CHAPTER XXXIV. THE IMPERFECTION OF GOOD WORKS DEMONSTRATED. You have heard that according to the doctrine of all our Divines, the good works of the regenerate possess a supernatural goodness, are pleasing to God, and by him are ordained to be rewarded. Thus far we and the Romanists are agreed; but when we come to expose the stains and defects of these works, straightway they cry out, that we are making the good works of godly men to be nothing else than the filth, defilement, and deadly sins of the wicked. But their calumnies ought on no account to have that influence upon us, to induce any departure from what is clearly taught in the Sacred Writings. Those calumniators recognise in the actions of the godly that supernatural goodness flowing from supernatural grace which we have established under our preceding head; they recognise, moreover, the imperfection also that cleaves to them from the defilement of the flesh, as we propose to make evident under this our Second proposition, which is as follows: 2. The good works of the regenerate are imperfectly good, being stained by the adhesion of sin, and in order to merit acceptance from God, needing his paternal mercy. I shall run through each particular. 1. They are imperfectly good,-Firstly, if they are considered conjointly, and as under the aspect of one whole body. For as the human body is rendered imperfect if its continuity be broken by the tearing away of any member, or the introduction of one dissimilar; so the body of good works is rendered imperfect when by any intervening evils it is separated, and as it were torn apart. We account this interruption of good works an imperfection, because the perfection of works consists in their exact proportion, or perfect correspondence to the law, which requires entire, constant, and uninterrupted obedience. Cursed is he who He who offends For like as the continueth not in all things; Gal. iii. 10. in one point is guilty of all; James ii. 10. whole truth of a copulative proposition is infringed by the introducing even a single false particle; so the complete perfection of legal obedience is spoilt, by the intervention of even one unlawful action. But now produce me, from among all the saints, but one with whose good works no evil is intermixed, who has pursued his course of obedience to the Divine law, without tripping, to the end of life. Such perfection never has been found, nor ever will be found, in any mortal being. Let the Scriptures speak; Psal. cxliii. 2:— Enter not into judgment with thy servant; For in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified. If any one should perform a courseof perfect and continuous obedience, what impediment would there be to his being justified in the sight of God? Eccles. vii. 20:-There is not a just man upon earth, who doeth good, and sinneth not; If even a just man sin, in whom, I would learn, shall we find this garment of good works so perfectly woven, as to have no rent in it ?—This imperfection of good works which the Scriptures every where assert, however boldly denied by such as are inflated with Pharisaic pride, is yet most humbly acknowledged by all who are truly imbued with Divine grace. So the pious prophet David; Ps. cxxx. 3:— If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, So holy Daniel; ix. 7:— Righteousness belongeth unto thee; So the Apostle Paul, Rom. vii. 14:-The law is spiritual, but I am carnal. The ancient Fathers also taught the same doctrine. Augustine writes on Psalm cxxix-that the whole life of man is beset with crying sins; that all consciences are accused by their thoughts; that a clean heart presuming upon its own righteousness cannot be found. And soon after he thus addresses God: If thou wouldest be judge only, and shouldest be unwilling to be merciful; if thou shouldest mark all our iniquities, and shouldest examine into them; who could abide it? Who could stand before thee and say, I am innocent ?-Anselm, in his meditations, says: My manner of life affrights me; for being diligently examined, my whole life appears to me to consist but of sin or barrenness. You see then that although the regenerate may practise some good works, yet the body of their works is very imperfect and deformed, because it is as it were interrupted and defiled by many evil works. But the Papists, that they may not be led to admit the imperfection of actual righteousness, with wonderful adroitness extenuate those sins with which good works are accompanied. Lindanus* calls them-the trifling little failings of our daily lapses, which sprinkle the Christian life with a little dust as it were, but do not contaminate it. Bellarmine says, Those sins of the regenerate, free from which no man lives, are not, strictly speaking, sins; but are so termed improperly, and in a particular sense; nor are they contrary to the law of God. I will not now contend about the distinction of sin into mortal and venial; nay I acknowledge the wide difference between those sins which are commonly deemed mortal, and those which are called venial. But this I will say, that there lives not on earth a regenerate man, who does not sometimes fall into those sins (especially internal and spiritual) which are held to be mortal according to the definition of the Schoolmen. And David intimates as much when he says, In thy sight shall no flesh living be justified. For he who has committed no offence against the law shall be justified by the law, when God enters into judg LINDANUS (WILLIAM) a native of Dordt, in Flanders, who, about the middle of the 16th Century, officiated under the Spanish Government as a member of the Dutch Inquisition. He displayed so much bigotry and implacability in the execution of that office, that he grew into high favour with Philip II., and in 1562 was advanced by that monarch to the See of Ruremonde. After presiding over this Diocese for 26 years, he quitted it for Ghent. Lindanus was the author of several Theological Tracts, in which his zeal is manifested at the expense of his charity. Of these (all written in the Latin language) the principal are, The Gospel Panoply, fol.; A Catalogue of the various Heresies of the Age; On the best method of interpreting Scripture, 8vo.; An Edition of the Mass, said to have been composed by St. Peter, which appeared in one vol. 8vo. the year after his decease; and another of the Psalms of David. His death took place at Ghent in 1588.-Moreri. De Justif. lib. 4. cap. 14. ment with him. This the Preacher also meant, when he affirmed, that there was no one so just that he sinned not; for that he is a sinner, who never transgresses against the law of God, the Scriptures nowhere assert. ** Lastly, the ancient Fathers who deprecate being strictly examined according to the rule of Divine judgment, and confess the sins of their lives, understood not those trifling little sins merely of which Lindanus speaks, or the sins as taken in a particular sense, and not at all contrary to the law, in Bellarmine's notion; but offences truly and properly so called, and which would have condemned the doers, unless the mercy of God, on account of the merits and death of Christ, had delivered them. The works of the regenerate are therefore imperfectly good, when they are considered conjointly, because of the mixture of evil. 2. They are also but only imperfectly good, if they are condered singly. For as all the evil works of the regenerate are regarded as though they had never been committed; yet neither from the whole assemblage of their good works could so much as one be singled out, which comprehends in it all the particulars required to constitute due perfection. By due perfection I understand, not such a completeness as invests those who are in the state of glory; but that primeval excellence which God impressed upon Adam in a state of innocence, and which the law of God requires under the penalty of an eternal curse, unless the grace of the Gospel interpose, and impart pardon to the believer. That in this sense every work of the regenerate whatsoever is imperfect, is proved from the circumstance that habitual righteousness itself (as hath been shewn by us) is not carried to perfection in any one of the regenerate. But as is the tree, so is the fruit; as the disposition, so is the act wont to be. If therefore any darkness remain in the intellect, any perversity in the will, any rebellion in the affections; if, in fine, all sanctifying or inherent grace be as yet on the increase, not at its height ('anμñ) or completeness; the works of grace also must necessarily be imperfect, for this resson,-that effects do not exceed the Peccata secundum quid. power of their cause. Now, that this inward renovation is as yet imperfect, and is in progress not actually perfected,* the Apostle intimates, 2 Cor. iv. 16, where he says, Our outer man perisheth, but the inner man is renewed day by day. And vii. 1, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The renovation which increases day by day, and the sanctification which remains incompleted, cannot produce operations entirely perfect, till they themselves shall have become perfect. Augustine constantly acknowledges this imperfection of habitual righteousness:† The virtue of which the just man now is possessed is called perfect, so far as it is made to include a sense, and an acknowledgment of its own imperfection, and a humble confession that this is the case. What he says of the very root, namely infused virtue, that we affirm of the external fruit, namely, every work whatsoever, that the knowledge and confessiou of its imperfection pertains to the perfection of it. But Bellarmine meets us, and exclaims that we abuse the authority of Augustine, who meant nothing else, than that the righteousness of the regenerate is imperfect, if it be compared with the righteousness of the blessed. But this answer of his is little to the purpose; for although it is clear that this our righteousness is called imperfect, if it is compared with the righteousness of the blessed; yet Augustine meant something more, namely, that it is imperfect in comparison with the law of God, to which it behoves us pilgrims to be conformed. For if such an imperfection only be meant, viewed in comparison with the righteousness of the blessed, there is nothing either of praise or humility in acknowledging that we worms are a little less perfect than the angels and glorified saints. Thus much on the first particular of our proposition. I come now to the second member, which asserts that every good work is defiled by the adhesion of sin. This I add, lest any one should suppose that the imperfection which we have been considering is nothing else than the absence of that perfection which need not be aimed at, of which any one may be destitute without any fault or sin of his own. In order that our meaning may be the better un |