“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I… For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do… I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me… But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?… So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Rom. 7:14-25
“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
1 Jn. 1:10
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Subsection
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Order of Contents
Intro
Evangelical Perfection 8
Perfectionism
. Articles 14+
. Books 2
. Quotes 4
. Rutherford
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Intro
Perfectionism is the view that a state of sinless perfection can be reached in this life. This serious error, which always downplays sin, has been advocated by Romanists, some Arminians and Wesleyans, and Quakers, amongst other groups.
Yet there is a rightly Biblical, evangelical perfection, called ‘perfect’ in many places in both the Old and New Testaments, with examples of faithful saints walking therein (Gen. 6:9; 17:1; Lev. 11:44; Dt. 6:5; Job 1; Ps. 15:2; Mt. 5:48; 1 Cor. 2:6; Phil. 3:15; Col. 1:28; 3:14; 4:12; Heb. 5:14, etc.). In the words of the German reformed divine Barthold Holtzfus below, this evangelical perfection:
“consists in the recognition of our misery, both corporal and spiritual, and the necessity of fleeing to the grace of God in Jesus Christ our propitiator, and in a sincere and ἀνυπόκριτος, that is, undisguised and serious and constant endeavor to serve and obey God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be obtained from Him for that purpose by ardent prayers, according to all the commands of the Law, and according to all the faculties of the soul and body, and to grow and advance daily more and more in faith, charity, hope, and other Christian virtues, and to implore pardon for errors and lapses for the sake of the Mediator.”
William Perkins, Louis Le Blanc and John Brown of Wamphray below are others who exposit in a wholesome manner the Scriptural data regarding walking before the Lord perfectly in a sincere, Gospel manner.
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Evangelical Perfection
For an introduction to Evangelical Perfection, see the Intro above or the quote by Perkins below.
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Order of
Articles 3
Quotes 5
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Articles
1600’s
Ball, John – pp. 75-89 in ch. 6, ‘Of the Covenant of Grace as it was made and manifested to Abraham’ in A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace… (London: 1645)
Brown of Wamphray, John – sect. 5-6, pp. 328-30 in ch.14, ‘Of Perfection, and a Possibility of not Sinning’ EEBO in Quakerism: the Pathway to Paganism… (Edinburgh: Cairns, 1678)
Brown was a Scottish covenanter who largely wrote from exile in the Netherlands.
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1700’s
Holtzfus, Barthold – ‘Inaugural Historical-Theological Disputation on Christian Perfection’ (Frankfurt: Coepsel, 1698) 34 pp.
Holtzfus (1659-1717) was a German, reformed professor of philosophy and theology at Frankfurt.
“§I. Sacred Scripture, of both the Old and the New Testament, exhorts and obliges man under the Covenant of Grace to perfection. In the Old Testament, God Himself addresses Abraham: Gen. 17:1, ‘Walk before Me, and be perfect;’…
§II. ‘In the New Testament, Christ commands in Mt. 5:48, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, τέλειοι, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ Paul in 1 Cor. 2:6 says, ‘we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, τελείοις. Phil. 3:15, the same apostle stimulates himself and other Christians to perfection, ‘Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, τέλειοι, be thus minded.’ Col. 1:28, he professes that he and the other apostles announce Christ, so that we may present every man perfect, τέλειον, in Christ Jesus. Col. 3:14, he calls charity σύνδεσμον τῆς τελειότητος, the bond or chain of perfection. Col. 4:12, it is said of Epaphras that he is always striving in prayers for the Colossians, that they may stand perfect, τέλειοι, and complete, πεπληρωμένοι, in all the will of God… Heb. 5:14, the apostle says that strong meat belongs to them that are of full age (perfect), τελείων.
§III. Examples of perfect men also occur in the sacred writings… Concerning Noah, God Himself testifies that he was a just and perfect man before him in his generations, Gen. 6:9, and walked with God without ceasing. Concerning Job, God Himself, addressing Satan, gives this sentence in chap. 1 & 2, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, תםָּ שׁאיִ , a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil.’…
§IV. Therefore, the term for Christian ‘perfection’ exists, which we can use without suspicion of heterodoxy, even if others, namely the Novatians and Pelagians, have abused it… Certainly, in the age of Justin Martyr [2nd century A.D.], the name of the perfect was so customary that in his Dialogue with Trypho he himself interprets to become perfect as to become a Christian.
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§VI… Perfection is twofold: Legal and Evangelical. Legal is either absolute, or in a certain respect…
§VII. Evangelical perfection, on the contrary, consists in the recognition of our misery, both corporal and spiritual, and the necessity of fleeing to the grace of God in Jesus Christ our propitiator, and in a sincere and ἀνυπόκριτος, that is, undisguised and serious and constant endeavor to serve and obey God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be obtained from Him for that purpose by ardent prayers, according to all the commands of the Law, and according to all the faculties of the soul and body, and to grow and advance daily more and more in faith, charity, hope, and other Christian virtues, and to implore pardon for errors and lapses for the sake of the Mediator.
§VIII. The former [legal] perfection is rightly called one of degrees, full, and absolute and consummate in all its parts. The latter [evangelical] is called a perfection of parts, inchoate, and in one word, sincerity. And it is such, either absolutely without respect to others who are more imperfect; or comparatively with respect to others who are more imperfect and less mature.”
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Quotes
Order of
Ambrose
Perkins
Davenant
Voet
Le Blanc
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Early Church
Ambrose
Commentary on Philippians, ch. 3 as quoted in Davenant, John – A Treatise on Justification: or The Disputatio de justitia habituali et actuali…, vol. 1 trans. Josiah Allport (d. 1641; London: Hamilton, 1844/1846), ch. 3, p. 13
“Some of the saints are said to be perfect, as compared with worldly men, who neglect things divine, and never enter upon the path of perfection.”
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1500’s
William Perkins
A Reformed Catholic… ([Cambridge] 1598), ch. 13. ‘Of the State of Perfection’, pp. 980-81
“Our consent [with Romanists on the state of perfection] I will set down in two conclusions:
I. All true believers have a state of true perfection in this life:
Mt. 5:48, ‘Be you perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.’ Gen. 6:9, ‘Noah was a just and perfect man in his time, and walked with God.’ Gen. 17:1, ‘Walk before me and be perfect.’
And sundry kings of Judah are said to walk uprightly before God with a perfect heart, as David, Josiah, Hezekiah, etc. And Paul accounts himself with the rest of the faithfull to be perfect, saying, ‘Let us all that are perfect be thus minded.’ Phil. 3:15.
Now this perfection has two parts:
The first is the imputation of Christ’s perfect obedience, which is the ground and fountain of all our perfection whatsoever. Heb. 10:14, ‘By one offering,’ that is, by his obedience in his death and passion, ‘has He consecrated, or made perfect, forever them that believe.’
The second part of Christian perfection is sincerity, or uprightness, standing in two things:
The first is to acknowledge our imperfection and unworthiness in respect of ourselves: and hereupon, though Paul had said he was perfect, yet he adds further that he did account of himself, not as though he had attained to perfection: but did forget the good things behind, and endeavored himself to that which was before. Here therefore it must be remembered that the perfection whereof I speak may stand with sundry wants and imperfections. It is said of Asa that his heart was perfect with God all his days, and yet he pulled not down the high places, and being diseased in his feet, he put his trust in the physicians and not in the Lord.
Secondly this uprightness stands in a constant purpose, endeavor and care to keep not some few, but all and every commandment of the Law of God, as David says, Ps. 119:6, ‘Then shall I not be confounded, when I have respect to all thy commandments.’ And this endeavor is a fruit of perfection, in that it proceeds from a man regenerate. For, as all men through Adam’s Fall, have in them by nature the seeds of all sin, none excepted, no not the sin against the Holy Ghost: so by grace of regeneration through Christ, all the faithful have in them likewise the seeds of all virtues needfull to salvation: and hereupon they both can and do endeavor to yield perfect obedience unto God, according to the whole law.
And they may be termed ‘perfect,’ as a child is called a perfect man: though it want [lack] perfection of age and stature and reason: yet has it perfection of parts: because it has all and every part and faculty both of body and soul that is required to a perfect man.”
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1600’s
John Davenant
A Treatise on Justification: or The Disputatio de justitia habituali et actuali…, vol. 1 trans. Josiah Allport (d. 1641; London: Hamilton, 1844/1846), ch. 3, p. 13
“Ambrose has included this argument in these words:
Some of the saints are said to be perfect, as compared with worldly men, who neglect things divine, and never enter upon the path of perfection.”
If we may call them ‘perfect’ in comparison with the worldly, much more may we call them ‘righteous’; for the word ‘perfection’ denotes strict and exact righteousness. the regenerate therefore are called righteous, not by imputation only, but on account of the real inherence of that inchoate righteousness which is not, in any measure, inherent in the unregenerate.
3. It is a common saying in the schools, that characteristic names may be correctly and truly derived from the better part. We rightly and truly say that man is a rational being, because his better part, namely, his soul, is endowed with reason; although his flesh, or his body, is brutish and devoid of reason. After this example we say that a believer is righteous, because his better part, namely, that which is spiritual and regenerate, has a certain image of righteousness and divine holiness impressed upon it;”
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Gisbert Voet
Disputation 30, ‘On Regeneration’, pt. 2 (1639) tr. AI by Roman Prestarri in Select Theological Disputations (1655), vol. 2, pp. 447ff. Latin at Confessionally Reformed Theology
“Effects arisen and dependent from faith considered organically are:
…
IV. Sanctification strictly so called, or the excitation and study of new holiness in the inner and outer man, 2 Cor. 7:1. To which pertains the practice of repentance and faith and a purged conscience…
Now the proper character of this new practice of holiness is perfection or integrity, which consists in this:
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5. That they are perfect with perfection of the greater parts, namely, the inner and outer—that is, that they worship God not hypocritically but sincerely.
6. That moreover they are perfect with perfection of the lesser parts—that is, they live according to all the commandments of God as to the ordinary and composed course of life, so that they know no commandment of God or set before themselves any which they have resolved to transgress knowingly and willingly, Phil. 1:1 [This should be a different reference]; Rom. 7:15–16.
7. That they also in their own manner attain some perfection of degrees: namely, by desire, affection, purpose, study, and endeavor—yet not by effect.”
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Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu
Theological Theses in which the Doctrine of the Roman School concerning the Division of Grace into Sufficient & Efficent, and the Harmony of Human Freedom with the Efficacy of Grace are set forth tr. AI by Inquisitor (@WesternCatholik on Twitter) (d. 1675), pp. 76-78
“XX. But, you might say, the apostle himself implies that some are perfect, and includes himself among them. For he adds, “All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things” (Phil. 3:15). And in 1 Cor. 2, he says, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature.” Many holy men in Scripture are also testified to be perfect. Thus, it is said of Noah, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Gen. 6:9). And God Himself, speaking to Satan about Job, says, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Indeed, David in Ps. 18 does not hesitate to attribute such perfection to himself. He says, “I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.”
XXI. To solve this difficulty, it is necessary to observe a twofold distinction of perfection. There is an absolute perfection, and there is a relative and comparative perfection.
Absolute perfection is that in which nothing is lacking in its own kind.
Relatively perfect things, however, are those which, although they fall short of the highest perfection, surpass many others of the same kind with which they are compared.
When we say that no one in this life is perfect, or can render perfect obedience to the divine will, we mean absolute perfection, which reaches the highest level and to which nothing can be added. In this sense, Paul acknowledges that he is not yet perfect because he has not yet reached that level of love and obedience to God which the blessed spirits reigning with Christ have attained. Their knowledge and obedience can no longer increase since they are wholly devoted to God with all their strength and will. However, this does not prevent the faithful, who excel in virtue and who have made greater progress in the knowledge of divine truth and in the pursuit of piety and justice, from being called perfect, not absolutely, but in relation to those who fall far short of them. These are, as Paul says, infants in Christ and somewhat carnal compared to those who are uniquely spiritual, as seen in 1 Cor. 3. These are the more mature Christians, if I may say so, of greater age and stature, whom Paul calls perfect in the aforementioned passages, “We speak a message of wisdom among the mature,” and “All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.”
XXII. A related distinction is often made between the perfection of parts and the perfection of degrees:
Perfect obedience in terms of degrees is that which has reached the highest degree of perfection and by which one so perfectly conforms to and obeys the law that nothing is lacking in it, and it cannot be improved. In this respect, we contend, and it is evident in itself, that no one perfectly fulfills the law in this life.
However, obedience that falls far short of the highest degree of perfection can still be and is called perfect according to parts; because, with respect to its essential and integral parts, it lacks none of the necessary elements to be true and acceptable obedience to God. In this sense, the obedience of the pious in this life is perfect. In this respect, the faithful, who are renewed by Christ’s grace and led by His Spirit, can perfectly fulfill God’s law, that is, render true and sincere obedience acceptable to God according to His commandments. For such essential perfection is nothing else but the truth and sincerity of the thing itself.
XXIII. To make this clearer, it must be observed that three main things are required for our obedience to be true and sincere:
First, it must be rendered not only in body and outward action but also with the inward affection of the heart. For it is of no benefit to do what the law commands unless it is done out of love for God and with the intent of fulfilling His will and promoting His glory. Moreover, it is not enough to have a certain affection to obey God if His commandments are not also fulfilled in action when required.
Secondly, true obedience is not achieved by keeping some of God’s commandments while neglecting others; rather, we must seriously subject ourselves to all the precepts of divine law and strive to fulfill them whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Lastly, our obedience must be constant and persevering. It is not sufficient to obey God temporarily, but we must persevere in His service to the end, through both adversity and prosperity.
XXIV. In all these respects, there is nothing lacking in the obedience of those who are truly pious and regenerated by the Spirit of God. They do not serve God merely with their bodies, but they also subject their minds and affections to His will. They not only perform outward actions prescribed by the law, but they do so with the intent of glorifying God and out of love for Him. They strive not only to obey some of His commands while neglecting others, but they endeavor to conform themselves to the entire law of God and all its precepts. This obedience is not temporary or only when things go well but continues even when faced with temptations and persecutions, holding God’s commandments before their eyes until their last breath and aligning their actions to His norms.
XXV. Therefore, their obedience rightly deserves to be attributed with the perfection that is often called “perfection of parts” in scholarly terms. They strive to observe the whole law and all its precepts, with both the acts of the body and the affections of the mind, consistently and perseveringly. Certainly, if this were not so, Scripture would not attribute true righteousness and holiness to the faithful, as it does when it says that they are clothed with the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).
True righteousness cannot be considered such if it lacks essential parts. This is the perfection attributed to Job and Noah, and which David does not hesitate to claim for himself. For in these instances, perfection merely signifies the integrity and sincerity of these holy men. The Hebrew word “Tham” or “thamin,” which is translated as “perfect,” properly means “complete” and “sincere.”
XXVI. Thus, we deny that the faithful can perfectly fulfill God’s law if we speak of absolute perfection and degrees. This is because, first, like all other men, they are naturally sinners; second, even after receiving grace, they continue to offend in many ways and remain susceptible to serious lapses; and finally, even in their good works, they do not reach the highest standard of perfection that the law in its rigor demands.
Yet, in agreement with Scripture, we assert and teach that the faithful keep God’s commandments through Christ’s grace and in some way fulfill the law, providing true and God-approved obedience to the divine law according to all its precepts. This obedience, although far from the highest perfection, can still be called perfect in the scriptural sense because it is true and sincere, lacking nothing that is necessarily required for true and acceptable obedience to God.”
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On Perfectionism
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Articles
1500’s
Melanchthon, Philip – ‘No One Can Keep the Law Perfectly‘ in Article 5, Of Love & the Fulfilling of the Law in The Apology of the Augsburg Confession tr: F. Bente & W. H. T. Dau (1531)
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – The Common Places… (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583),
pt. 2, ch. 14, ‘The Last Precept’, ‘Whether the commandment of loving God with all the heart, etc. may be kept in this life’, pp. 562-65
pt. 3, ch. 9, ‘Of the Works of Supererogation, & Imagined Perfection of the Papists’ in The Common Places… (London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 3, pp. 227-45
Musculus, Wolfgang – ‘The error of some of the Anabaptists which say that they be without sin’ in Common Places of the Christian Religion (1560; London, 1563), folio 24.b
Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction… (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573), A Familiar Exposition of the Principal Points of the Catechism, 4th Dialogue
Of the Means that we have toward God, in recompence of the imperfections which always dwell in us
Beza, Theodore – pp. 46-47 in A Book of Christian Questions & Answers… (London, 1574)
Prime, John – ‘Of the Regenerate Man’s Imperfection, yet remaining, and of an impossibility of the exact keeping of the law’ in A Fruitful & Brief Discourse in Two Books: the One of Nature, the Other of Grace, with Convenient Answer to the Enemies of Grace, upon Incident Occasions Offered by the Late Rhemish Notes in their New Translation of the New Testament, & Others (London, 1583), bk. 2
Prime (c.1549-1596) was a reformed Anglican clergyman and Oxford scholar.
Perkins, William
13. Of the State of Perfection in A Reformed Catholic… ([Cambridge] 1598)
15th Error: ‘It is possible to fulfill the Law in this life’ in A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600), Errors of the Papists in their distributing of the Causes of Salvation
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1600’s
Davenant, John – ‘The Works of the Regenerate are Defiled with the Pollution of Sin’ in The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge trans. Josiah Allport (1634; 1846), pp. 271-5 bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia... trans. Josiah Allport (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2
Baron, Robert – 1. ‘Whether that observance of the law, which God now under the covenant of grace purges as precisely and absolutely necessary, is possible to us’ in Theological Disputation on the True Distinction between Mortal & Venial Sin, and concerning the impossibility of fulfilling the law of God due to the daily incursion of venial sins. To which is annexed an Appendix on the possibility of fulfilling the law considered according to the Evangelical Clemency tr. by AI by Onku (1633; Amsterdam, 1649), pp. 71-76 Latin
Baron (1596–1639) was a Scottish minister, theologian and one of the Aberdeen doctors.
Leigh, Edward – A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 4
11. Signs of a Christian in regard of Sin, & that Great Corruptions may be found in True Christians 332-35
12. Two Questions Resolved about Sin 335-36
Q. 1, ‘How can grace and corruption stand together, so that corruption poisons not grace, nor grace works out corruption, when the admitting of one sin by Adam killed him presently?’
Q. 2, ‘Wherein lies the difference between a man sanctified and unsanctified in regard of the body of corruption?’
Le Blanc de Beaulieu, Louis – Theological Theses in which the Doctrine of the Roman School concerning the Division of Grace into Sufficient & Efficent, and the Harmony of Human Freedom with the Efficacy of Grace are set forth tr. AI by Inquisitor (@WesternCatholik on Twitter) (d. 1675)
Whether and to what extent a person can fulfill the Law through the grace of Christ and keep God’s commandments, pp. 72-85
On the Truth of Good Works Done by the Regenerate through the Grace of Christ, pp. 85-99
Le Blanc (1614-1675) was a reformed professor of theology at Sedan.
Brown of Wamphray, John – ch.14, ‘Of Perfection, & a Possibility of not Sinning’ in Quakerism: the Pathway to Paganism… (Edinburgh: Cairns, 1678), pp. 325-50
Brown was a Scottish covenanter who largely wrote from exile in the Netherlands.
Turretin, Francis – 2. ‘Is sanctification so perfect in this life that believers can fulfill the law absolutely? We deny against the Romanists and Socinians.’ in Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr. (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 2, 17th Topic, pp. 693-702
Holtzfus, Barthold – ‘Inaugural Historical-Theological Disputation on Christian Perfection’ (Frankfurt: Coepsel, 1698) 34 pp.
Holtzfus (1659-1717) was a German, reformed professor of philosophy and theology at Frankfurt.
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1800’s
Vos, Geerhardus – Questions 44-47 in ch. 6, ‘Sanctification’ in Reformed Dogmatics tr: Richard Gaffin 1 vol. ed. Buy (1896; Lexham Press, 2020), vol. 4, ‘Soteriology’, pp. 815-20
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Books
1900’s
Warfield, B.B.
Perfectionism (Abridged) ed. Samuel G. Craig (P&R, 1658) 488 pp. ToC
“This book contains but a part–however, the most important part for an understanding of present day Perfectionism–of Dr. Warfield’s 1,000 page study of this subject.
Dr. Warfield’s study as published by the Oxford University Press consisted of two volumes [below]–the first of which treated mainly of Perfectionism in Germany, and the second of which dealt primarily with Perfectionism as it has manifested itself in English-speaking countries.” – Preface
Warfield distinguishes between the defense of the doctrine by New Testament exegetical scholars (the most elaborate defense found in Church history, says Warfield) and the popular, practical, ‘sanctification’ movements. The former had little sympathy with the latter, but used them as confirmation for their own textual interpretation.
Perfectionism, vol. 1 (German scene), 2 (English scene) (Oxford University Press, 1931) ToC 1, 2
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Quotes
Order of
Walaeus
Tronchin
Alsted
Spanheim
Hoornbeek
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1600’s
Anthony Walaeus
Theological Theses on the Efficacious Vocation of the Sinner to Salvation trans. AI (Leiden: Marcus, 1620), Corollaries, p. 7
“II. Is the sanctification of the faithful perfected in this life? We deny.”
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Theodore Tronchin
Theological Theses on Original Sin trans. AI (Geneva: de la Planche, 1625), p. 6 Tronchin (1582-1657) was a professor of Hebrew and theology at Geneva. This quote is against Romanism.
“XVIII. Baptism indeed promises us the submersion of our Pharaoh and the mortification of sin, yet not so that it is no more or does not trouble us, but only that it does not overcome us, on account of Christ who, by His blood, prevents its power from condemning, and by his Spirit, restrains it from dominating. This is not so that men may sleep securely in their sins, but only that they may not waver and lose heart, who are tickled and pricked by their flesh.”
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Johann H. Alsted
‘On Justification & Good Works in General’ in Theologia polemica, exhibens praecipuas huius aeui in religionis negotio controuersias sex in partes tributa studio (d. 1638) at Nosferatu’s Substack (2024)
“Controversy XI: Can the justified men fulfill God’s law?
Orthodox Position: None of the justified can perfectly keep God’s law, as Scripture teaches (Romans 8; Galatians 3), experience, and the Church Fathers. The perfection of the righteous, mentioned in Matthew 5:48 and Genesis 6:9, 17:1, Philippians 3:15, consists in the imputation of Christ’s justice and in sincerity and uprightness, which consist in acknowledging one’s own imperfection and firmly resolving to obey all of God’s commandments.
[Romanist] Position of [Robert] Bellarmine: The justified men can keep God’s law, not by the forces of free will, but by the aid of God’s grace, that is, by the spirit of faith and charity infused in justification. The reasons are:
1. Christ’s yoke is easy, and His commandments are not burdensome (Matthew 11; 1 John 5).
2. God gives us His Spirit, who makes us walk in His ways (Ezekiel 36). That is why the apostle says in Philippians 4:13 that he can do all things.
3. The elect are endowed with charity (John 13, 15; 1 John 3, 4). Charity is the fulfillment of the law (John 14; Romans 13).
4. We read about many saints who kept God’s commandments blamelessly and were perfect and truly righteous (Genesis 6, 17; 1 Samuel 14, 15; 2 Samuel 23; Luke 1).
5. God is not like a tyrant who demands impossible tributes from His friends. Therefore, the Church Fathers teach that no one is obligated to do the impossible.
6. Christ died so that the justice of the law might be fulfilled in us (Romans 8:4). 7. Man can do more than is commanded (Matthew 19:21).
[The Reformed] Censure:
1.2. God’s commandments are not only possible but also easy for the elect, not by their own strength but by God’s grace. Furthermore, the defects found in their works are graciously forgiven by God.
3.4. Perfection of parts and sincerity are attributed to the elect, not absolute and supreme perfection, which is called perfection of degrees. Though the elect love God, the mode of this love in this life is imperfect.
5. Not every obligation to do the impossible is unjust, especially when one has incurred a debt by one’s own fault. Moreover, God requires from His own what is possible through Christ.
6. The substance of God’s law is fulfilled in us when we are justified in Christ according to the perfect formula of the law.
7. The conditional is not categorical. Christ is not saying here what the arrogant young man could do but refuting him for his false hope of justice. Moreover, it is true that there are works of supererogation, but in Christ.
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Controversy XII: Are the good works of the justified truly pure?
Orthodox Position: The good works of the justified, considered in themselves, are wrapped in many defects and are therefore not absolutely pure but only relatively, considering the justified person, who is pure in Christ. Scripture teaches this (Psalm 130; Romans 7; 1 Corinthians 13; James 3). Experience also confirms this, as we experience various temptations in thoughts, words, and deeds. The Church Fathers, like Bernard, also approve this: “If there is any justice in us, it is humble, perhaps upright, but not pure.”
[Romanist] Position of Bellarmine: The works of the righteous are absolutely, completely, and perfectly just, though this perfection may grow and be obscured by venial sins. The reasons are:
1. Job’s purity is described in chapters 1 and 2.
2. David asks to be judged according to his justice and glories in it (Psalm 7, 17, 18, 26, 119).
3. The whole body is full of light when the eye is simple (Matthew 6; Luke 11).
4. Some works are compared to gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3).
5. “In many things, we stumble” (James 3). Therefore, not in everything.
6. We are warned not to sin (Isaiah 1; 1 John 5). This would be useless if we necessarily sinned in every good work.
7. The works of the righteous please God (Malachi 3; Acts 10; Philippians 4; Hebrews 13; 1 Peter 2). But sins do not please God.
8. The works of the righteous are simply called good (Matthew 5; Ephesians 2; Titus 3). They are not sins.
9. This is the doctrine of the Church Fathers. 10. Reason teaches this. For innate concupiscence is not sin if there is no consent. Otherwise, even faith would be sin.
[The Reformed] Censure: Four rules should be observed:
1. The works of the righteous are not, in themselves and by themselves, mortal sins; but relatively and by chance, they are called sins, insofar as the admitted imperfection is not covered by the garment of Christ’s justice.
2. The truth, sincerity, and any uprightness of good works are confused with their absolute and complete perfection, that is, the perfection of parts is confused with the perfection of degrees.
3. The justice of the person must be distinguished from the justice of the cause, and the justice of a particular cause must be distinguished from the justice of the universal cause.
4. The sins of the elect are, in themselves, mortal sins, even when they arise from weakness, though not as grave as those arising from malice and hardness.”
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Friedrich Spanheim, Sr.
Disputationum Theologicarum Miscellaneorum Pars Prima (d. 1649; Geneva: Chouët, 1652), ‘Miscellaneous Theological Disputation’, trans. AI by Roman Prestarri at Confessionally Reformed Theology Latin
“39… But that [sanctification] is not perfect in the way, but such it will be in the goal, nor is it given here consummated, but only begun.”
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Johannes Hoornbeek
Theological Disputation on the State of Grace (Leiden: Johann Elsevir, 1664), Corollaries Latin
“4. Although regeneration is the work of God, yet in this life it is imperfect while we are in the state of grace.
5. And so it admits degrees of further perfection.
6. But by no means the defect of a full and final falling away.
7. The concupiscence and stain which remain in the regenerate are properly called sin.
8. Because these are the inseparable companions of any wayfarer, hence falls the dream of Papist perfection in this life.”
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Samuel Rutherford
Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself (London: 1647), pp. 342-45
“Randall in his epistle before the treatise called, The Bright Star: ‘I have therefore observed the ever to be bewailed non-proficiency of many ingenious spirits, who through the policy of others, and the too too much modesty and temerity of themselves, have precluded the way of progress to the top and pitch of rest and perfection against themselves, as being altogether unattainable, and have shortned the cut with a Non datur ultra [more is not given], and are become such who are ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth.’
But for the measure, sure it is not as Antinomians and Familists dream, complete and full in this life:
1. Because according to the manner and measure of the manifestation of Christ and knowledge, so is love and the perfection of believers. This is a truth in itself undeniable and granted by the author of the Bright Star, ch. 5, p. 52. For Christ’s excellency and drawing beauty in love goes in to the soul by the port and eye of knowledge. But 1 Cor. 13:9, ‘We know in part and we prophesy in part.’
2. Paul disclaimes perfection as being but in the way and journeying toward it, Phil. 3:12, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ.’ Now this perfection which Paul professes he wants [lacks], is opposed vv. 13-14, to his pressing toward the garland, for the price of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ, Heb. 11:40.
3. Perfection, such as we expect in heaven, is in no capacity to receive any farther addition, or accession of grace or glory; nor is there a growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, enjoined us there, as is expressly here in the way to our country, 2 Pet. 3:14, and to run our race to the end, Heb. 12:1, and be carried on to perfection, Heb. 6:1. It’s true, our good works are washed in the fountain opened for David’s house, in which our persons are washed; but that washing removes the sinful guilt, and Law-obligation from them, but not the inherent blot and sinful imperfection of our works, to make them perfect; for then might we be justified by our good works, if Christ’s blood make them to leave off to be sins; but that blood hinders them to be imputed to us only, but removes not their sinfull imperfections, as Antinomians say, that so they may make us perfect in this life: nor does that blood (as Papists say) add a meriting dignity and virtue to them, by which we are justified by works made white and meritorious in Christ’s blood and merits. God has so portraicted and chalked the way to heaven that all the most supernatural acts, even those that have immediate bordering with the vision of glory, should need a pass of pardoning grace; and to believe that Christ’s grace shall work in us acts void of sin, is not faith. Therefore we are to believe the pardon of such ere they have being, and not sanctifying grace to eschew them. It seems to me unbelieving murmuring to be cast down at these sins in such a way as to imagine we can eschew them, or that grace sanctifying is wanting to us in these; for grace is not due to sinless acts. Nor does the growing in grace which lies on us, by an obligation of a command, stop the way to the journeying toward perfection and heaven, nor shorten the cut to heaven, because heaven is not attainable in this life; but by the contrary, if perfection were attainable in this life, the man that attains it might sit down, rest there, and go not one step farther; for except he should go beyond the crown, and to the other side of heaven, and over-journey Christ at the right hand of God, whither should he go? And those that are ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth, are, 2 Tim. 3:5, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; such as we are to turn away from; as have a form of godliness, and have denied the power thereof; and are led away with diverse lusts; and are never entered into one only degree or step of the way of the saving knowledge of the truth, of which Paul speaks, and not the truly regenerate, who believe, with Paul and the Scriptures, that our greatest perfection is to sweat and contend for the highest pitch of perfection, even that which is beyond time.
4. Those that are perfected, as we hope we shall be in heaven, feed not with the Beloved among the lillies till the day break and the shadows fly away; but the perfectest, the Spouse of Christ, so feeds on Church-ordinances, Cant. 2:17. The perfect ones have the fullest pitch of the noon-day sun of glory; it shall never be afternoon nor the evening or twilight sky with them; nor shall any night-shadow nor cloud go over their sun.
5. In the Kingdom of perfect, on there shall be no indwelling of a body of sin, no sin, no uncleanness of heart, no turning of the love and liking of the soul off God; but the perfectest in this life sin and carry an indwelling body of sin with them; Prov. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20; Job says, ch. 14.4, The perfectest that beget children are unclean. Rom. 7:17-23; 1 Jn. 1:8-10; 1 Jn. 2:1. All that have need of a High Priest at the right hand of God to intercede for them, have sin, and insofar are imperfect, as all the saints are, Heb. 7:25 & 4:15 & 1:17-18 & 8:1-2, • & 9:23-26. And 1 Cor. 13:8, ‘Love never faileth:’ 〈…〉 abundantly, and is filled to satisfaction, that t•e 〈◊〉 I can contain no more of God; and is transformed in 〈…〉 of transcendent light, and highest love, as it were l•st in the deep fountain of universal and immensurable love and light; and the creature’s soul and love lives and breathes, rests in the bosom, in the heart, in the bowels of him who is an infinite mass of love; is wrapped in the sugared floods, in the honey-brooks and over-flowing waves and rivers of pure and unmixed joy, sleeps and solaces itself in the innocent embracings of the glory that shines, rays, and darts, world without end, out of Christ, exalted far above all heavens, all principalities, and powers, the souls there are sweetened, more than sweetened, over-solaced with the noonday-light of the Bridegroom’s glory, having in it the sweetest perfections of the morning-sun; they flee with doves’ wings of beauty after the Lamb, they never want the actual breathings of the Spirit of glory, they can never have enough of the chaste fruition of the glorious Prince Immanuel and they never want his inmost presence to the full; they suck the honey, the floods of milk of eternal consolations, and •ll all empty desires; and as if the soul were without bottom, afresh they suck again in acts for eternity continued; there be no such thing here in this life. Yet has Christ crucified in his bosom, the promise and full purchase of this life on the cross, and holds it out to sinners to draw them.
5 [sic]. We have not yet attained to the resurrection of our bodies, but cary about such clods of death as the wormes must sweetly feed on, and have a seed, and subject of distempers in our clay-tabernacles; all which we are uncapable of in the state of perfection, when the body shall be more naturally clothed with immortality, then the greenest and most delicious rose or flower which we could suppose were growing fresh, greene, and beautiful forever in such a happy soil as the fields that lie on the banks and within the drawings of sap from the river of life.
6. We are not masters of the invasion, at least of temptations of devils, of men, here.
7. Perfection makes the general assembly of all the sons of Sion, the heavenly family is never convened, but in place, country, condition separated, some born, some not born, some w•king, some sleeping in the dust, some in their country, some in the way to their country.
8. There is no Temple, no ordinances in our country of perfecttion, Rev.•1.2; 1 Cor. 13:8.
9. Th••e •s •o Ang•l▪ life here without marriage, eating, drinking, begeting of children, Lk. 22:29-30; Mk. 12:25. Clay cannot live, 〈◊〉 earthly, up above the clouds, and visible heavens, till this corruptible shall put on incorruption, 1 Cor. 15.”
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