpose to do the whole will of God ; now where there is a purpose, there must be an endeavour and a pro- gress, for otherwise it is not made with a true heart, Heb. x. 22. A man may purpose duty in a pang, which afterward he retracts in his conversation and practice ; he may wish for jierfection, like it in the general, not considering it as exclusive of his beloved lusts, but there he will be excused. Yea, he may sincerely purpose it, yet be faint and slack in his endeavoui's. Therefore, we need to be exhorted con- tinually to be more earnest and diligent in holiness, to avoid ' all ap- pearance of evil,' 1 Thes. v. 22, Not to allow ourselves in the omis- sion of any known duty, James iv. 13, or the commission of any known sin, though never so near and dear to us : Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was upright before thee, and kept myself from mine iniquity.' Therefore, unless we comply with these exhortations, and set ourselves sincerely to do the whole will of God, the challenge will be brought against us which was brought against the church of Sardis, ' I have not found thy works perfect before God,' Piev. iii. 2. Your vows were good, but your practice is not answerable.
4. Consider the comfort and ])eace of that man who doth more and more press towards perfection : Ps. xxxvii. 37, ' Mark the perfect man, behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace/ They have a sweet life, and a happy close, a tolerable passage through the world, and a comfortable passage out of the world.
For means : —
1. See that the work be begun, for there must be converting grace before there can be confirming grace, life before there be strength and growth, as there must be fire before it can be blown up ; for what good will it do to blow a dead coal, to seek strength before we have life ? It is as if we should give food or physic to a dead man. The secure and impenitent are not to be confirmed and strengthened, but humbled and changed. We must first clioose God for our jwrtion before we can be exhorted to cleave to God, Acts xi. 23. First, the perfection of sincerity before the perfection of growth and progress, the measures and degrees following the real being of grace in the soul.
2. If you would be perfect, the radical graces must be strengthened, which are faith, hope, and love ; strong faith, fervent love, lively hope. Such a laith as realiseth the unseen glory, and giveth such a deep sense of the world to come, as that you are willing to venture all upon the hopes of it ; such a hope as sets the heart upon glory to come, as present things do not greatly move us ; such a love as levelleth all our actions to God's glory, and our eternal enjoyment of him, Jude 20, 21.
3. Use the means with all seriousness and good conscience. These conduce to perfect what is lacking to your faith, to root you, ground
'Phil. III. 15.] attainable in this life ? 65
you in love, confirm you in hope, that the thoughts of heaven may be inoi-e affecting and engaging. Now the principal means are the word, and sacraments, and prayer.
[1.] In the word you have principles of faith, obligations to love, and arguments of hope ; therefore it is said, God buildeth us up by the word of his grace, Acts xx. 32.
(2.] The sacraments strengthen faith, hope, and love, as signs and seals of the love of God, through Jesus Christ, in the new covenant, that so our consolation may be more strong. They strengthen our faith and hope, as a bond or a vow : so they excite and engage our love and obedience : we bind ourselves to God anew, to pursue our everlasting hopes, whatever they cost us. Our great diseases are proneness to evil and backwardness to good : we check the one and cherish the other.