The Rule of the Law Under the Gospel, Chapter 7
CHAP. 7.
Shewing the second ground of this opposition, which is horrible pride, especially discovered in their ridiculous conceit of perfection.
THe undivided companion of ignorance is pride; for no man that ever aright knew God or himselfe, but the nearer he approached to God with Abraham, the more did he humble himselfe in dust and ashes. But here is a generation of men swelled up with pride, and blowne up with a presumption, that they are gotten into the highest forme of perfection: they can scorne and disdaine the directions of the Law, as being far beyond it; for they have attained a full perfection not of justification onelyonly, but of sanctificatiō also already; they are free not onelyonly from the power of sinne, but from the presence also: Christ himselfe is not purer, or more free from sinne than they are: nay being borne of God they cannot sin if they would: if they doe acts of sinne in high nature; yet where is no Law is no transgression: God cannot see them in that glasse. Hence they can loose themselves from most ministeries, but some teachers of their owne sect; and deride the holy labours of godly Preachers, who with zeale and piety persuade men to walke according to rules. Oh what an height of pride are those private peremptory persons come unto, who complaine that their heads have aked to heare some godly and worthy Preachers; and have professed,So Quintinus the Libertine tolde Calvin to his face, that he disliked his course, because hee understood it not. Instruct advers. Liber. cap: 7. that for the gift of two pence they would never more heare sundry such, as I know to be of long continuance as shining and burning lights; as they may well be in the first ranke of Gods worthies, that have beene of best desert in our Church. And where is the humility of that teacher that makes his bragge, Your teachers understand not mee. No? the more is your sin and shame. Doe you preach amongst a tumult of artizans, and illiterate men, so as our Ministers cannot understand you? what is the reason you doe so hide your selfe; seeing light feareth nothing but darknesse, and truth nothing but to be hid. I must say to you, as Ierome of the crabbed Poet Persius: Si non vis intelligi, non debes legi.If you will not be understood, you ought not to be read: so if you will not be understood, you ought not to preach; unlesse perhaps it may be more beneficiall to the Church, that if you doe preach, you be not understood. Alas that men professing the doctrine of godlinesse, and pretending the practise of wisedome and sobriety, should by the pride of their hearts become thus disguised, and transported into raptures and fits next to frenzie and madnesse. But against this windy conceit of perfection I will now say the lesse,The windy conceit of perfection refuted because I have dealt more fully against this pernicious errour before in the third chapter.
Yet here 1. let it be considered wherein the Scripture placeth the perfection of Saints here below; and that is not in the want of sinne, but in the fight against sinne; and not in the absence, but in groaning in the presence of sinne. For 1. would Christ teach men without sin to pray daily for forgivenesse of sinne? 2. Would hee command those to pray daily not to be led into temptation, that cannot sinne if they would? 3. Did hee ordaine the Sacrament of the Supper for men perfect, that want nothing, to whom nothing can be added; or to the sicke, who neede the physitian, and to such as hunger and thirst after righteousnesse, which is a sen…e of defect, not of perfection. Magnum illud electionis vas perfectum abruit, profectum fatetur, Bern. in Can… ser. 49.4. Are they in holinesse and perfections of grace beyond the Apostle Paul, who many yeares after regeneration complaineth that he found evill present with him, and a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde; Cunctorun in carne iustorum imperfectae perfectio est, Hieron: lib. 1. advers: Pelag:and professeth that he had not attained, and that all is here in part, and imperfect till that perfect come. 5. Are they perfect without sinne, why doe they then as other sinfull men doe? hath death any commission where is no sinne? or if their sinnes be gone, and their persons justified, and yet they die: why deny they that any correction abideth any whose sinne is pardoned, unlesse they will say they die onelyonly for triall.
Secondly, Sanctification hath three degrees in this life,Three degrees of sanctification, and the highest imperfect. the highest of which is imperfect.
1 Is the death of the body of sin. Which is not all at once, but resembleth the death of Christs body on the crosse, which was diminished by degrees, till his spirit by his last breath was surrendred to his Father. Thus is it in the christian, whose last breath of sinne, and of the body goe out together.
The Second degree is the buriall of the body of sinne, which is a further proceeding in mortification, as buriall is a proceeding of death, and a consumption of the dead body not all at once; but by little, and little. So mortification is not an act of a day, but of the life.
The Third degree of sanctification, is a raising from the grave of sinne to a new life, by vertue of Christ his Resurrection: that looke as a graft set in to a new stock, draweth juice and life from that stock, not all at once and then no more; but still draweth, and by drawing, groweth by degrees unto the full height and age of it: evē so is it here, christian life is continued as naturall by dayly supply and addition of that which is daily wanting.Why God would not free his servants from all sinne in life as well as in death God indeed if he had pleased, might in a moment have freed his servants from all sinne, as well in life as in death; but he wold not: because his wisdome procures himselfe more glory in his protection and assistance of the Saints: and in the victory of his servants against sin, than if they were free from sinne.
The fiercer the enemies were that rose up against Moses in the wildernes, and against Iosua in the Land of Canaan, the more it turned to the glory of Gods mighty power, in giving them possession in despight of them all. And so greater honour returneth to the Lord, because greater is his grace in making the sinnes of the Saints remedies of sinne; to humble them for sinnes past, to shame them for sinne present, and to worke in them feare & watchfulnesse against sinne for time to come; then if he should at once abolish sinne in them. All which, these men shake off their hands as easily as Sampson did the greene cords, when the Philistins came upon him.
Thirdly, As he that exalteth himselfe must be brought low; so the Scriptures shew those to be in highest estimation with God that have beene, and are least in their owne eyes:The lowly speeches of Saints. Abraham seeth himselfe but dust and ashes. Iacob seeth himselfe lesse than the least merciemercy. Gideon saith of himselfe, Who am I? or what is my Fathers house, but the least in all Israel? Iudg: 6. 13. Iohn Baptist, than whom a greater was not borne among women, said, I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shooe. The Centurion, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under the roofe of my house. Peter, Goe from mee, Lord, for I am a sinfull man. Paul, I am the least of all the Apostles, but the chiefe of all sinners. But we never read nor heard those vaine voyces from any truely regenerate man:The haughty and lofty speeches of Libertines. I am perfect. I am pure, so as nothing can be added unto me: I cannot sin if I would: Gods eternall power can see no sinne in me: I am beheld no otherwise then Christ himselfe, Tu audes Novatiane mundum te dicere; qui etsi operibus mundus esses, hoc ipso verbo immundus …eres: Ambr: de poenit l. 1. c. 6.for I am Christed with Christ, and Godded with God: I will neither greive for my sin, nor pray for pardon of sinne, and the like. No no, true grace (which St. August: calleth the first, second, and third grace of Christians) would keep the heart from these high staires, and straines of pride; it would fetch them off such mounted thoughts, and change them into mournefull complaints, that they must needs, will they nill they admit the Cananit and Iebusits within their borders, & that they must finde sinne in them as a law forcing them to the evill they would not. Rom. 7. 24.
And godly experience concludeth, that humility is a signe of worth, but hautines is never without emptinesse and vanity. Emptiest vessels sound lowdest; and the husbandman liketh better those heavie eares of corne that hang downe their heads, than the light and empty ones that stand so upright. Fewer words would serve wiser men. I will onelyonly say to this proud perfectist, as Constantine the great did to Acesius one of the proud Bishops of the Catharists, Pone Ac…siscalam, qua solus coelum ascende.Set up a ladder Acesius, by which thou alone maist climbe to heaven.