How the Perfect Go Beyond the Rule of Lent

The upright and perfect man, then, is not held in by this law of Lent. He is not content merely to submit to this small rule, which the heads of the church have laid down for those who all year round are caught up in pleasure or business. Its purpose is that they may be bound by this legal requirement and forced, at least during these days, to make time for the Lord, and to dedicate to him the tithe of the days of their life, all of which they would otherwise have used up as their own profit. But the righteous, for whom the law is not laid down, and who devote to spiritual duties not a small part, a tenth, but the whole time of their life, are free from the burden of tithes under the law. For that reason, if some worthy and devout occasion arises and requires it of them, they are ready to relax their station fast without any hesitation. For in their case it is no small tithe that is reduced, since they offer everything they have to the Lord, together with themselves. A man could certainly not do this without being guilty of a serious wrong if he offers nothing to God of his own free will and is forced to pay his tithes by the stern compulsion of the law, which accepts no excuse. So it is clearly established that the servant of the law, who only avoids what is forbidden and does what is commanded, cannot be perfect. Those are truly perfect who do not take advantage even of the things the law allows. In this way, though it is said of the law of Moses that “the law brought nothing to perfection,” we read that some of the saints in the Old Testament were perfect, because they went beyond the commands of the law and lived by the perfection of the gospel, “knowing that the law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the unrighteous and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the wicked and defiled,” and so on. [a]