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TMs holiness,' is nothing else but a pursuance of that which is just and good; for so said Moses concerning the man that forsook God, and denied that he had made a covenant with him; "Do not say in thine heart, "Ooid μov yέvoito ¿v tập ảпoστῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου, ο Let it be lawful or holy, or permitted to me to depart from the Lord." To this sense was that of Justin Martyr, who expounds this phrase of " Be ye perfect" by Christianum fieri;' 'Be perfect,' that is, 'Be Christians,' be Christ's disciples; for he who came ἀναπληρῶσαι τὸν νόμον ' to fulfil,' to consummate obedience, to perfect the law,'-to obey him, and be disciples of his institution, is our perfection and consummation.

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44. IV. This perfection of state, although it does not suppose a perfection of degrees, yet it can be no less than, 1. a perfection of parts. It must be a religion that is not mingled with interest, piety to God that is not spoiled with cruelty to our neighbours, a zeal that hath in it no uncharitableness or spite; that is, our religion must be entire, and not defective in any constituent part. So St. James uses the word τέλειοι for ὁλόκληροι, σε perfect and entire, wanting nothing"." 2. To which add this also, that to this perfection of state, perseverance is of necessity to be added. For so we are taught by the same Apostle; "Let patience have her perfect work;" that is, let it bear you through all your trials, lasting till all your sufferings are over; for he that endures to the end, shall be crowned, because he only is perfect. Our holiness must persevere to the end. But, 3. it must also be growing all the way. For this word 'perfect' is sometimes in Scripture used for degrees, and as a distinction between Christians in the measures of duty. St. Paul uses it to signify well-grown Christians,' or men in Christianity. Στητε τέλειοι καὶ πεπληρωμένοι ἐν παντὶ θελήματι τοῦ

EO; "stand perfectly and full," or "confidently fulfilling all the will of God:" for therefore "we preach Christ, and exhort every man, and touch every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man” τέλειον ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ “ perfect in Christ Jesus";" that is, that they should not always be as babes, for whom milk and weak nutriment are to be provided; nor like those silly women, always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth;' but it is commanded

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us to be wise and perfect, to be men in Christ;' so St. Paul makes the antithesis; "Be ye babes in malice, but in your minds Té vívede be perfects," that is, Be men, wise, and confident, and strong, and well grown. "Perfectly instructed;" that is, “readily prepared to every good work;" not always employed in the elements and infant-propositions and practices of religion, but doing noble actions, well skilled in the deepest mysteries of faith and holiness. This is agreeable to that expression of St. Paul, who having laid the foundation of Christianity by describing the fundamentals, intending tó speak of the more mysterious points of the religion, calls it a going on to perfection:' so that by this precept of perfection it is intended we should do more than the lowest measure of our duties, and there is no limit, but even the utmost of our power; all that we can, is the measure of our duty I do not say, all that we can naturally or possibly; but all that we can morally and probably, according to the measures of a man, and the rate of our hinderances and infirmi ties.

45. V. But the last sort and sense of perfection, is that which our blessed Saviour intended particularly in the instance and subject-matter of this precept, and that is, a per fection in the kind of action, that is, a choice and prosecu tion of the most noble and excellent things in the whole re ligion. Three are especially instanced in the holy Gospel.

1. The first is,-a being ready, or a making ourselves ready to suffer persecution,-prescribed by our blessed Saviour to the rich young man: "if thou wilt be perfect, sell all and give to the poor;" that is, If thou wilt be my disciple, make thyself ready," and come and follow me"." For it was at that time necessary to all that would follow Christ's person and fortune, to quit all they had above their needs. For they that followed him, were sure of a cross; and therefore to invite them to be disciples, was to engage them to the suffering per secution; and this was that which our blessed Saviour calls perfection.

Dulce periculum est

(O Lenæe!) sequi Deum

Cingentem viridi tempora pampinox.

It is an easy thing to follow God in festivals and days of s 1 Cor. xiv. 20. t Heb. vi. 1. u Matt. xix. 21. * Hor. 3. 25. 18.

eucharist; but to serve him in hard battles, to die for him, is the perfection of love, of faith, and obedience. • Obedient unto death,' was the character of his own perfection; for

greater love than this hath no man, than to lay down his life."" Scis quem dicam bonum, perfectum, absolutum ? Quem malum facere nulla vis, nulla necessitas potest:" "He is good, absolute, and perfect, whom no force, no necessity, can make evily.”

દ

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II. The second instance is,-being merciful;-for St. Luke recording this precept expounds it by λenoves, Be ye perfect",' that is, " Be ye merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful;" for by mercy only we can be like him. "OσTIS TOU πλησίου ἀναδέχεται βάρος, ὃς ἐν ᾧ κρείσσων ἐστὶν ἕτερον τὸν ἔλατ τούμενον εὐεργετεῖν ἐθέλει, ὅσα παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ λαβὼν ἔχει, ταῦτα τοῖς ἐπιδεομένοις χορηγῶν, Θεὸς γίνεται τῶν λαμβανόντων οὗτος μιμητὴς τοῦ Θεοῦ. “ He that bears his neighbours burden, and is willing to do benefit to his inferiors, and to minister to the needy of the good things which God hath given him, he is as God to them that receive, he is an imitator of God himself."And Justin Martyr, reciting this precept of our blessed Saviour, instead of τέλειοι uses the word χρηστοί nai ointiquoves, " Be ye good and bountiful, as your heavenly Father is.”—And to this purpose the story of Jesus and the young man before mentioned, is interpolated in the Gospel according to the Hebrews or the Nazarenes, "The Lord said unto him, How sayest thou, I have kept the law and the prophets, when it is written in the law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself? and behold, many of thy brethren the sons of Abraham are covered in filth, and die with hunger, and thy house is full of good things, and nothing goes forth to them from thence. If therefore thou wilt be perfect, sell all and give to the poor."-Charity, which is the fulfilling the commandment, is also the perfection of a Christian: and that à giving of alms should be perfection,' is not disagreeing with the design of the word itself; Teλev yap danavav, say the grammarians; it signifies to spend ;' and πoλureλǹs is a great spender' or a bountiful person.

III. The third is the very particular to which our blessed Master did especially relate in the words of the sanction or institution: and we are taught it by the particle oy or a Scriptor ad Diognetum.

y Seneca.

z Luke vi. 36.

'therefore. For when the holy Jesus had described that glory of Christianity, that-" we should love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us;”—he propounds the example of our "heavenly Father; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good." But the publicans love their friends, and salute their brethren: but more is expected of us: "Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect;" that is, do more than the publicans, do as your Father does, be perfect as he is, that is,"love your enemies."

46. VI. Now concerning this sense of the precept of perfection, which is the choice and pursuance of the noblest actions of religion, we must observe that they are therefore 'perfection,' because they suppose a man to have passed through the first and beginning graces, to have arrived at these excellences of piety and duty. For as no man can, on a sudden, become the worst man in the world, his soul must by degrees be unstripped of holiness, and then of modesty, and then of all care of reputation, and then of disuse; and by these measures he will proceed to the consummation of the method of hell and darkness: so can no man on a sudden come to the right use of these graces. Not every man that dies in a good cause, shall have the reward of martyrdom; but he that, having lived well, seals that doctrine with dying, which before he adorned with living. And therefore it does infinitely concern all them that suffer in a good cause, to take care that they be not prodigal of their sufferings, and throw them away upon vice. Peevishness or pride, lust or intemperance, can never be consecrated by dying or by alms. But he that after a patient continuance in well-doing,' adds charity or martyrdom to the collective body of his other graces, he hath made them 'perfect' with this kind of perfection.' Martyrdom can supply the place of actual baptisms, but not of repentance: because without our fault it may so happen, that the first cannot be had; but, without our fault, the second is never left undone.

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47. Thus perfection and repentance may stand together. Perfection does not suppose the highest intention of degrees in every one, but in all according to their measures of grace and time. Evangelical perfection is such as supposes a be

ginning, an infant-grace, progression and variety, watchfulness and fear, trembling fear. And there are many graces required of us, whose material and formal part is repentance: such as are mortification,-penitential sorrow,―spiritual mourning, patience,-some parts of humility,—all the parts and actions of humiliation ;-and since in these also, perfection' is as great a duty as in any thing else, it is certain that the perfection of a Christian is not the supreme degree of action or intention.

48. But yet perfection cannot be less than an entire piety, a holiness perfect in its parts, wanting nothing material, allowing no vicious habit, permitting no vile action, but contending towards the greatest excellency, a charitable heart, a ready hand, a confident religion, willing to die when we are called to die, patient, constant, and persevering, endeavouring xarà rò duvarov according to the measures' of a man, to be pure and pleasing to God in Jesus Christ. This is the sum of all those several senses of perfection, which are prescribed in the several uses of the word in Holy Scripture. For though God through Jesus Christ is pleased to abate for our unavoidable infirmities, that is, for our nature,—yet he will not abate or give allowance to our superinduced evil customs ; and the reason is plain for both; because the one can be helped, and the other cannot; and therefore as to allow that is to be a patron of impiety, so not to allow for this, is to demand what cannot be done: that is against the holiness, this against the goodness of God.

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49. "There is not a man upon earth that sinneth not," said Solomon'; and, "the righteous shall be punished," said David; and he found it so by a sad experience for he, though affirmed to be blameless save in the matter of Uriah," and a man after God's own heart,' yet complains, "that his sins are innumerable, more than the hairs upon his head." But though no man can live without error or mistake, the effects of weakness and ignorance, inadvertency and surprise, yet being helped by God's grace, we can, and must live without great sins, such which no man admits but with deliberation.

50. For it is one thing to keep the commandments in a sense of favour and equity, and another thing to be without b 1 Kings, viii. 46.

c Psal. xxxvii. 29. vet. edit.