The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 4 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. Shewing in general that some sins are consistent with a state of Grace.
The CONTENTS.
Some failings consistent with a state of Grace. This shewn in the general; First, From the necessity of humane Nature, which cannot live without them. Secondly, From sundry examples of pious men, who had right to life whilst they lived in them.
THAT measure of life or death which Christ has indispensably fixed for all his Servants, is not a perfectly intire, and absolutely unerring obedience. No, it makes allowances for the unconquerable frailties, and unavoidable infirmities of our Natures. It considers that we are but men, and exacts no more of us than a humane service. That integrity which, as we have seen, it requires of us, is an intire obedience only of our free works, and deliberate, chosen actions. For then we are perfect and intire in God's account, when we have done all that was in our power, and have no wilful stain upon us; when we have no other blemish, than what the unwill'd weakness of our Nature, and the very frame and circumstances of our Constitution have made necessary. And therefore every transgression whatsoever, whether with our wills, or without and beside them, doth not presently blot us out of the Book of life, and put us out of a state of Grace and Salvation. No, some defects there are which do not overthrow, but consist with it.
To give a clear account of this, I will shew these two things.
1. In the general, that some slips and transgressions are consistent with a state of salvation, and dispensed with by the Gospel-Covenant; so that although a man dye before he has amended them, and is reformed from them, yet he shall not at the Day of Judgment be condemned for them.
2. More particularly, what, and of what nature those consistent slips and transgressions are.
1. I say in the general, that some slips and transgressions are consistent with a state of salvation, and are not eternally threatned, but graciously tolerated and dispensed with by the Covenant of the Gospel. And therefore if a man dye in them before he has perfectly amended them, he shall not be condemned for them.
Now as for this, the absolute necessity of humane nature makes it evident. For such a state of unerring obedience and impeccability cannot here be performed by any man, whether Heathen, Jew, or Christian; and therefore it cannot be required of him. No man of any Religion whatsoever can do it; and so God cannot, he will not exact it.
For of this all men may be fully satisfied from that assurance of God's goodness, which is common to all Religions in the World, that he never commands impossibilities, or enjoins men to do that which is not to be done. He doth not require a Beast to be as perfect as a man; or lay that load upon a man which is fit only for the strength of an Angel. For to do thus were to act the part of a severe Taskmaster, and a cruel imposer; but by no means to use the Authority of a loving and a gracious Lord. It were indeed to reap where he has not sown, and to call for that which he has never given; and to command and order, reward or punish; not to promote obedience, but only to shew power; not according to mens deserts, but only according to his own will. For if he should bind impossibilities upon us by a Law, and establish it with penalties; he could not be thought to prescribe a Rule of action, since no man can act after it; nor to fix a measure of Judgment, since it being in no mans choice to break or to perform, no man can justly be judged by it; but only to seek a palpable pretence of unjust force and arbitrary cruelty. Because it is all one to torment and punish a man without any Law, as to punish him for the breach of that which it was never possible for him to perform. For there can be no fault where there is no ability; and a Tree is as much in fault for not walking when it is bidden, or a Stone for not discoursing; as a man is for not doing that which it is above his power to do. So that whatsoever a man in such case is punished for, will fall at length upon God himself; because whatsoever he suffers, it is not for that he would not, but for that he could not help it; which in very deed is to suffer punishment for being no better or abler than God was pleased to make him.
Whatsoever therefore no man can aQuis peccat in …o, quod nullo modo careri potest? Aug. de lib. Arbit. l. c. 18.avoid, no man shall ever be punished for. Because God cannot be offended with infirmities of his own making, nor angry at his own workmanship, since that were in reality and reason to be angry at himself.
And thus much, I say, all the world may be convinced of in this matter, from that common assurance which all men either have, or may have of Gods Justice and Natural Goodness.
But then as for us Christians, we are assured that God cannot injoyn impossibilities, or make that an indispensable condition of his Covenant which the best of us all is not able to come up to; because such dealing would not only contradict the Goodness and Justice of his nature, which is enough to make any honest Jew or Heathen, to abhor the thoughts of it, but would moreover thwart and destroy all the ends of the Gospel, and the declarations of Grace. For if the Covenant of the Gospel, or of Grace it self, should exact that which no Christian can perform, and damn them for what they cannot help; it were no Covenant of Grace and Mercy, nor any favour at all to men, seeing it would leave them just where it found them, and not put them into one jot the better case than they were in before it came. Christ could never have called himself the way, if no man could walk in it; or the …ohn 14.6.life, if none were ever able to live by him. The Angels had never sung Luke 2.10.joy to all people at his birth, if that joy had been set so far above us, that the tallest of us all could not reach up to it; nor have proclaimed upon his coming into the world, dVerse 14.on earth peace, and good will towards men; if yet, after all that he has done and suffered for us, we are still left in such a case, that what none of us all can help shall put God and VsUs into a state of ill-will and enmity. How could he have been called a Jesus or a eMat. 1.21.Saviour; if he proffered salvation upon such strict terms as no man could ever hope to be saved by? or fJoh. 1.17.Grace and Truth have been truly affirmed to come by him; and the preaching of his Religion be called a Gospel or gforeign.glad-tidings; if the conditions of it were so very hard, as that no man could perform them? To make such offers of Grace, as none were able to accept of, had not been to relieve our necessities, but to deride them; and that which in the Apostles judgement is a most gross absurdity, would have been in reality a most certain truth; (viz.) that all their preaching was vain, and our faith is vain also, 1 Cor. 15.14, 17.
As for us Christians therefore who are under the gracious Covenant and Gospel of Christ, we are assured that nothing is under the pains of hell and misery required of us, which cannot be performed by us, not only from that common natural knowledge which we, as well as others, have of Gods Goodness and Justice; but also from all those particular Revelations which we enjoy, above other men, in the Gospel of Grace. Impossibilities can be no condition of our happiness, because as Gods nature cannot bear, so neither can Christs Gospel consist with it.
Nay, I add further, so far are all the Laws of Christ from being an impossible task, that to us Christians, who are strengthned by those assistances which Christ affords, and his Gospel Promises, they are neither grievous nor extream difficult, but a burthen fair and easie to be born. His Commandments, saith St John, are not grievous, 1 Joh. 5.3. And our Lord himself, who best knew the measures, both of our Natures, and of his own Grace, declares expresly that his Yoke of Precepts is easie or hforeign.gracious and favourable, and his burthen light: Upon which inducement he exhorts all men with the greater willingness to take it upon them, and submit to it, Mat. 11.30.
This then all Religions in the world, and we Christians above any, either are, or may be undoubtedly assured of, that no man is indispensably bound to do, what no man can do; and that those things cannot be injoyn'd, which can never be performed.
But now to live wholly without sin, in an impeccable and unerring obedience; to go on exactly streight in Gods way without the least wandring, and to tread always firm in the paths of righteousness without ever slipping: to walk so uprightly as never to fall, neither by security or rashness, inadvertency or weakness, surprize or weariness, is more than humane nature can do, and is a task, not for a Man, but an Angel.
And that some slips and transgressions of this nature are such as no man of what Religion soever, whether Gentile, Jew, or Christian, can avoid; is plain, because no meer man ever yet did avoid them.
It was an undeniable Argument of Atticus in St Jerome, iDa exemplum qui absque peccato fuerit in perpetuum, aut confitere imbecillitatem tuam. Jerom. lib. 1. Dial. adv. Pel. paulo ab initio.Give an instance of some man that did it; or else confess that no meer man yet ever could do it. For since there is both an utter necessity, and a severe Commandment requiring it; it cannot be but that some of all mankind, when they had so much reason, and so infinite inducement, should have endeavoured to the utmost, and have done it, if the doing of it had been within the power of humane nature. So that if it be a failing inseparable from the practice of every man, we must conclude it to be unconquerable by the humane nature also.
But now as for this inability of performing in every instance, and transgressing at no time; it has been the complaint of all persons, in all Religions, throughout all ages of the world.
For as for the bravest men among the Heathens, we have Seneca their great Moralist confessing freely. kPeccavimus omnes, alii gravia, alii leviora, alii ex destinato, alii fortè impulsi, alii aut aliena nequitia ablati: alii in bonis consiliis parùm fortiter s…timus, & innocentiam inviti, ac renitentes perdidimus. Nec delinquimus tantum, sed usque ad extremum aevi delinquimus. Etiam siquis tam bene purgavit animum, ut nihil eum obturbare amplius possit, ac fallere; ad innocentiam tamen peccando pervenit. Sen. de clem. lib. 1. cap. 6.We have all sinned more or less, sayes he even of his Countrey Laws. For some have sinned in great matters, some in little, some out of choice and design, some through constraint, or through the ill example and seduction of others. Some have been too easily driven from good purposes, and sinned, though it were against their wills. Nay, we have not only transgressed thus far, but, what augments our misery, we shall continue still to transgress so long as we have breath in our bodies. Yea, if there be any man who has so well cleansed his soul, as that no temptation can win upon him; yet has he run through a long train of sins before he attained to that pitch of innocence. lHoc primum nobis suademus, neminem nostram esse sine culpâ. Quis iste est qui se profitetur omnibus legibus innocentem? Et ut hoc ita sit, quam angusta innocentia est ad legem bonum esse? quàm multa pietas, humanitas, liberalitas, sides, justitia exigunt? quae omnia extra publicas tabulas sunt. Id. de Ira, lib. 2. cap. 27.Let us perswade our selves of this in the first place, sayes he again, that we are all sinners. For what man is he that dare say he has broken none even of his Countrey Laws? But granting that he had kept all them, yet how scanty and defective an innocence is that, to have done only all that Good which they oblige to? For how many things are required, and not performed, by the Divine Law of Piety, of Humanity, of Liberality, of Justice, of Fidelity? of all which, whether we keep or break them, the Laws of our Nation take no notice.
And as for the Jews, we find David the man after Gods own heart crying out, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from my secret faults, Psal. 19 12. And Solomon, who was the wisest and most knowing man that ever was upon the earth, layes it down for an Aphorism of universal observation, that there is not a just man upon earth so perfect as alwayes to do good and never sin, Eccles. 7.20.
Nay, even the Disciples of Christ themselves, who have the noblest encouragements, and the greatest assistances for a most compleat and entire obedience of any men whatsoever; could never yet attain to such a state as to obey universally without ever slipping. The Holy Fathers in the African Councils felt this by themselves, and were so deeply sensible of it from their own experience, and from what they heard and presumed of others; that they condemned it as a proud errour for any man to think or speak otherwise. mEt Quoniam tales nascantur nunc quoque qualis Ille suit nostri Generis pater ante reatum: Posse hominem sine peccato decurrere vitam Si velit, ut potuit nullo delinquere primus Libertate sua: nempe haec damnata fateris Conciliis—Prosper lib. de Ingrat. contra Pelag. cap. 9.To say that our Nature is as perfect as ever Adams was, and that any man now may live, if he will, all his life long without sin, and has the same free liberty that Adam had in Paradise never to do amiss; is an errour that stands condemned by the Holy Councils. And what these good men thus ingenuously confessed, all others have constantly complained of; there being none among them who was ever able to live up so exactly to the Precepts of the Gospel, as not to do against them in any instance. No, that was the sole Prerogative of the man Christ Jesus, who in that respect had no other man to whom he could be likened. For he was made like unto us in all other things indeed, save only in sin, which we all had more or less, but he wanted, Heb. 2.17. and chap. 7.26.
And since this state of unerring Obedience is such as in this life no man can, because no meer man ever yet did attain unto; we may be sure that God doth not indispensably require it. But some infirmities the Gospel must of necessity dispense with, because according to the present circumstances of Humane Nature we cannot help all; some must be pardoned, since all cannot be escaped.
But besides all that has been already said to shew the consistence of some failings with a state of salvation, because of the unavoidable weakness of Humane Nature which cannot perfectly get quit of them: we may add this further, which will evidence it beyond all exception, that the best Saints of God, and the unquestionable heirs of happiness have alwayes lived subject to them. Those very men, who are most certainly gone to Heaven, went thither with some of these slips and infirmities about them. They could not plead an unerring obedience; but yet notwithstanding all their errours they had right to all the Promises of the Gospel. They died happily, although they could not live wholly without offence. So that some sins do not in any wise destroy a Saint, or subvert the hopes and happiness of a good man, but can and do consist with them.
And in the proof of this the Scriptures are many, and plain. Holy Job, who maintained his own Integrity to be such as God would accept and approve of more stoutly, it may be, than any man ever did; confesses notwithstanding a number of sins, for which, although God of his abundant Grace and Mercy would not, yet if he would he might contend with him. How shall man, sayes he, be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him so much as one of a thousand. If I justifie my self in the unerringness of my obedience, my own mouth shall condemn me; if I say before him that I am perfect and have sinned in nothing, it should also, by such confessions as he would extort from me, prove me perverse, Job 9.2, 3, 20. And David, a man after Gods own heart, acknowledges freely that he is guilty, not only of several sins which he remembers, but also of many more which he doth not know of: Who can understand his errours? cleanse thou me from my secret faults, Psal. 19.12. Nay, even Paul the Apostle, who at that time was a most undoubted heir of Heaven, doth yet own freely that as yet he had not attained to perfection, but only endeavoured after it, Phil. 3.12, 13. But although he were not so perfect as to obey without all errour, and to offend in no instance; yet had he as much perfection as the Gospel exacts, and such as the best men on earth attain to. For at the 15th verse, he calls upon as many as be perfect in such measure as the Gospel accepts of, to be thus minded as he was, and forgetting those things whereto they had already attained, which were now behind; to press on towards that higher perfection which was yet wanting in them and before them, as he told them he himself did, vers. 13.
And since men of this full growth and high pitch in goodness, could never yet get free of these unavoidable infirmities; it cannot be expected that others, who are endowed with a more imperfect Grace and a lower Virtue, should ever live entirely above them. No, alas! God himself declares plainly by the mouth of his inspired Servants, that no man yet ever did attain so far. There is no man, sayes Solomon, that sins not, 1 Kings 8.46. He challenges any person, how good and holy soever, to say that he is wholly blameless, and has no stain at all upon him. Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am wholly pure from my sin? Prov. 20.9. No man certainly, not the most nobly good and eminently virtuous themselves. For there is not a just man upon earth that doth good, and sinneth not, Eccles. 7.20. The blessed Saints who are now in heaven, could never get perfectly free from sin till they got thither. For it is only in heaven, the New Jerusalem, where the spirits of just men are made perfect, Heb. 12.23. But so long as we continue here on earth, let us aspire after that pitch of Righteousness never so much, yet, such is the inseparable infirmity of our nature, we shall still fall short of it. Be favourable in censuring one anothers faults, sayes St James, because every man will need that favour from others towards his own faults more or less; for in many things we offend all, Jam. 3.1, 2. whatever some may falsly pretend, yet in reality no man lives entirely innocent. For if we say that we have no sin, we deceive our selves, and the truth is not in us, 1 Joh. 1.8. we are never able to show this height of obedience, nor doth Christs Gospel exact it of us. For even there we are taught in our daily prayers to confess our daily trespasses; and yet notwithstanding that, we are allow'd, nay, commanded in the same breath to call God our Father still, Mat. 6.9, 12.
As for some slips and transgressions therefore, we see plainly that they are consistent with a state of salvation, and are not eternally threatned, but dispensed with by the Covenant of the Gospel. For the infirmity of our Nature is such, that we never can; and Gods goodness is so great, that he never will require us to be entirely free from them. The very best men, and those very Saints who are now in bliss, have lived subject to them, and fallen under them; but yet they made no blot in their character, nor robbed them of Gods favour, and that life and pardon which is promised in the Gospel. And that we may be certain is consistent, which, as we plainly see, not only needs must, but indeed alwayes has consisted with a state of Mercy and Regeneration. For the terms of the Gospel are the same to all times, and what they bear with in one, they do likewise in another. God is no respecter of persons, nor can ever render different judgement to them who have done the same things. So that as for some sins, we are fully assured from the foregoing considerations that they are not eternally threatned, but dispensed with by the Covenant of the Gospel; and that so long as we are free from others, if we die in them without amending them, we shall not at the last day be condemned for them.
Thus then in the General it appears, that some slips are consistent with a state of Grace, God under the Gospel-Covenant doth not punish them, but bear with them; so that although we die unreformed from them, we shall yet be saved notwithstanding them.
But to clear up this business more fully, I shall proceed now to what I undertook in the second place; namely, to shew more particularly what, and of what Nature those allowed slips and transgressions are; whereof I shall discourse in the ensuing Chapters.