perfection and sinfulness on the best of the kind in this world, and so concluding all to be liable to sin, and under it. In the words there are two things.

1. A position, There is not a just man upon earth. By the just man in this text is not meant an evangelically just man, or one just in respect of parts, though not of degrees; but one who is legally so, just in the eye of the law, as having yielded perfect obedience to all its commands; this is plain from the original pointing. Compare Psal. cxliii. 2. Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.' By this time the man Christ had not appeared on the earth: so it is meant of mere men. On the earth; to denote that in heaven they are just in that sense, arrived to legal perfection.

2. The explication of it; There is none who doeth good, and sinneth not. There are some who do good, as all the godly; but they sin withal, and that daily, for so the word is to be understood of their using to sin.

The doctrine arising from the words is,

DocT. Legal perfection is not attainable in this life, but the best sin daily.' Or, 'No mere man, since the fall, is able, in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but doth daily break them, in thought, word, and deed.'

In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,

I. Shew what is legal perfection, or perfect keeping of the commands.

II. Consider the attainableness of this perfection.

III. Shew how the saints sin daily, and break the commands.

IV. Confirm the point, That perfection is not attainable in this life.

V. Give the reason of this dispensation.

VI. Apply.

I. I shall shew what is legal perfection, or perfect keeping of the commands. It is a perfect conformity of heart and life to the commands of God; and implies,

1. A perfection of the principle of action, Matth. xxii. 37. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.' For if the heart and soul be not sinless and pure, as in innocent Adam and Christ, but be polluted as our nature is, there can be no perfect keeping of the commands of God. That pollution will stain all.

2. A perfection of the parts of obedience. No part must be lacking, every command of whatsoever nature must be kept: For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,' Gal. iii. 10. If one

be wanting, all is wanting, all is marred. Hence says James, chap.

ii. 10, Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all.'

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3. A perfection of degrees in every part, Matth. xxii. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' Sincerity is not enough in the eye of the law. In every thing one must come to the highest pitch, or there is no perfection.

4. A perfection of duration or continuance, Gal. iii. 10. forecited; without apostasy or defection, continuing to the end; for one bad trip after a course of obedience will mar all.

II. Let us consider the attainableness of this perfection.

1. Adam before the fall was able to have kept the commands perfectly; he might have attained it; for 'God made him upright,' Eccl. vii. 29. That law was the rule of Adam's covenant-obedience; and perfect obedience to it was the condition of the covenant, which God could not have proposed to him, if he had not given him strength sufficient to perform it.

2. The man Christ, who was not a mere man, but God-man, who was not only able to keep the law perfectly, but actually did so. He made out what the first Adam failed in, to the salvation of the elect, and in their stead; and this in the whole extent of legal perfection. His obedience was perfect in the principle, Heb. vii. 26. being holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners;' in the parts, Matth. iii. 15. 'It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness;' in the degrees, John xv. 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends;' and in continuance, Phil. ii. 8. He became obedient unto death.'

3. The saints in heaven are able, and do actually perfectly obey whatever God's will to them is: so that though in this life they do not attain it, yet in the life to come all the children of God shall attain perfection, Heb. xii. 23. where mention is made of the spirits of just men made perfect;' and there they shall be fully freed from sin, and all possibility of sinning.

4. But since Adam fell, no mere man is able, while in this life, either of himself, or by virtue of any grace now given, to keep the commands perfectly. Of himself he cannot do it; neither is there any measure of grace given to any in this life, whereby they may be enabled to do it: for in many things we offend all,' Jam. iii. 2. This inability is owing to the remains of corruption that cleaves to every one of them in this mortal state, Rom. vii. 23; and from which they ardently long to be delivered, ver. 24. And there is no promise of grace given in the word, whereby believers may be enabled to keep the commands of God perfectly; nor would it be consistent

with the nature of spiritual growth, which is manifestly, like the natural, gradual; and it is certain that the saints do not arrive at their full stature till they come to the mansions of bliss, 1 Thess. iii. 13.

III. I shall shew how the saints sin daily, and break the commands. And here I shall consider,

1. How many ways the commands may be broken.

2. In what respect the saints sin daily.

3. How these failures of theirs break the commands.

First, I am to shew how many ways the commands may be broken. They may be broken three ways, in deeds, words, and thoughts.

1. In deeds, done contrary to the command of God, or not done, though required. God's commands are the rule of men's outward life and conversation; and whatever we do or commit contrary to the law, is our sin, whether it be public, private, or secret, Psal. xiv. 2, 3.

2. In words, either speaking what we ought not, or not speaking what we ought, or speaking what we ought, but not in the manner commanded. (The same is to be said of actions or deeds.) God's commands are a rule to our tongues, and tell us what to speak, how to speak, and what not to speak; and by regardlessness of the rule, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity,' Jam. iii. 6.

3. In thoughts. Here God's law goes beyond men's laws as to the whole kind; for our thoughts are open to God, who is omniscient, as words or actions are equally open to him, Heb. iv. 13. and liable to his law. For says Christ, Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart, Matth. v. 28. And so one may sin by thinking what he ought not, by omitting of good thoughts, and by not managing good thoughts, in the manner required by the law.

Secondly, I shall shew in what respect the saints sin daily, in thought, word, and deed.

1. Negatively not that the saints fall into gross sins daily, against the letter of the law, either in thought, word, or deed. God will disown those for saints who entertain vile thoughts daily, swear daily, lie daily, do unjust things, or neglect his worship daily, Gal. v. 19,-21; 'Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I also have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' Such spots are not the spots of God's people. Christ's

dwelling by his spirit in them, the breaking of the reign of sin in them by the power of divine grace, and their habitual tenderness and watchfulness, hold them off that way of life. But,

2. Positively. Besides that saints may be surprised into gross sins in thought, word, and deed, sometimes by inadvertency, weakness, and violence of temptation, which is the burden of their souls, they sin every day in thought, word, and deed, when they keep the strictest watch, and have most of the divine assistance. What day passes, if without vile thoughts, yet without vain ones; without idle words, if without mischievous words; when there is not something done or undone, which God's law condemns, though perhaps the world cannot quarrel them? Besides, what good thought is thought, good word spoken, or good deed done by them, which the holy law will not spy a flaw in, as to the manner of its performance?

Thirdly, I am to shew how these failures of theirs break the commands, while they sincerely endeavour to obey them. Why, the moral law is the eternal rule of righteousness, and in whatever state the creature be, he is bound to obey his Creator, whether in a state of nature or grace, glory or damnation. And though perfection be not attainable in this life, yet it is the saints' duty, as well as that of others, Matth. v. ult. Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' So every coming short of that perfection is their sin, needing to be taken away by Christ's blood.

And thus men daily break the commands of God in thought, word, and deed; which is the only possible way of transgressing the divine law; and our doing so in these respects shews the equity of that charge which the Lord has against every man, ‘Behold thou hast done evil, as thou couldst,' Jer. iii. 5.

IV. I shall now confirm the point, That perfection is not attainable in this life.

1. The scripture attests, that there is no man without sin, 1 Kings viii. 46; For there is no man that sinneth not:' and that in many things we offend all,' Jam. iii. 2. If any man set up for it in himself, the Spirit of God says he deceives himself, 1 John i. 8. See an unanswerable question, Prov. xx. 9; Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

2. The best have a corrupt as well as a gracious principle, making the spiritual combat, never ending till death give the separating stroke, Gal. v. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.'

3. We are taught always to pray for pardon, 'Forgive us our debts' but sinless creatures need no pardons. This clearly shews, that all sin, and so come short of perfect obedience.

4. Lastly, Consider the spirituality of the law, and its extent, with human weakness, and you will see this clearly. And hence it is that perfectionists are strangers to the spirituality of the law: for if they rightly viewed it, they would be far from dreaming of having attained to perfection, which never a mere man did in this life.

Object. Noah was perfect, Gen. vi. 9;* Job perfect, Job i. 8.

In order to illustrate the character of Noah as a righteous and perfect man, and to shew the signification of these epithets, it will not be improper to subjoin the following note, taken from a manuscript work of the author's, which he left prepared for the press, and has been esteemed by proper judges, both at home and abroad, a work of very great learning and merit, but has not yet been printed, entitled "A new translation of the first twenty-three chapters of Genesis, with notes explanatory and critical," according to the principles of the Hebrew accentuation as delivered in his treatise entitled, Tractatus stigmologicus Hebræo-Biblicus, printed at Amsterdam in 1738.

Gen. vi. 9. "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations." "As for Noah; [being] a righteous man, he was sound in his generations :" q. d.. sound; [sound] in his generations. A sound man is a man of integrity and Godly simplicity, wholly for God, entire in his obedience, keeping himself uncorrupted and unspotted from the world, in which he lives. Such a man was Noah; and such he was, in both the generations wherein he lived, before and after the flood. Thus his character consists of two parts: he was a sound man, and preserved to the end in his soundness. And both these are traced to their common spring-head, namely, his righteous state. Being righteous by faith, a justified man; he was a sound man, in true holiness of heart and life; and a preserving man: Agreeable to which is that of the prophet, Hab. ii. 4. "The righteous (i. e. by) his faith, shall live." Tzuddik, an adjective righteous, a substantive a righteous one, is derived from the root Tzadak, in the form Pihel, (Tziddek), as appears by the Dagesch forte in it. Tzadak (Kal) is not to be reputed righteous; that agrees not to it, chap. xxxviii. 26; nor to do righteously; that agrees not to it, Job ix. 20. Psal. xix. 10: but to be righteous; which agrees to it every where. Only it is to be observed, that being righteous is sometimes understood simply of existing righteous, as Gen. xxxviii. 26. Psal. xix. 10. sometimes of appearing righteous, as Job ix. 20. xiii. 18. and xl. 3. Psal. li. 6-4; and this agreeable to the scripture-style in other cases, as Matth. v. 45. "That ye may be (i. e. appear to be) the children of your Father." To state the formal notion of righteousness signified by this root, it is to be observed, that it is used of men, as Gen. xxxviii. 26. Job ix. 20. of God himself, Psal. li. 6-4th; of his laws, Psal. xix. 10; and once it occurs in Niphal, Nitzdak, which, as a neuter verb of being (as Gen. i. 15.) is to become righteous, and is used of God's sanctuary, viz. Dan. viii. 14. “ And it shall become righteous, the sanctuary," i. e. in such a state or condition as, by God's appointment, it ought to be in. From all which it appears, that the notion of righteousness is conformity to the law given concerning the subject, as concerning men, or the sanctuary or to the eternal idea of righteousness, in the mind of God, as in the case of God himself and his laws. Tziddek (Pih.) Hitzdik (Hiph.) are both active, and sound to justify or make righteous, the action in Kal being the complement of both, as chap. viii. 14. But the difference lies here. In no form whatsoever doth this verb import a moral or real change: but in Pihel it signifies manifestatively, Hiphil, declaratively. In Pihel it occurs five times, and accordingly signifies to shew one