Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A45141
|
The middle-way of perfection with indifferency between the orthodox and the Quaker by J.H.
|
Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.
|
1674
(1674)
|
Wing H3692; ESTC R7480
|
27,096
|
35
|
that say we are made righteous also by forgiveness and that the delivery of us from sin from the Law and condemnation by it is Justification Though really I am apt to think that this work is to be attributed rather with the Apostle to our Redemption Compare Ephes 1.7.2 Cor. 5.19 Rom. 3.24 with other places And so I come to my point of Perfection Only I must adde this Corollary Simplicissimum nobis videtur si dicamus fidem justisicare quia credenti sua sides imputetur ad justitiam Fides antem ad justitiam imputari dicitur quia Dens illum qui viva fide in Christum credit pro justo habet reputat cum a paena peccati liberans ad vitam aeternam acceptans propter Christi mortem obedientiam It is to be acknowledged that there are and may be very many Scriptures easily pressed by the Quaker and Papist for the service of their Doctrine so that there is no doubt but thus much is proved that it is our duty to be as perfect as they would have Every sin is forbidden and every good thing that is so by the Law of innocency is commanded But it is one thing to know what is our duty and another what will be accepted of God in our performance Our duty is one thing and what we can or doe attain to another God brings not his scales under the Covenant of Grace that our works should have their full weight but his touchstone expecting they be right that they proceed onely from a sincere heart and then he accepts them upon the merits of Christ Jesus Nay indeed the Duty of the Gospel is one thing and the Condition of it another The words perfect and perfection in several places of Scripture may receive an interpretation according to the purpose unto which they are applied As many as are perfect let us be thus minded By perfection there I apprehend such a degree of knowledge as the strong Christian is supposed to have other-where in opposition to the weake who understanding not their liberty by the Gospel were scandalized about indifferent things and so could not walk up to the same rule Not that I had already attained sayes the same Apostle hard by or were already perfect In the one verse of the same Chapter he is perfect in the other he is not wherein yet there is no more real difficulty then this that a man may in one thing be said to be perfect who in another is imperfect which Augustine shewes in the fifteenth chapter of his second book De peccatorum meritis remissione Indeed that Father in that book and in another De spiritu littera hath the luck to treat industriously on this matter Alia est quaestio sayes he utrum esse possit homo in hac vita sine peccato alia utrum sit It is one question whether it be possible for a man to attain to such perfection as to live without sin and another whether there be any that doe For the former question he distinguishes of what is possible by Grace And what is possible by our own Strength To hold that any man by his free will onely without grace is able to keep all Gods commandements and be without sin is that grand Pelagian Doctrine against which he sets his face and detests it But that it is possible to attaine this by grace or the special assistance of Gods Spirit he thinks it best it seemes to grant He thinks it not fit not safe to say any or all of Gods Commandements are impossible Besides where God vouchsafes his grace the work he pleads is to be ascribed to him unto whom nothing is impossible For the second question whether there is or ever was any man upon earth Christ onely excepted that does or did attain hereunto how great a measure of grace soever it be which he has or had he is peremtory in the denyal as full in his proof from Scripture there being several things he sayes which are possible and yet never shall be in the World There is no doubt now but in the dispute between the Quaker and us the terme perfection is understood alike It is a persection they hold in reference to the whole life that a man sins not And if any in the dispute do carry the matter so high against them as to deny what they contend for to be possible they may if they please choose more wariness from St. Austine for the Quaker ascribes not to themselves but to the Spirit the life the power or to Christ within all that they doe On the contrary side if these Friends will not be content with what is allowed them that our duty reaches so far as not to sin at all and consequently to be perfect as the Saints in Heaven that is to be in our kind as God in his is perfect and that it be not denied when we cannot grant that this our whole duty is possible through that spirit by which I hope some of them are lead but they will go on further to say that themselves are such as have attained and that every one who does not attain to the same pitch to wit to live without sin cannot be in a state of Grace and Salvation I shall think it time to send them if they be learned to the same Father and Books for their reproof and satisfaction As for my thoughts farther of this impossibility and what distinction is here wanting you may see p. 12. 19. in my first paper of Election It is common indeed for the Scripture to speak of men and women as perfect Mark the perfect Man Noah was a perfect man Job a perfect man The good Kings are said to walk before God with a perfect heart when yet their failings are recorded in the same chapter It is less wonder to have onr duty set forth in this manner Thou shalt be perfect with thy Lord thy God Let us go on unto perfection Walk before me and be perfect Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength Thy Will be done in Earth as it is done in Heaven Be followers of Christ And as his was so must our conversation be in the world There is no man hath a sensible knowledge of himself but he perceives dayly how far his duty is above his performance I am not ignorant neither how some Texts may be drawn out of their sence where the place must give them a right construction by one Offering sayes the Apostle Christ hath perfected them that are sanctified But we are not to conceive that at once therefore he perfects mans sanctification I deny not moreover but the end of Christs manifestation in the flesh was to redeem us from iniquity to destroy the Works of the Devil to restore us out of sin and unrighteousness and present us unto God as a peculiar People Purified by Faith Zealous of good Works Holy and without
known that in the Diospolitan Councel An. Do. 415. this was one of Pelagius errours which was there Condemned Filios Dei non posse vocari nisi qui omni modo absque omni peccato fuerint effecti That they cannot be called Gods Sons who are not in all regards without any manner of sin Which errour also Pelagius himself there retracted In the second place it is worthy our knowing what was the ground or reason of his conviction because it is like that the same consideration or argument may prevail upon one or other and more then so of this Sect that have but the like rational judgments Nono fatetur filios dei posse vocari illos qui quotidie dâ—cunt dimitte nobis debita nostra quod utique veraciter non dicerent si essent omnino absque peccato To the nineth Article he confesses that they may be the Sons of God who say daily forgive us our Trespasses which verily they could not say if they were altogether without sin The Fathers of that Council urged this upon him that if none could be born of God that were not altogether perfect then must none of Christs Disciples be his Children for how could they pray to him to forgive their debts if they had no sin to be forgiven How could they pray daily for pardon if they were any day without transgression Nathaniel was one of the Disciples of whom it is said he was without guile and consequently as perfect as any Quaker dare presume of himself and yet Nathaniel as well as Peter and Peter as well as any other true Believer are taught by these words of their Lord that they have need of daily forgiveness It is sufficient to this Argument if that Prayer be held but a pattern and no form as some will have it so long as they do not I hope yet think they may scratch it out of their Bibles because they leave it unsaid In the third place this opinion is against the uniform constant stream of Gods word and the writings of holy men which still run thus that we are sinners that we must all repent and that we must always be renewing our repentance in making our Prayers Confessions Supplications Doing our Almes and other good works and resting on Christ for grace and pardon Without this supposition the whole course of our Religion as Christian will sink for want of a foundation These things write I to you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father who is a propitiation for our sins and also for the sius of the world There is our sins St. John's sins that need an Advocate as well as the world When Ezekiel is picking out three of the most holy men that ever were which instance Augustine also uses he names Daniel Noah and Job Of Noah we have the record of Moses that he was overtaken Of Job we have his own acknowledgment If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall prove me perverse Of Daniel we have a whole Chapter where he is praying and confess ing his sin as himself speaks and the sins of his people What is man says Eliphaz that he should be Clean and he that is born of a Woman that he should be Righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints and the Heavens are not clean in his sight and how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh Iniquity as water We are all unclean says the Church sutably to this in Isay and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy raggs There is one Text most full as most common not to be omitted which is that of David Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified This is applied by the Apostle against justification by the deeds of the Law If there is or ever was any meer mortal on Earth that lived altogether without sin then must this Text be false then may some men living be justified in his sight though he enter into district judgment with them then may some flesh living be justified by works then must salvation alone by Christ and the Doctrine indeed of the whole Gospel come to the ground For In the fourth place as this is against several particular Texts before named and the general current of the Scripture and holy Writers So is it directly against the very drift of what the Apostle delivers to the Romans and Galathians It is common for men to alleadg a few scattered Scriptures against any opinion which yet is true and we Answer those Scriptures but if an opinion does cross any one Text and much more any Epistle in the very scope and purport of it such an opinion must be left or all will come to naught It is manifest now that Paul in those two Epistles is setting forth the Doctrine of justification by Faith through our Redemption by Christ Jesus For the making this good he first shews that all men whatsoever stands guilty before God of the breach of his Law This he most industriously proves of the Gentiles in one Chapter of the Jews in another and in the third What then says he are we better than they no in no wise for we have before proved both Jew and Gemile that they are all under sin Upon this Medium he argues that no man therefore either Jew or Gentile can be justified by the Law for then they should be doers and not breakers of it From this truth that they cannot be justified by the Law it follows that there must be some other means of their justification And this he declares as the great concern and Gospel he has to deliver to be by Faith through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus This is the sum of his doctrine and arguing We may if you will for our advantage put more together If we are justified through Christs Redemption by Faith when none of us have performed the condition which was required of us to our justification by the Law of our Creation then must our justification be of grace or favour as being not else due And if this grace is obtained or purchased for us through Christs Redemption then is God righteous though he accepts of us seeing it is for Christs sake without that condition And if he is righteous in his accepting any without that condition there must be some other procured by Christ upon which he accepts them seeing all are not accepted notwithstanding Christs Redemption That other is Faith as the initium and foundation of all other duty that is Faith working by Love even that Love which fulfils the Law and is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us as Augustine that great assertour of grace still speaks From hence does there appear that Righteousness of God which is set out in opposition to our Righteousness by the Law and mentioned before in its