SPIRITUAL PERFECTION, UNFOLDED AND ENFORCED: FROM 2.COR. VII. 1. "HAVING THEREFORE THESE PROMISES, DEARLY BELOVED, LET US CLEANSE OURSELVES FROM ALL FILTHINESS OF FLESH AND SPIRIT, PERFECTING HOLINESS IN THE FEAR OF GOD." BY WILLIAM BATES, D. D. SOME TIME CHAPLAIN TO KING CHARLES THE SECOND, AND VICAR OF ST. DUNSTAN'S IN THE WEST: AFTERWARDS PASTOR OF A CHURCH AT HACKNEY. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY THE REV. J. PYE SMITH, D. D. LONDON: John Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly; WHITTAKER & CO. AVE-MARIA LANE; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, MDCCCXXXIV. J. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. THE subject treated in this volume of the SACRED CLASSICS' is one possessed of strong claims on the attention of reflecting persons, on account of both its intrinsic importance, and the mistaken opinions which extensively prevail in relation to it. On the one side, exaggerated pretensions have been put forwards, disgusting the strong-minded, and depressing the timid yet sincere Christian: on the other, a crude notion of unattainableness has been allowed to depress exertion, and even to subvert the rational desire and steady aim, which would probably have been sustained by just views upon the nature and the obligations of Religious Perfection. It is not difficult to discover, both from the evidence of facts, and by an easy analysis of the arguments advanced by those who have asserted, for themselves or others of their party, the dignity of a proper sinless perfection, that either they have been very lax and careless in their use of words, or they have been extremely inattentive to the necessary requirements of the divine law, and to the nature of the obedience which we are under an inextinguishable obligation to render. A serious conviction that "the commandment is spiritual, and the law holy, just, and good," and that such compliance with it as is worthy of the divine acceptance, must include a right state of all "the thoughts and intents of the heart;" cannot but destroy the claims of selfignorant arrogance, and lead to the humbling confession of the inspired psalmist, 'I have seen an end of all perfection: thy commandment is exceeding broad.' Yet this conviction, so far from quenching the desire to obtain perfection, or allowing the mind to remain at ease and careless under the consciousness of any allowed sin, will the more arouse genuine Christians to diligence, watchfulness and prayer. The consciousness of deficiency, under obligations of infinite weight and motives of the highest reason, presses heavily upon their spirits: the very thought of inferiority, in a field of exertion, where both their warmest affection and their solemn sense of duty are united, is afflictive to them. Theirs are not the dull and servile minds, which move only as scourged on by low fear, or hired by selfish hopes. Religion is with them not the least intolerable part of an alternative both the sides of which would be declined, were it possible to decline them; but it is the object of their deliberate choice, their fixed desire, their warm affec |