in the second ground of this opposition CHAP. 5. Containing foure more pernicious and erronious opinions 5 ERROR That no action of the beleever after justification is sinne for unto faith there is no sinne for all sinne past present and to come is taken away by the blood of Christ and no sinne remaineth in the kingdome where faith reigneth and sitteth judge it is out of the Lawes element to judge of this blessed condition Neither can God allow any worke that is defective in the beleever Answ. Here is the ghost of H. N. in this peece of new Gospell which tels us a dream of an absolute reigne of faith where is still remaining sinne True it is that faith deposeth the reigne of sinne that it rule not but so as that it selfe never reigneth in this life without the presence and assault of sin for such as say they have no sinne with their faith deceive themselves 2. It is enough for the state of this life that faith frame the heart to willing and sincere obedience though not to perfect and absolute 3. It argues their grosse ignorance in the Scriptures which affirme that both persons and duties of beleevers though imperfect defective are yet pleasing 1. For their persons God looketh upon them in Christ pronounceth of them that though they be blacke yet they are comely Prov. 12. 22. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that feare him Psal. 147. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people Acts 10. 35. In every Nation he that feareth him is accepted of him 2. For their duties though they be imperfect yet they please him because their persons doe Mal. 3. 4. Then shall the offerings of Iudah and Ierusalem be pleasing unto thee Phil. 4. 18. An odour of sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God speaking of the almes and charity of that Church Col. 3. 20. Children obey your parents for this is wel-pleasing to the Lord. And our comfort and happines is that he pleaseth to accept from us that which is sincere though weake and imperfect 6 ERROR That our Preachers teach Popery in persuading good works to further mens owne salvation Answ. Our doctrine and practise herein agreeth with the doctrine of the Scriptures and with the practise of Christ and his Apostles and because the Sectaries cast this imputation upon godly Ministers to weaken their authority among their people it will not be amisse in few words to cleare it and that in these positions 1. Wee teach according to Scripture That every good worke must rise from a good worker for the tree must first be good and men gather not figges of thistles So as a good worke is proper to a justified person and the use of it cannot be to justifie because he is justified already 2. We teach the necessity of the duties of the Law to salvatioÌ„ not as causes or merits of our salvation or justification which were to dethrone Christ and preach Popery but as a way and meanes appointed by God to walke into heaven and so the Apostle preached them necessary Tit 3. 14. Let ours also learne to maintaine good workes for necessary uses and every simple man knoweth that the holding of the way must needes further the journey and conduce to the place intended 3. Wee carefully alwayes distinguish betweene the justice of workes which conduceth nothing to salvation and the presence of workes without which there is no expectation of salvation for without their presence all faith is dead and all religion vaine 4. Wee distinguish in this doctrine the principall efficient cause of righteousnesse and salvation from the instrumentall Is it a good reason that because Christ is the principall efficient and the onely meritorious cause of our salvation that therefore all the instrumentall and adjuvant causes and means of salvation must be cut off and cast away True it is that God alone decreeth our salvation Christ alone meriteth it the spirit alone sealeth it but yet the Gospell revealeth it and that saveth faith apprehendeth it and that saveth the Ministers they preach it and they save namely ministerially 1 Tim 4. 16. Thou shalt save thy selfe and them that heare thee Did the Apostle write popery or derogate froÌ„ Christ in saying that Timothy did save himselfe and others or is it such a peece of popery to say that the use of the meanes doth further the end 5. What will you say of St. Paul who commands us to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling It seemeth he thought that men must doe something toward their owne salvation as that Father did who saith that though God made us without our selves yet hee saveth us not without our selves And Phil 4. 17. when he calleth duties of beneficence and charity a fruit furthering our reckoning that is as a meanes not as a merit I would know how they should further our reckoning and not further our salvation True it is that mercy accepteth that for a furthering of our reckoning which in strict justice would not goe for payment but yet seeing the same mercy takes us into the worke we may perâ—wade also with the Apostle that Christians would be still thus furthering their owne reckoning The same Apostle speaking of the same duties 2 Cor 9. 6. calleth them a sowing and saith He that soweth liberally shall reape liberally Whether doe not these men thinke that sowing is a furtherance to the harvest Surely S. Paul thought so yet minded not to strengthen popery for neither is he that soweth any thing neither he that reapeth any thing but God that giveth the promise and increase The same Apostle speaking of the duties of Christian suffering saith not onely that they turne to the salvation of the Saints Phil 1. 9. but also that our light and momentany afflictions cause unto us an eternall weight of glory do they not then further our salvation and what doth the Apostle Peter say lesse when he saith that by addition and exercise of graces an entrance is ministred abundantly into the kingdome of Christ. And why doth the Apostle excite Christians every day to further themselves in the way of salvation as runners by speed and strength get nearer the goale if we may not urge the doctrine of good workes and Christian duties in pretence of the Lawes abolition which certainly was as much abolished in the Apostles dayes as now 7 ERROR That not as much as any outward worship of God required in the Law is to be performed by true beleevers since the comming of Christ because all the worship of the new Testament is inward and spirituall Ioh 4. 23. The houre commeth c. and to receive the doctrine of the Gospel by faith is to worship the Father Neither hath any other good worke done in obedience to the Morall Law any reward because all is the free gift of God Answ. 1. Here is a bundle of errours
it is restlesse as the raging sea tormenting him for the present with hellish feares dreadfull horrours and selfe-accusing the biting and gnawing of which worme is the very entrance into hell and a beginning of the eternall torments of it for the avoiding whereof many wicked men have chosen death and hastned their owne execution as farre more sufferable and easie 3. The Law in the raigne of it thrusts the sinner under the power of the Divell as a condemned malefactour into the hand of the executioner to be ruled at his will Now must hee blinde his eyes and as it were by an handkerchiefe over his eyes hee must pinion him and binde him hand and foote and by effectuall delusions prepare him to his death And what is more just than that he who will not be led by the spirit of God should be given up to be ruled by the Divell 4. The Law in the raigne of it addeth a sting and sharpneth the point of all afflictions which by it become the beginning of hell and properly curses retaining their naturall acrimony and poyson and are as the red sea even a well and a devouring gulfe to drowne the Egyptians which same sea is a wall and paved way to save the Israelites It armeth all Gods creatures against the sinner who are ready in their severall rankes to revenge their Lords quarrell till he enter into that new covenant of which see Hosea 2. 18. It is the Law that makes death a doore to hell and a downefall to eternall perdition the Law is mercilesse and knoweth no other condition but doe or die so as if a man dye under the Law there is no expectation but of death without mercy Quest. 2. But how may a man get from under this dangerous estate Answ. By the attaining and exercise of three saving graces First Faith in the Son of God which 1 apprehendeth Christs righteousnesse for the fulfilling of the Law 2. Faith establisheth the Law both because it attaineth in Christ Remission of sinnes and so remission of the rigour of the Law as also an Imputation of that full righteousnesse which the Law requireth 3. Faith is the Law of Christ by obedience of which Law every beleever must live and is answerable to the obedience of the whole Law The second grace is Repentance and timely turning unto God this helpeth a man from under this danger 1. In that it flyeth from the dreadfull sentence of the Law and knocketh at the gate of mercy it seeks and sues for pardon and will not give over till it have got a gracious answer that all the sins are remitted 2. In that it wipes off all old scores repealeth all the actions of the Law getteth all sinnes cast into the bottome of the sea never to be remembred any more nay it gettâ—â—â— not onely sinnes 〈◊〉 but â—ven the law it selfe 〈…〉 â—ort buried to the penitent person as Moses body and is unknowne where it was laid The third grace is new and inchoate obedience to the Law which is a kinde of fulfilling it For 1. It is a worke of the spirit in the regenerate who hath written the law in their hearts and made them of rebells and enemies to the Law and the righteousnes of it lovers of the Law and lovers of obedience 2. It hath the promise of acceptance and is accounted as full and compleat obedience to the Law and themselves now called perfect and undefiled in the way God looketh not now on their obedience as theirs but as on his owne worke in them nor approveth the person for the work but the work for the person Quest. 3. How may we know a man gotten from under this daâ—ger of the Law Answ. By sundry notes or markes First by subjection to the Gospel in the power of it when a man contenteth not himselfe with a title of faith or a shew of profession or a forme of godlinesse or a name that he liveth but groweth in the knowledge and obedience of the Gospell for would a man be saved and obey neither the Law nor Gospell No no the Apostle concludeth him under the whole power of the Law that knoweth not nor obeyeth the Gospel of Christ 2 Thes 1. 8. 2. By thankefull walking worthy of the Gospel this man knoweth that all the regenerate are Gods workmanship and that the end of all our freedome from sinne is the free and cheerefull praise of God and therefore he cannot but be thankfull to Christ his deliverer from under so hard and cruell a Master as the Law which did nothing but accuse accurse terrify and condemne him now will he highly prize his freedome and glory in his happy liberty now will he live to Christ and for Christ and ascribe all his happinesse unto him as doth the Apostle for that happy victory over sinne and the Law 1 Cor 15. last and Rom 7. 24 25. 3. There is now peace of conscience which formerly if waking did bite and sting but now excuseth and acquitteth I meane not here a sencelesse or brawny conscience the issue of a dead conscience which like a dead man lay him under a Church or mountaine he is quiet feeleth nothing complaines of nothing so lay the secure sinner under the intolerable burden of innumerable sinnes his conscience is quiet and complaineth not But this peace followeth not from unfeelingnesse but from feeling sin pardoned from perceiving sin subdued and from discerning sinne repented of striven against and conquered for the spirit of grace is ever a spirit of mourning and from that sowing in teares ariseth the harvest of joy 4. Hee that is got from under the Law is now a Law to himselfe that is he willingly submitteth himselfe to the rule and obedience of the Law the way to escape the yoake and coaction of the Law is to become a free and cheerfull observer of the Law Which standeth in three things 1. In a care to doe the duties which the Law requireth and in such manner as the Law doth require so neare as we can Psal 119. 6. Rom 7. 22. 2. In huhumility and griefe that we are so short of the Law in our best duties that when wee have done all we can we are so unprofitable and that even all our righteousnesse is as a stained clout 3. And all this out of love of God and of obedience not for feare of hell or judgement whence Gods people are called a willing people Psal 110. 4. This must every beleever aime at for hee that willingly liveth in the breach of the Law is certainly under the curse of it 5. A man gotten from under the Law giveth up himselfe to the leading of the spirit Gal 5. 18. If yee be led by the spirit yee are not under the Law Now to be led by the spirit is 1. To suffer the spirit of God to guide the minde with knowledge for he being the spirit of illumination his office is to lead the Saints into all
the spirit all our worke is done to our hand and we have nothing left for us to doe and therefore the Law to us is as the seven green cords on Sampsons armes which he brake off as a thred of tow when it toucheth the fire and our selves as loose and at liberty from it as he was from them for the whole Law is abolished to us wholly Therefore we are to prove against them that true beleevers have both a true use of the Morall Law and besides their lively faith wherin they have received the spirit have need of the directions and doctrines of the Morall Law for the performance of the duties of it and that by these reasons If the same sinnes be forbidden after faith as before then is the Law in some force to beleevers But the same sinnes are forbidden them after faith as before And therefore the Law is in some force to them The proposition is cleare because the Law onely discovereth and revealeth sinne as the Gospell doth the remedy The assumption is also manifest because the Law is an eternall truth and is never at agreement with any sinne in whomsoever Concupiscence before faith is sinne and no lesse sinne after faith in the regenerate Davids murder and adultery were sins after faith and the same man that beleeved in God committed adultery with Bathsheba Object These were foule sins in themselves but not in him because he was justified Answ. Then Nathan was deceived in saying Thou art the man and David when he said I have sinned Had David sinne after faith then was David under a Law for obedience for every sinne is the transgression of the Law and where no Law is can be no transgression The like of Peter in the new Testament apparantly a beleever for Christ prayed that his faith should not faile yet after that fell into those foule sinnes against the Law rash swearing and false swearing and cursing himselfe which were foule sins in him as well as in themselves why should he else goe out and weepe bitterly Peter as full of shifts as he was to save his skin was to seeke in this shift to turne off all his sinne and sorrow at once that being a beleever and in the new Testament the Law had nothing to doe with him This argument our Novatians and Famelists can by no other shift avoid but by flying to a perfect purity in themselves for this is a dangerous and desperate principle of their Catechisme rife in the mouths of their Novices Be in Christ and sinne if thou canst and is very coherent with their other tenents for were the Morall Law indeed wholly abolished why should they not worship false Gods sweare breake the Saboth rebell kill whore steale what should hinder them from rayling and reviling all Ministers and people besides their owne sect as in a dead faith as onely morall men in state of death all this is no sinne abolish the Law and thou maist say Sin if thou canst But oh vaine men Can David sinne and for his sinne his flesh tremble with feare of Gods judgments Can Peter at the side of Christ sinne and that after so many warnings of Christ himselfe Doth Paul know but in part and after faith find a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde and that after grace received the good hee would doe hee did not and the evill hee would not doe that did hee and are you in so high a forme beyond these worthies that you cannot sinne if you would Ponder a little these places of Scripture and if you be still mad of your perfection I will say of you as Ierom of your fellowes You had more need of physick to purge your braines than perswasion to informe your judgements Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man on earth that doth good and finneth not 1 Kings 8. 46. For there is no man that sinneth not Object No Hee that is borne of God sinneth not Answ. The Apostle saith not simply and absolutely that he hath no sinne or sinneth not but hee sinneth not industriously hee makes not a trade of sinne he sinnes not as the wicked doe nor sinneth not in raigning sin nor sinneth unto death without returne and repentance because the seede of God abideth in him and destroyeth in him the worke of the Divell Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I am pure from sinne Who I can say so and I can saith every Libertine my sin may be sought for and cannot be found and mine saith another is washed off that it cannot be seene and mine saith a third is as a bottle of inke dispersed in the sea and not to be discerned And indeed thus it is in the justified in respect of Gods account and imputation but while they speak so magnifically of themselves in respect of the presence of sinne they onely blow up their bladder bigger which all the while is swelled up but with stinking winde and emptinesse But they would have some places out of the new Testament as men beyond the reach of the olde And so they may Iam. 3. 2. In many things we sinne all We all all Apostles all Christians sin that is transgresse the Law in many things by daily failings and errours and therefore all we in the new Testament since Christs death though we be justified by faith are under the rule and obedience of the Law because we sin in many things 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Wee Who The Apostle speaketh of carnall men say some of the Libertines as if the Apostle was a carnall man but the former verse expresseth who they be that have sinne those that walke in the light those that are in communion of Saints and have fellowship one with another and those that are justified and sanctified whom the blood of Iesus Christ his Sonne hath cleansed from all sinne If the same duties be required of all after faith as before and every conscience bound to the performance then the Law in the whole use is not abolished to beleevers But the first is true and therefore the second The former appeares because where any duty is commanded there the rule of that duty is implied and this rule is the Morall Law which bindeth all men to all duties of it both before and after Christ being an eternall measure of all that is right or crooked That it is a rule of duty before Christ they deny not and that it is a rule of duty since Christ I make it plaine thus 1. Because Christ himselfe did confirme expound establish and fortify the Law by his word and authority which was the scope of his large Sermon upon the Mount in Mat. 5. 6. and 7 chapters which had it beene to be utterly abolished he would rather have declaimed bitterly against the Law as our Antinomists
It will make a greater noise that you can contemne such conquered adversaries for what are your London Ministers to them Much rather doe I wish you would in time consider how dangerous your way now is while you rise up against the most impregnable and unconquerable Law of God how the Scripture brandeth them for wicked men that forsake the Law and depart from the Law and much more that disclaime and revile it And if those that be partiall in the Law that is take some and leave some be made despised of God and vile before all people how much more shall those that reject it all and in every part bee justly branded as you are for a vile generation of men CHAP. 12. Containing the conclnsion and a short direction how the people of God should carry themselves towards the Law of God THese premises being all duely considered it remaineth that such as desire to learne Christ aright should take his directions how to demeane themselves towards his Law which is so holy just and good To which purpose it shall not be amisse to lay these grounds in our consciences and order our selves by them First That in the Liberty from the Law consists the chiefe stay and comfort of a Christian because being now freed from the guilt of sinne from the curse of sinne and from exaction of an inherent and personall righteousnesse to justification hee may now without respect of his owne obedience and without regard of any righteousnesse of his owne relie upon the mercies of God and merits of Christ and challenge his righteousnesse before God with the the Apostle Phil 3 9. Secondly That upon this liberty of justification wherein is no respect at all of our personall obedience issueth another liberty of sanctification which is a freedome from the bondage and staine of sinne not wholly and at once as is our justification but in part and degrees and here although the obedience of the Law be quite shut out of our justification yet it is required unto sanctification and we necessarily bound unto it but not to bee thereby justified seeing wee must necessarily be justified before we can be obedient Thirdly that the Law is an eternall doctrine and abides for ever yea David saith it endures for ever in heaven that is not onely his decree appeares stable by the government and perpetuall Law which hee hath set in the heavens and cannot be broken but as Saint Basil expoundeth it it abideth inviolably observed by heavenly inhabitants even the holy Angels themselves so as though it may be contradicted controverted and resisted by Libertines on earth yet it is not abrogable for ever but abideth stable in heauen Doe the Angels in heaven observe it as a rule of holinesse and doe not the Saints in heaven doe they live by divers charters And if the Saints in heaven who have attained full perfection and perfect sanctification are bound to the Law are the Saints in earth so perfect as they are loose from it Hath not Christ done as much for them as for these Fourthly That the Law of God is the rule of godly life in which regard holy David calleth it a counseller and a directer unto good duties and therefore wee must acknowledge the necessity of this part of the word The Sunne is not more necessary for the day nor the Moone to governe the night nor a lanterne or candle for a darke house than this part of the word so long as wee are in the night of the world for without this light we grope in the darke nothing can be seene no action can be well done nothing wanting can be found no crooked thing can be straightened no streight thing tried nay all our way in which this light of God shineth not is darknesse and tendeth to utter darknesse The pillar of the cloud and of fire was not more necessary to Israel in the wildernesse for their station or motion towards Canaan than is this shining pillar of Gods Law to guide us unto heaven and as it was their happinesse that their pillar lasted them till they entred Canaan and it had not beene for their ease to have rejected it in their way so ought we to esteeme our selves happy in the fruition of this holy doctrine and direction and on the contrary these Libertines to be unhappy men who being in as darke as heavie and dangerous a way and wildernesse put out their light and breake to peeces and cast away their lanthorne Fifthly Being the rule of godly life we must square all our duties thereby even as a workman applieth his rule to every part of his worke and declines not to the right hand or to the left and holy wisdome requireth no lesse but that that should be the square of all which must bee the judge of all things done in the flesh be it good or evill And hence is it that the LORD writeth his Law by his spirit in the spirits of the elect and imprinteth it in the fleshly tables of their hearts that all their motions actions and affections should be conformable unto it But how doe these lawlesse men affirming the Law to be wholly abolished denie it to bee written in their owne hearts and consequently that they want the spirit promised to be sent into the hearts of the elect for this purpose And that either themselves are none of the elect or that the spirit is wanting in his office which were an high blasphemy Sixthly That as the Law is a reveiler of duty so it is a reveiler of sinne too and discovers the sinfull defects of our best obedience And because by the Law is the knowledge of sin therefore by the obedience and works of the Law can no flesh be justified That same Law that discovereth and condemneth a traytor cannot acquit him and it were madnes for him to expect life from that Law which hath sentenced him with death Shall franticke Papists ever finde life and righteousnesse by the works of that Law which condemns that very fact And are not they next to frâ—nzy that after all this so open disclaiming it would fasten upon us that because wee teach the Law wee therefore teach justification by the Law Nay we are so farre from consenting to any such poysoned assertion That when the Gospell promiseth salvation and eternall life to repentance and good works wee deny them promised to these as performances of the Law but only as they are fruits of lively faith by which the promises of eternal life are apprehended Seventhly that the Law being a constant reveiler of sinne wee must by the Law be still drawne neerer unto Christ not onely by the Law to see our sinne and in our sinne our need of Christ but we must see the Law fulfilled for us in Christ else can we never looke comfortably towards the Law And because it revelleth sinne not onely before we come to Christ to bring us first unto him but it
they could the light and devise to speake as in the riddles and oracles of old in ambiguous and new-minted phrases of their owne as if the phrase and expressions of the Scriptures were onely to be rejected in opening of the mysteries of Scriptures But leaving these bolde impostours to set the holy Ghost to schoole to teach him to speake wee acknowledge wee have not onely a rule of doctrine prescribed us in the Scriptures but also a rule of speaking unto which we must frame our selves and utter wholesome doctrine in wholesome words and words of understanding and all other lofty arrogant and subtle manner of speaking so as that which is uttered cannot be well understood the Apostle rejects it as an idle beating of the ayre 4. Nourish the grace of humility for God teacheth the humble beware of curiosity and affectation of novelties be wise to sobriety and thinke it an high wisedome to be established in ancient and received truthes The ficklenesse of hearers and unsetlednesse in the grounds of holy truth together with the wantonnesse of opinions have opened a wide doore to impostours and while for want of judgement men are ready with Salomons foole to beleeve every thing all the labour and diligence of able and godly Ministers is too weake to keepe multitudes from running after the Ministers of Satan furnished with all arts to deceive and to cheate them of the truth which is according to godlinesse Against whom while I endeavour to establish others I may seeme to forget my selfe and that I must incurre many censures and contempts from this lawlesse generation of men but my labour is with the Lord and my reward is my conscience of well-doing I shall contemne their contempt love their persons hate their errours and studie while I am to be as serviceable to the Church and the faith once given to the Saints as I can CHAP. 1. Containing the ground of the following discourse and dispute out of Rom. 6. 14. For ye are not under the Law IN the words of the Apostle are to be enquired 1. What is meant by the Law namely The Morall Law in the ten Commandements containing our whole duty to God and to our neighbour 2. What it is to be under the Law namely not under the rule and obedience of the Law for our Apostle looseth no Christian from that but Christians are not under the raigne of the Law by the raigne of which sinne raigneth unto death This being the Apostles reason that the raigne of the Law puts them under the reign of sin 3. Who are these that are not under the Law Yee that is beleevers justified and sanctified persons that are dead to sinne and alive unto God in Iesus Christ our Lord verse 11. and onely these seeing the naturall man is yet in his sinnes and under the whole power of the Law in the rigour and extremity of it Rom 7. 6. We are delivered from the Law being dead unto it wherein we were holden But who are these those that serve in newnesse of spirit not in oldnesse of letter that is which now serve God in a new spirituall manner excited and wrought by the spirit and not according to the olde corruption of our nature before grace nor according to the externall letter of the law which onely breedeth externall actions And that it is the priviledge of beleevers appeareth by these reasons 1. Because Christ was made under the Law to redeeme those that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes Galat. 4. 4. The reason is good Christ was under the Law therefore Christians beleeving are not under it and Christians are redeemed from being under the Law and therfore are no longer under it 2. As many as are under the Law are under the curse But it is the priviledge of beleevers not to be under the curse for they that are of the faith of Abraham are blessed with faithfull Abraham Therefore they are not under the Law 3. It is the priviledge of beleevers to receive the spirit of Christ. Rom. 8. 14. As many as are Christs are led by the spirit of Christ and therfore they are not under the Law Gal. 5. 18. If yee be led by the spirit yee are not under the law 4. It is the priviledge of beleevers to have eternall life and the inheritance by promise and not by the tenour of the Law and therefore all they and only they are free from being under the Law Gal. 3. 18. If the inheritance be by the Law it is no more by promise But God gave it to Abraham by the promise Were beleevers under the Law they should have the inheritance by the Law but they have it not by the Law but by promise and therefore are not under the Law For the Law and the promise in the cause of righteousnesse and life will not be agreed no more than light and darknesse fire and water whose natures are most abhorring Quest. But what or wherein is this priviledge of not being under the Law Answ. This priviledge will appeare the clearer if we consider the danger of being under the Law in foure things First in that the Law wrappeth every sinner in the curse of God both in this life as also in the life to come so as hee is no where secure but lyeth naked to the curse meeting him at every corner The Law is a thunderbolt to blast him in his person in his estate in his name in his goods in his calling in his comforts in all his enterprises and occasions the sentence is passed upon him and where ever he is hee is in the way to execution It would daunt and astonish the hardiest and stoniest heart to heare the sentence of death pronounced upon it for violating the law of his Prince and Country It would marre all his merriments to conceive hee were presently to suffer but a temporall death for offending the law of man And it would much more spoyle the pleasure of sin if the sinner could with an hearing eare heare the sentence of eternall death denounced by the Law against soule and body for violating the righteous Law of the eternall God If an house were ready to fall upon a mans head how would hee bestirre himselfe and winde every way to hye himselfe out of the danger But the burden of the Law is more intollerable than the weight of all the sands and mountaines in the world and this oppressing weight is ready to fall on the head of every sinner which how should it amaze and affright them and make them restlesse till they bee gotten without the reach of the danger 2. The Law in the raigne of it shuts up heaven which receives no trangressour and setteth the gate of hell wide open upon the sinner and not onely casteth him into hell hereafter but bringeth an hell into his conscience before hell that if his heart be not dead within him as Nabals
doe have rather commended the Pharises for weakning it by their glosses than have vindicated it and restored to the full strength and power of it 2. Our Lord not onely confirmes it in it selfe by his doctrine and life but also in the conscience of every Christian. Matth. 5. 19. He that breaketh the least of these commandements and teacheth men so to doe shall be least in the kingdome of heaven but he that shall teach and observe them shall be called great in the kingdome of heaven that is shall be honoured and counted a worthy member in the Church of God No saith the Libertine we must not teach the Law in the Church and those that doe are legall Preachers that lead men into a dead faith we must doe nothing because God commands us nay we not onely reverse the least of them but all at once and teach others so to doe See now if fire be more contrary to water or Christ to Belial than Christ to these sonnes of Belial that will be under no yoke of the Law no rule no obedience 3. The Apostles after Christ bring converted Christians every where to the rule of the Law and frequently alledge the Law to urge the duties of it and therefore the Law ceaseth not to be the rule in the new Testament for if it had they would not have pressed exhortations by the Law Rom. 12. 19. Dearely beloved avenge not your selves Why For it is written Vengeance is mine Rom. 13. 8 9. pressing the duty of love the onely debt beseeming a Christian he urgeth it by this argument because love is the fulfilling of the Law and repeateth all the commandements of the second Table not to repeale or reverse any of them but to confirme them as the rule still and comprehendeth them all in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe Ephes 6. 1. Children obey your parents and presseth the duty from the Law for this is the first commandement with promise Heb. 12. 28. Let us have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and feare Why For our God is even a consuming fire Did not now the Apostles come as well with a rod as with the spirit of meeknesse did not they perswade men as knowing the terrour of the Lord did not they call mens eyes not onely to behold the goodnesse of God but also to behold his severity Rom. 11. 22. Dare now an audacious Libertine step out and tell the Apostles as they tell us that they were legall Preachers that they taught men popery and justification by workes and that they made men onely morall Christians because they held the Law before them as the rule of all duties both of piety and charity If Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it then the Law is not abolished for either Christ abolished it or none and either by his comming or not at all But Christ chargeth us not to thinke that hee came to abolish it Matth. 5. 17. For what is it to destroy the Law but to take from it that vertue and power whereby it is a Law and to make it of none effect And that Christ came not to destroy the Law is manifest because 1. It is his owne Law which must endure for ever in heaven Psal. 119. 2. Because it is holy just and spirituall Rom. 7. 13. Which words imply 1. That there is in it a supernaturall divine and unperishing vertue resembling God himselfe who shall as easily be destroyed as his Law 2. That it serveth to be a divine direction of all men in all holy just and spirituall duties 3. That it is an holy instrument of the spirit by which he leadeth out the faithfull into the practise of those duties 4. That whosoever have the spirit sent to dwell and rule and to write the Law in their hearts they cannot detract from the Law but the more spirituall themselves are the more doe they discerne the spirituall power of it and frame to the spirituall observance of it so did the Apostle in this place so David Psal. 19. 7 8. and 119. 39. Nay Christ came to fulfill it in himselfe and in his members 1. By preaching illustrating and inforcing the Law by vindicating it from false glosses and restoring to the full and first strength of it by all which he sheweth it to bee immutable and eternall 2. By plenary and full satisfaction of it and by his perfect and personall obedience both active and passive so as he fulfilled all the righteousnesse of it and left not one iota of it unfulfilled 3. By donation of his spirit writing the Law in the hearts of the elect and inciting them to new and cheerfull obedience of it for to this end the Saints receive the law of the spirit of life that they may not walke after the flesh any more but after the spirit If the Apostles after Christ did not abrogate the Law but establish it then it is not abolished to beleevers in the new Testament But they by the doctrine of faith did not Rom. 3. 31. Doe we abrogate the Law by faith God forbid nay wee establish it Where the Apostle cryes downe that grosse conceit of the contrariety of the Law and Gospell so as one of them must needs devoure the other as Moses rod did the rods of the inchanters True it is they are a distinct and divers doctrine but in God and his word is no contrariety And true it is the Law and Gospell will never stand together in the justification of a sinner before God yet they friendly concur and agree in Christian conversation wherein they are inseperable as also they are in Christian institution yea here they helpe one another as one hand doth another Whēce the holy Apostles who knew that the Gospell was not properly and substantially the Law yet usually in the publication of the Gospell confirme the authority of the Law See some instances Rom. 1. 18. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation and by it not onely the righteousnes of God is revealed from faith to faith but the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlines not that the Gospell is a ministery of wrath but a witnesse that wrath hangs over the heads of wicked men rejecting the Gospell Rom. 2. 16. Christ shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospell that is according to the witnesse of the Gospell preached by me 1 Iohn 2. 1. Brethren I write these things to you that you sinne not and what did he write else but the sweet tidings of the Gospell that is any confesse his sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive them and that if any sinne wee have an advocate with the Father c For as no man can teach any duty of the Law but therin calls to faith for call to the love of God the substance of the first Table must not he be first beleeved and then
loved or to prayer how can they call on him on whom they have not beleeved and so in the rest so neither can a man preach faith without some reference to the Law for can a man beleeve a remedy without knowledge search of the wound nay it is the Law that fits us to prize Christ a physitian or else would we never meddle with him no more than he would seeke out for a garment that hath no sence of his shame or nakednesse What if the Law know not nor command one to die or satisfie for another yet it doth not denie or exclude or hinder the mercy of God revealed in the Gospell but maketh way unto it The Apostles therefore did not abrogate the Law by faith nay saith our Apostle we establish it From whence the argument will rise stronger If the Apostles did stablish the Law by the doctrine of faith then is not the Law abolished to beleevers in the new Testament But they did establish the Law by faith Quest. How doth faith stablish the Law Answ. 1. In shewing that all the menaces and curses of it are not in vaine but all fulfilled in Christ who was laid under them all to free us from them 2. It fulfils the Law because it bringeth before God the perfect fulfilling of the Law for justification though not in our selves yet in our surety in whom wee have perfectly fulfilled it and shall live by it the Law must be absolutely fulfilled by us in our surety or we cannot live 3. It stablisheth the Law because faith worketh by love which love is the fulfilling of the Law so as by faith being justified as we are in a stronger obligation to the duties of it so we begin a new obedience to all the commandements and there is no duty which a Christian is not firmely obliged unto Tell me saith Augustine what there is in all the ten commandements what it is that a Christian is not bound unto 4. Because by faith we can pray and by the prayer of faith obtaine the spirit of God by whom we are supplied with needfull strength to obey the Law so August faith obtaines grace by which the Law is fulfilled and Ambrose saith that faith stablisheth the Law because faith shewes those duties to be done which the Law commandeth to be done And thus have we strengthened our fourth argument which hath proved that the Apostles of Christ abolished not the Law but established it and therefore it is not without use and force in the new Testament In whomsoever must be a constant endeavour of conformity to the Law to those the Law is not abolished This is plaine because where any thing is to be regulated there the rule is necessary But every beleever after conversion must strive to a conformity with the Law 1. in his inner man 2. in his outward man 3. in his whole man 1. In his inner man he must delight in the Law of God Rom. 7. 22. both in his minde he must serve the Law of God verse 25. and in his affections hee must love the Law Psal. 119. 97. Oh how love I thy Law Psal. 1. 1. The blessed man delighteth in the Law of the Lord not onely in the knowledge of it which an hypocrite may but in the conformity of their hearts and affections with it they carry friendly affections to the Law Our Antinomists outboast all men in point of their justification But St Ambrose his rule denieth them to be justified because they are not friends with the Law And Mr. Luther whom they challendge as their friend and favourer rangeth them among unjustified and unregenerate men of whom he saith that they love the Law as well as a murderer loveth the prison and so well love these the Law and therefore by his censure rejected among the unregenerate 2. In his outward man and action the justified man must testifie that the Law of God is written in his heart so the Apostle 1 Ioh. 2. 17. He that fulfilleth the commandement abideth for ever What is this commandement and what is it to fulfill it The commandement is the same which he had delivered in the former part of the chapter consisting of two branches 1. To beleeve in the Sonne of God as our onely satisfaction our onely advocate and the reconciliati on for the sinnes of the world v. 1 2. That we embrace him as our unerring patterne of our lives and walke as he walked v. 6. Quest. How did hee walke Answ. 1. In the generall observation of the whole Law 2. In speciall In the perfect love of the brethren v. 9. and in the contempt of the world Now must Christ walk in the obedience of the commandements and must not the Christian Yes saith the Apostle Every Christian must fulfill the commandement Object What will you teach justification by workes Answ. No we call not men to legall fulfilling of the commandement but evangelicall as 1. when the minde delighteth in the Law of God as holy just and good 2. When the heart hides it to conforme unto it 3. When the affection desireth to fulfill it rejoyceth when he can attaine to any obedience and sorroweth when he faileth in it 4. When in his actions he beginneth that obedience which shall end in perfect fulfilling this the Gospell accepteth and accompteth a fulfilling of the commandement Thus the Apostle Rom 8. 4. The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us which walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that is Christ by his meritorious obedience to the death hath not onely freed us beleevers from the condemning power of sinne but from the commanding power of it and so renewed our nature as that the Law of God shall be fulfilled in us and that two wayes 1. By application of his owne perfect fulfilling of it unto us with whom we by faith being united unto him whatsoever is his being the head is ours also being members 2. By our sanctification it is fulfilled in us inchoately that is by obedience begun here which at last shall be perfected so as not the least motion or desire contrary to the Law shall be left in our nature Thus is the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled not by us but in us even here below and is our rule both in earth and in heaven 3. In his whole man the beleever must grow up to the image of Christ and to the conformity of his holinesse which is no other but the perfect image of God expressed in the Law This growth in grace and sanctification is called the rising up to full holinesse as the Sunne riseth up higher till perfect day Prov. 4. 18. The way of the just is as the light which shineth more and more till perfect day But this cannot be done without the helpe of the Law the onely rule by which and the scope unto which it must be directed For 1. how should a beleever free from
sin know himselfe in the service of righteousnesse as Rom. 6. 18. if he be under no command or if his obedience be without rule or direction 2. or how should he discover his daily errours to be humbled for them how should he remember from whence he is fallen or be raised to doe his first workes for all this must further his sanctification without the rule of the Law 3. Or how should he see the imperfection and uncleannesse that cleaveth to his best duties whereby he is kept from proud Pharisaisme and the arrogant conceits of these libertine perfectists but by this straâ—ght and unalterable rule of the Law By all which reasons it appeareth it that the Morall law is not without force and 〈◊〉 unto beleveâ—â— CHAP. 4. Discovering the true grounds of opposing so cleare a doctrine WEE never reade of hereticke but hee would challenge the sacred Scriptures as the grouÌ„ds of his heresie which indeede are the onely hammer of heresie and even so these spiders who sucke poyson out of the sweetest flowers set a flourish and varnish over their poysonfull opinions with some Scriptures either wrested and writhen out of their owne sence or broken off from other Scriptures theÌ„selves for they have the Scriptures as Aug saith the Donatists had the Sacraments for ostentation rather than for salvation This vizard we shall put off in the 9 chapter which shall vindicate the Scriptures fouly mistaken and misapplied by them and restore them to their true sence and strength against themselves for no sword is so fit to take off Goliahs head as his owne and no weapons can be more keene a-against these as those which wee shall wrest out of their owne hands But in the meane time we will first lay open the true grounds of this unhappy schisme and the right rise of these palpable errours And these I observe to be three 1. Grosse ignorance 2. swelling pride 3. love of licentiousnesse joyned with the hatred of holinesse as we shall discover in their order As truth hath no enemy but falshood neither light any contrary but darknesse so the cleare rayes and beames of saving knowledge issuing from Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse are darkned and obscured in corrupt mindes by the clouds and mists of ignorance the common mother of mistakes and errours for what can a man in the darke doe other than misse his way and marre his worke And what hath made these audacious Libertines bold but blindnes who while they busie their heads in idle and fruitlesse speculations and waste their discourses in idle and impertinent questions are grosly ignorant in the very principles of Catechisme and farre to seeke in the very lowest grounds of religion I remember Mr. Calvins observation concerning the same sectaries of his time That whereas other heresies were raised and defended by men of learning wit education and reading this was set on foot and maintained by ideots rude illiterate men that never learned their frensie by turning bookes but in some coblers or artificers shops and places of rude resort for the basest schoole saith he will serve to teach a man to blaspheme God and to prove his assertion he nameth the two chiefe champions who in his time raised and spread it about Geneva both wel known to him and drew a great multitude after them of whom one would willingly have had the preferment of an hostler or porter and the other of a chamberlaine or tapster fit captaines for their skill to levie and lead such a band and even such are the bricks that at this day are framed out of such clay a base sort of people whose ignorance in the high conceit of knowledge layes them open to delusion and wrappeth them in errors so as none that savour of liberty commeâ—h amisse unto them whereof while I give a list or catalogue let none thinke that I father any childe on them but their owne if they will owne their owne writings or any opinion but such as for the loosnesse of it and likenesse with the rest of the brood will father it selfe I know I have to deale with men as slippery as eeles who can play fast and loose with their owne tenents at their pleasure for what can holde them whom Gods Law cannot Sure I am many of them will deny those to be their opinions or in this sence or reject them on some private persons or absolutely deny what they resolutely holde if any way they may either advantage themselves or disadvantage their impugâ—er Nor herein I am not uncharitable It is not long since one of their Masters in the hearing of a Minister who himselfe related the story unto mee taught a number of silly women gathered into his house on the saboth day That the Law was wholly abolished That God could see no sinne in the justified That they were as perfectly pure as the Angels yea as Christ himselfe with great vehemency and contention both establishing these and the like grounds and principles of his Catechisme and reviling our legall Preachers that leade men into a dead faith But upon the thursday after meeting the same Minister at the High Commission Court and fearing some danger towards him he disclaimed to him with as much earnestnesse all that hee had then taught in every particular The Minister onely dismissing him with admonition to consider how hee could answer God and his owne conscience in seducing so many silly women against his knowledge onely to maintaine his teeth It shall not much trouble mee whether they owne them or renounce them I avow them to be errours and not onely creeping in the darke but emboldening themselves into the light and such as are very prejudiciall to many well-meaning but weake mindes for whose satisfaction and setling I have set them downe as I have met with them in their papers with some short antidot and preservative against them intending rather a short survey than any large refutation of them 1 ERROR That Christ came to abolish the Morall Law and that the Gospel takes away all obedience to the commandements and that true faith standeth at defiance with working and doing Answ. This threefold error ariseth out of a threefold ignorance 1. Out of the ignorance of the end of Christs comming who saith expresly that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it in himselfe legally in beleevers evangelically as we have proved largely in the former chap reas 3. 2. In the ignorance of the nature of the Gospel which is so farre from taking away all obedience to the Law as that it indeed teacheth and requireth obedience unto it not whereby we performe the Law but testifie our faith in the Gospell and is therefore called the obedience of faith The Law indeed calleth for personall obedience to satisfie and justifie before God but so doth not the Gospell but onely for an obedience to testifie our love to Christ who hath
satisfied it for us for this is testified by keeping the commandements Ioh. 14. 23. If any man love me hee will keepe my commandements What love then in these men that will keepe no commandements Object Our love makes us keep his commandements but what is that to the commandements of the Law Answ. As if Christ did not command the same love and duties in the Morall Law See Matth. 22. 37 38. where Christ enjoyneth the young man all the duties of both tables 1 Ioh. 3. 23. This is his commandement that wee should beleeve and love one another Is this his commandement of any other love than that which is the summe of the second table and what were the commandements of the Apostles but evangelicall commandements commandements of Christ and yet they commanded duties of the Law 1 Thess. 4. 2. Ye know what commandements we gave you by the Lord Iesus What were they Such as concerned fornication v. 3. and oppression fraud v. 6. and were not these the same duties of the Law The 3 error floweth from ignorance of the nature of faith which is so farre from renouncing obedience that it is never severed from obedience and it is not true faith that worketh not by love for what is it to beleeve it is not onely to assent to what the scripture saith but to adhere and cleave unto it and to the Lord in the obedience of it as Henoch by faith walked with God Abraham by faith left his Country abode in the land of Canaan as a stranger offered his son Isaac c. And whence is it that obedience is called a fruit of faith for every act of grace must rise from the roote of that grace as every fruit from his owne roote so as workes of charity are rooted in charity which is a distinct grace from faith yet are they called fruits of faith because the doctrine of faith enjoynes them and the grace of faith inclines the soule unto them and because faith receives the spirit of Christ for sanctification as well as the merit of Christ for justification But why doe they exclaime against us for preaching and embracing a dead faith while they obtrude on their proselites a faith which must not work by love which if they will beleeve S. Iames is a dead faith 2 ERROR That godly life hath nothing to doe with keeping commandements Answ. The Scripture saith that godly life is nothing else but the fulfilling of the commandement and will of God revealed 1 Ioh. 2. 17. He that fulfilleth the commandement abideth for ever which is to be meant of evangelicall fulfilling not legall See chap. 3. arg 5. One thing it is to exercise good workes in way of obedience another to rely on them in way of righteousnesse 2. Our charge is in every thing to prove and try what is the good and acceptable will of God and have we nothing to doe with commandements the rule of tryall certainly we can neither doe any just thing without the rule of justice nor prosecute it justly 3. The life of Christ was most godly yet was said of him Heb. 10. 7. In the volume of the booke it is written of me that I should doe thy will and hereunto must every member be framed that must be in conformimity with the head 4. Not any duty of godly life can be acceptable or comfortable but that which is warranted by a commandement and we must know it so to be there can be no right worship or worshipper but hee that doth the will of God Ioh. 9. 31. If any be a worshipper of God and doth his will him hee heareth So doest thou expresse love shew mercy execute justice or practise any vertue and not by vertue of any commandement he that will not heare the Lord saying What I command thee that doe onely shall heare Who required these things at your hands 3 ERROR That blessednesse is meerly passive and therefore it is in vaine to put men upon actions for that end Answ. It is so to us in respect of merit and price but in respect of fruition it is obtained instrumentally by faith which is an action and is said to be ours yea our owne for the just lives by his owne faith not because we are authours or causes of it but subjects in whom God worketh it and because by it things beleeved become our owne 2. We are meere patients in the causes of blessednesse but in respect of conditions we are not so for as we said of faith wee may also say of good works God enableth to them but man worketh them and walketh in the way of them to blessednes not that our works are causes but conditions without which blessednesse is not attained See Matth. 25. 35. 3. This assertion bewrayeth great ignorance of the proper and present use of sanctification and the duties of it which they conceive as legally urged to helpe the beleever in his title and right to the blessed inheritante purchased in heaven whereas onely Christs righteousnes and merits give right and title unto heaven but yet the grace of sanctification gives us an aptitude and fitnesse unto it for without holinesse none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. and no uncleane thing shall enter into the gates of that City Yea it is proceeding in sanctification to the measure and stature of Christ that fits us to the vision and fruition of the glorious presence of God and for the full possession of that heavenly inheritance 4 ERROR That the justified person is free from all spot of sinne and perfectly righteous for justice requires that a man should be as perfect as by creation before acceptation Answ. 1. Iustice requireth that Gods wrath should be pacified and a righteousnes procured whereby the sinner may be accepted to mercy but not a plenary and personall perfection 2. They shew grosse ignorance in the nature of justification which frees the beleever from the condemnation of sin but not from the inhabitation or molestation for sinne is in the godly after justification 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If wee that is wee that walke in the light and have communion one with another say we have no sinne we deceive our selves 3. Faith it selfe in the justified is sincere but not perfect for as we know things beleeved but in part so we beleeve but in part our eye is not more dimme to see than our hand is weake to receive yea even in the best faith is imperfect and mingled with doubting Mosesâ—aith â—aith quailed at the Rocke Elias in a passion would be dead yea even Abraham himselfe who was strong in faith though he doubted not of infidelity yet he doubted of infirmity Gen. 15. 3. By long delay his faith was sore shaken when he said that Eliezer of Damascus must be his heire Now would I know how that which is it selfe imperfect and not free from spot of sinne can make another altogether spotlesse See more hereof
the best 1. It makes them relish and prize the promises of much the more and sticke faster to them hold in the way unto them 2. The hearing of threatnings kindleth a flame of love to God for delivering from them 3. Incieth our charity and compassion to our brethren to helpe them from under them and provoketh the Saints themselves to worke out their own salvation with feare and trembling Phil 2. 11. 5. Are we lewd Preachers for urging the Law upon men then why were not Christ his Apostles so in pressing on beleevers the obedience of the law Yea to the law more strictly expounded than by the Scribes and Pharises and in urging on them a righteousnes exceeding the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises which was not an imputed righteousnesse of faith for justification before God but a righteousnesse of sanctification in their persons performed through grace by themselves So when our Lord affirmeth that in the kingdome of heaven that is the Church of the new Testament Hee that doth the commandements and teacheth men so to doe shall be called great that is shall be highly esteemed was hee a lewd and false teacher leading men away from himself and the grace of the Gospell or if he were not why are wee so for teaching the same doctrine 6. No man can teach obedience of faith but therein he must teach the obedience of the Law also for the same workes are both the works of the Law and the workes of faith which are distinguished not divided For example Love or charity which containeth all the duties of the second table is called a worke of the Law Luk. 10. 27. What is written in the Law how readest thou and he answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God c. Thus it is a worke of the Law in respect of canon rule direction But it is called also a fruit or worke of faith Iames 2. 17 18. Shew me thy faith by thy workes and faith worketh by love Thus it is a worke of faith in respect of the cause and adhaesion being an inseperable issue of it How can a man persuade love as a worke of faith and not the same a worke of the Law 7. How false and absurd is it to say that Preachers teaching obedience to the Law of God teach men thereby to hang upon their owne righteousnesse or to seeke their justification by their owne performances Far are we from teaching that Iudaicall righteousnesse performed in way of justification all which is a filthy ragge in the sight of God and his strict justice But we persuade a Christian righteousnesse of sanctification wrought by the spirit of holinesse of which holy obedience are many other uses which they are loath to see besides the justifying of their persons in the sight of God As 1. It is called for in way of Christian conversation that our light may shine before men 2. In way of imitation of Christ our head and of conformity of his members to his righteousnesse which derogateth nothing from his righteousnesse 3. In way of testification of our righteousnesse before God for Hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous 1 Ioh 3. 7. Thus having set downe these twelve Articles of libertine and famelisticall faith I will content my selfe therewith although I could have easily set downe twelve more so fruitfull and generative errour is but that I intended in this onely to give a proofe of their grosse ignorance in principles of religion which was that I undertooke I could easily have refelled that mysticall and spirituall but fantasticall union of theirs with Christ before faith their sanctification before justification their elevating the sin of infidelity which strongly savours also of liberty as that it is no sinne or at least of the morall Law wherein I will not strive though I am sure the Scripture maketh it a sinne of sinnes and Christ calleth it the great condemnation and perhaps they shall holde a more sound tenent that shall holde it both against the Law and Gospell For 1. It may be not unprofitably enquired whether the first commandement doe not binde to all commandements both ordinary and eztraordinary both d◠praesenti and de futuro whether the Law doe not binde us to beleeve all that God shall utter as well as what hee hath uttered 2. Whether the second commandement doth not enjoyne whatsoever is a meanes of salvation and an inward religious worship for then the contrary must needes be sinne 3. Whether it be not a sinne against the second cōmandemēt not to beleeve that branch of the same commandement that God will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keepe his commandements And if it be then infidelity is a sin against that Law But I forbeare many things and perhaps some will thinke I might have spared some paines in refuting the former which at the first sight are so distastefull to the judicious as the reciting of them might seeme a sufficient confutation but my desire of helping the weake who are easily overreached drew mee thus farre beyond mine owne purpose and my endeavour was to contract many things into as narrow a roome as I could CHAP. 7. Shewing the second ground of this opposition which is horrible pride especially discovered in their ridiculous conceit of perfection THe undivided companion of ignorance is pride for no man that ever aright knew God or himselfe but the nearer he approached to God with Abraham the more did he humble himselfe in dust and ashes But here is a generation of men swelled up with pride and blowne up with a presumption that they are gotten into the highest forme of perfection they can scorne and disdaine the directions of the Law as being far beyond it for they have attained a full perfection not of justification onely but of sanctificatiō also already they are free not onely from the power of sinne but from the presence also Christ himselfe is not purer or more free from sinne than they are nay being borne of God they cannot sin if they would if they doe acts of sinne in high nature yet where is no Law is no transgression God cannot see them in that glasse Hence they can loose themselves from most ministeries but some teachers of their owne sect and deride the holy labours of godly Preachers who with zeale and piety persuade men to walke according to rules Oh what an height of pride are those private peremptory persons come unto who complaine that their heads have aked to heare some godly and worthy Preachers and have professed that for the gift of two pence they would never more heare sundry such as I know to be of long continuance as shining and burning lights as they may well be in the first ranke of Gods worthies that have beene of best desert in our Church And where is the humility of that teacher that makes his bragge Your teachers understand not
some of the principall objections of the Libertines 1 OBIECT Is this our text Rom 6. 19. Ye are not under the Law but under grace Whence thus they reason To them that are not under the Law but under grace to those the Law doth not belong but it is to them abolished and void But beleevers are not under the Law c. Therefore Answ. 1. There is a twofold being under the Law First a being vnder the curse burden malediction condemnation and coaction of the Law thus no beleever is under it Secondly there is a being under the obedience rule counsell and direction of the Law and thus beleevers are under it much more than before as Christ himselfe also was For they are now by the free spirit of Christ framed to a free and voluntary obedience of it So saith August The Law made us guilty by cōmanding but not assisting but grace assisteth every beleever to be a keeper of the Law 2 This objection will be also fully satisfied by applying the former distinction of the Law Considering it 1. in the matter and substance of it And thus beleevers are still under it both for performance of all holy duties of it and forbearance of all the evills prohibited by it 2. in the manner of obedience and in the consequences and appendices of it and thus are they not vnder the rigor coaction or strict exaction of it and much lesse under the curse malediction or condemnation of it But this objection hath beene before abundantly satisfied in the 2. 3. Chapters And therefore I passe it now more breifly 2 OBIECT Gal. 3. 10. So many as are under the workes of the Law are under the curse Therefore Either the Law is utterly void to Christians or they are still under the curse of it Answ. The Apostle saith not that those to whom the Law appertaineth are under the curse but those that are under the workes of the Law 2. The workes of the Law are twofold Either workes of obedience done in humility by way of duty in testimony of thankfulnesse and of our conformity with Christ. Or 2. workes of the Law done in pride to seeke justification by the Law and the workes of it and so to promise to themselves eternall life by the observation of the law And those onely that are thus under the workes of the Law are under the curse and the meaning of the holy Apostle is no other whose scope in his whole discourse is to beate downe such as sought to set up justification by the workes of the Law and not by faith onely as appeares plainly in the next verse 11. for that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith But though no beleever can in the second respect bee under the workes of the Law for justification but he must be under the curse of it yet it follows not that hee is not under the workes of the Law for obedience and yet not under the curse of it This place is indeed an hammer and hatchet against popery who by seeking iustification by the workes of the Law thrust themselves under the curse of God for if the curse attacheth him that seeketh righteousnesse before God by Moses Law how much more accursed are they that by observation of humane Laws and traditions by humane satisfactions and impositions seeke to demerrit God obtaine without Christ what onely Christ can procure The greater is their sinne and danger who after the knowledge and profession of the truth for some politick and worldly ends runne back into recusancy and popery which is the way of perdition apparently renouncing the blessing of justification by free grace and chuse the curse of the Law which shall runne into their bowells as water of such apostacy may be said as of Iudas it had beene good for them they had never beene borne OBIECT 3. To whom the Law is not given to those it belongs not at all But the Law is not given to the righteous 1 Tim. 1. 9. Therefore it belongs not to beleevers being justified Answ. 1. The scope and intention of the Apostle is not to abolish the Law who in the words immediately going before saith that the Law is good if it be used lawfully which words clearely import and imply that among beleevers there is a good vse of the Law which true use hee shewes in the fifth verse namely to be a guide and direction to the duties of love and charity which is now the effect of faith as the words plainly show for the end of the commandement is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfained Note that the Apostle maketh that love which is the end of the commandement a fruite and effect of faith and therefore a beleever is not loosed from the love and obedience of the Law by faith but tyed unto it 2. The sence of the Apostle is not that a righteous man can be under no lawes for Adam in innocencie was a most righteous man and yet was under the Law both in generall under the whole Morall Law and in speciall under the Law concerning the forbidden tree and this Law was given to the most righteous man in the world Innocency and righteousnesse in perfection exempts no creature from the Law of his Creatour But the Apostles meaning is that the Law is not given against a righteous man that frameth his course according to the Law it dealeth not with him as an enemy that assenteth unto it that is delighteth in it in the inner man that is ruled and ordered by it it can pronounce no sentence of damnation against him it neither can justifie him who is already justified by faith nor yet can condemne him And that this is the true meaning of the Apostle appeareth by 2 arguments in the text 1. In the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth an action or plea of God against a man and that the Law is not Gods action or plea against a righteous man to bring him under judgement or subdue him under the sentence of it for Christ hath freed such a one from the curse by his merit and obedience as also by his spirit made him a lover of the Law And this is the same in sence with that of the Apostle Gal 5. 23. Against such namely as expresse those recited fruites of the spirit there is no Law for the Law is so farre from condemning such as it is a witnesse rather of their conformity to it selfe and consequently of their love and obedience unto God and of their similitude with Iesus Christ. 2 Argument in the text is in that the lawlesse and disobedient are said to be wrapped up in the full damnatory power of the Law against all whom it is Gods plea and action yea the bill of inditement to their condemnation 3. Neither is the Law given to the just to
wring obedience from them by terrours or threatnings or expectation either of threatnings or rewards the just are not under the Law in this servile manner of obedience as are the lawlesse and disobedient for by a free spirit of grace they doe the works of the Law so farre as they are regenerate and the Law to them is not a compelling commander but a sweet and faithfull counsellour and rule of life But although the Law be not given to the just to fasten any crime or curse upon them nor to exact personall and perfect obedience for righteousnesse before God nor to force compell or rigorously exact obedience from them will it follow that it is no way else given unto them or not as a rule of direction for obedience and a line and square of good works and christian life And these answers will fully satisfie all those other places of like sound and sence as Gal. 5. 18. If yee be led by the spirit yee are not under the Law Rom. 7. 6. Now ye are delivered from the Law being dead unto it that is yee are freed from the Law as it is the strength of sinne as it irritateth and provoketh to sinne as it did while wee were in the state of nature as it wrapps the transgressor in the curse and as it forceth it selfe by terror and constraint for now the beleever serveth in newnesse of spirit not in the oldnesse of the letter that is freely from a renewed spirit obeyeth the Law as the rule of holy life OBIECT 4. Gal 5. 1. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not intangled againe with the yoake of bondage that is say they the Law Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath freed us from the curse of the Law Answ. It is not said that Christ hath freed us from the obedience or command of the Law but from the curse of it which we question not 2. Christian liberty is not a freedome from the obedience of it but rather from the disobedience of it Rom. 6. 18. Being free from sinne ye are made the servants of righteousnesse We are called to liberty but we must not use our liberty as an occasion to the flesh but to frame to the commandement By love to serve one another Gal 5. 13. Where the Apostle plainely proveth that Christian liberty looseth us not from the observation of the Law but straitly enioyneth it for the whole Law is fulfilled in one woâ—d which is love v. 14. 3. â—s they 〈◊〉 the same stone so iâ— must returne upon themselves we must therefore againe tell them what are those parts of â—â—ristian liberty which the Apostle aymeth at and if they thinke that the Apostle best knew his owne meaning they shal take them from himselfe The first of them is freedome from the burden of legall ceremonies sacrifices circumcision and beggarly rudiments which were heavy yoakes which being abolished by Christ Christians must never entangle themselves with them any more and that the Apostle directly speaketh of these in the place alledged see v. 2 3. If yee be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing therefore stand fast in your liberty The 2 branch of our liberty is from the curse of the Law in that Christ was made a curse for us with which most ponderous and pressing yoke we must never entangle our selves any more by seeking justification by the workes of the Law and to settle us firme in this our liberty is our Apostles ayme and argument Gal. 3. 10. 13. The third branch of our liberty is freedome from perfect impletion and personall performance of the whole Law for justification for thus we are no more debters to the Law Gal. 5. 3. Nor must ever returne to that bondage to seeke righteousnes and justification by the Law in whole or in part For Christ is become of none effect unto you whosoever of you will be justified by the Law yee are fallen from grace verse 4. The 4. branch of our purchased liberty by Christ is a freedome from the threats and terrors of the Law compelling and forcing obedience and now not feare but love must chiefly constâ—aine us to duty not compulsion or carnall respects must caâ—â— uâ— as slaues to the commandement but now discerning the holinesse excellency and righteousnesse of the Law the heart is moved freely to runne the ways of God Gal. 5. 25. If wee live in the spirit we must walke in the spirit OBIECT 5. The Law of Moses was given onely to the Iewes and was to endure but vnto Christ Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets were till Iohn And Christ is the end of the Law to every beleever Rom. 10. 24. Answ. 1. The Law for writing and some Circumstances was given to the Iewes by the hand of Moses but in respect of the substance and matter obedience belongs unto all men of all ages and nations Because 1. It must stoppe every mouth both of Iew and Gentile Rom 3. 19. 2. It must judge every man according to his work both Iew and Gentile 2. It seemes the Prophets are abolished as well as the Law But I hope they will not say that all the doctrine of the Prophets is abolished It is true that the whole Propheticall doctrine which did signifie or prophecy or promise good things to come when Christ was actually come received accomplishment but not abolishment which is Tertullians distinction But much other positive doctrine of the Prophets is as usefull and proper to us for whom it is by speciall divine providence reserved as it was to the ages to which it was first directed And even so the Law which in respect of shadowes was to continue till Iohn in the substance of it is a permanent and everlasting doctrine directory and deriveable to all the ages of the world 3. Christ is the end of the Law but as Augustine wittily distinguisheth the perfectiâ—g end not the destroying end For 1. He was the end or scope unto whom the Law especially the paedagogie of Moses was directed 2. Hee was the end also of the Morall Law because hee fully and perfectly obeyed the law and so the Law in him attained his proper end as it had not else done among all the sonnes of men 3. He is the end of the Law on whom all the male diction of the â—aw fell fully and perfectly and had on him full accomplishment 4. He is the end of the Law in whom all the blessings and promises of the Law attaine their end for they are all in Christ yea and amen all of them in him for his obedience are exhibited compleat 5. He is the end of the Law to every beleever for righteousnesse in that he doth bestow and impute unto us that full righteousnesse which the Law requireth of us and in that by the donation of his spirit hee kindleth in beleevers a new obedience framed unto the Law so as they begin a
renewed obedience of it in earth and fulfill it perfectly in heaven Whence issueth a cleane contrary conclusion If Christ be the end of the Law wee are therefore faster tyed to the obedience of it than before Very false therefore is that position That the Law is at such an end as it can nore command a man in Christ than a dead man can command his wife or a Master his servant when hee is made free To which traditionary doctrine carried from woman to woman I answer 1. That the Apostle saith indeede Rom 7. 4. that by Christs death wee are dead to the Law namely in regard of the curse and of those rebellious motions excited in us by occasion of it and in regard of the terrour and rigour of it as a woman is from the threats and rigour of a dead husband but the Apostle saith not that the Law is dead either in respect of the direction of it or our obedience to those directions 2. As the Apostle saith we are dead to the Law so he sheweth the end of our freedome from so hard an husband namely that wee might be married to another i. to Christ raised from the dead the effect of which marriage is not a barren life but to bring forth fruit unto God the blessing of the marriage betweene Christ and the faithfull soule is fruitfulnesse before God so as this death of ours to the Law bringeth in a new subjection unto it which is indeed the height of our Christian liberty here and proceedeth from the spirit of freedome 3. His shift is too short to shuffle from the first covenant to the second and as false is it to say that the Law is the rule in one covenant and not in another as if the matter of the first covenant and second were not one and the same the righteousnesse and obedience of both were not one in substance differing in manner of apprehension and application Shall any live by vertue of the second covenant that doth not these things or that brings not the righteousnes of the Law in himselfe or his surety CHAP. 10. Resolving sundry other objections alledged to prove the abolition of the Law OBIECT 6. To whom all the commanding power of the Law under paine of the curse and the enjoyning of good workes for justification as also to whom the condemning power of the Law is abolished and ceased to them the Law is altogether made void and abrogated But to beleevers both such commanding power and condemning power is ceased And therefore c. And thus they further explaine it Suppose a justified man commit adultery or murther or be drunke the Law of God can take no hold of him nor the just God can punish him by the Law being utterly abrogated to such a person Answ. The former proposicion is apparently false for the Law both for maâ—ter and forme stands in force to justified persons and retaineth on them a commanding power and enjoineth on them good works although the manner of commanding in the rigor of it is to them abated for how ordâ—â—â—rily did Christ and his Apostles command the workes of the Law to beleevers and that under strait penalties read Math. 5. and 6. Chap. and telleth his followers that when they have done so farre as they can all the things of the Law they have done what was their duty and that they were bound unto Luke 17. 10. 2. These confused men distinguish not betweene the condemning power of the Law and the Law it selfe yet this distinction cutteth the siâ—ewes of this obiection for can it prove the Law itselfe abolished because the condemning power of it is to some removed by Christ or if certaine uses of the Law bee abolished as in way of righteousnesse life and salvation or in way of terrifying accusing or condemning the iustified by faith must therfore the Law it selfe and all other uses of it be abolished 3. What beleever conceives himselfe under the commanding power of the Law to bee iustified by it or to expect to stand righteous before God by their obedience as these men vainely dreame no they have other ends of their obedience to the commandements of the Law As 1. To testifie their indeavor in obeying the righteous Law and will of God and their conformity to his image in the same 2. Not for the justification of their persons for that is onely by Christs compleat obedience made theirs by faith but for the testification of their iustifying faith according to the direction of the Apostle Iam. 2. 20. Shew me thy faith by thy works 3. Not for the attaining of salvation itâ— Pet. 1. 10. Give all dilligence to make your election sure How may we for if wee doe these things c. 4 Not to merrit any thing but to encourage themselves in the way of obedience by casting eye on the blessed remuneration freely promised and performed to duties of love to God and man begun and perfected by faith in Christ. Heb. 11 26. Moses had respect to the recompence of reward Yea our Lord himselfe for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame Heb. 12. 2. All these are other ends which beleevers propouÌ„d to themselves in their obedience then to be justified by it 4. I answer it is utterly false and wicked that Gods Law taketh no hold of a justified person committing hatefull sinnes as of murder adultery and the like For although Christ have freed him from the curse and vengeance and the eternall damnation of his sinne Rom. 8. 1. Yet may the Law take hold on him for a stinging correction and a sharp punishment according to the scandall of his sin Did not the Law take hold on David when with so many other evills Gods sword was upon his house for ever for his scandalous sins Did not Gods Law lay hold on Moses Aaron then whom none was more faithfull in Gods house when for sinne they lay under sharpe rebukes and chastisement and were barred the land of Canaan Object But these were examples in the old testament before Christs death Answ. And are not beleevers in the new testament subject to the same law and penall statues of correction Were not examples of the old Testament examples to us that wee should not sinne as they sinned How could we sin as they did if we were not under the same Law Or what else but the law taketh hold on beleevers in the new testament when for the unworthy use of the Lords ordinances they are judged of the Lord even for this cause saith the Apostle Object Some say they were hypocrites that were judged Answ. As if they be hypocrites that must not be condemned with the world 5. But of all their assertions thaâ— is aâ— blinde as boâ—de That if God call a beleever to account for the breach of his Law hee may say God hath nothing to doe to call him to account hee may refuse to be
tried in that Court If God shall say leave such a sinne or be damned doe such a duty aâ—d â—e saved he may say We will doe neither the one nor the other on these tearmes Well may he say and more that his tongue le ts fall unseemely tearmes and it hides his nakednesse but a little to droppe out that his meaning is that God hath nothing to doe to call a beleever into the court of nature For howsoever hee will teach God what hee hath to doe or what he hath not to doe he might long since have beene taught that God will require of us even that righteousnesse which he put into our nature and that is a talent which we must be countable for as well as any other OBIECT 7. Those that have the spirit of God for their rule and doe all by a free spirit they neede not the Law to rule or urge theÌ„ to them it is vaine and needlesse But all beleevers have the spirit to rule them and they doe all by a free spirit Therefore Answ. The former proposition is false that those that have the spirit to rule them have no neede or use of the Law and as grosse to conceive the spirit and the Law contrary which are indeed inseperable for the Law is the instrument the Spirit is the workmaster the Law is the rule the Spirit the applier of that rule The spirit is so farre from destroying the Law that he writeth it in the inner parts he addeth clearenesse and light unto unto it he worketh love and delight unto it 2. It was ever the wicked conceit of Libertine Enthusiasts that the spirit worketh our obedience immediately and by himselfe alone rejecting all meanes whereas he worketh it in us ordinarily by the word the Law and the Gospell Ioh. 16. 13. The spirit sent to beleevers shall not speake of himselfe but whatsoever hee shall heare that shall he speake He is in himselfe the spirit of illumination but enlighteneth beleevers by shewing them what is to be done by the Law and what is to be beleeved by the Gospell 3. Is the spirit therefore a free spirit because hee frees us from the Law no verily but because he sets us free to the performance of it This reason holy David gives us Psal 119. 32. I will then runne the way of thy commandements when thou hast enlarged or set mee free Or is that the duty of a free and willing subject to cast off the lawes of his King No but most freely and willingly to obey his Law and this is the freedome wrought by the free spirit in free and ingenious Christians 4. To say we obey God by by the spirit without a Law or a commandement is a meere non sence for is any obedience without a Law Is not our rule to doe onely what the Lord commandeth what can be more ridiculous than for a subject to professe obedience to his Prince but yet hee will not be under any Law And to say they obey of love and yet obey no commandement is as fond and false 1 Ioh 53. This is the love of God that we keepe his commandements and his commandements are not grievous Ioh 14. 15. If ye love me keepe my commandements love must ever looke to the commandement OBIECT 8. Those that are under the Law of Christ are not under the Morall Law But Beleevers are under the Law of Christ Gal 6. 2. and so fulfill the Law of Christ. Therfore And thus doe they further unfold themselves that wee may understand them consider say they men as creatures in their naturall being thus are they under the Morall Law given by their Creatour But consider them as redeemed and new creatures they are freed from that Law and onely tyed to precepts taught by Christ in the Gospell which teacheth to deny ungodlines and worldly lusts and to live soberly justly and godly in this present world Tit 2. 11. Answ. Here is a whole bundle of errours to be untied 1. The proposition is false that beleevers who are under the Law of Christ are not under the Morall Law seeing the Law of Christ is for substance the same with the Morall Law for what is the Law of Christ in the place alledged but the doctrine precept and commandement of Christ enjoyning the love of our brethren bearing their burden which the Apostle opposeth not to the Morall Law as these sectaries doe but enjoyneth it as a more necessary Law than all that heape of ceremonies to which the false Apostles would have brought them backe against whom he strengtheneth the beleevers of that Church through that whole Epistle 2. It is frivolous and popish to conceive the Gospell a new Law for is not the covenant of grace the same in the old Testament and new and did not the holy men in the olde Testament Moseâ— David Samuel Daniel and the rest enjoy the same covenant with us or were they saved by another Gospell than we or did not they frame their lives to the same sobriety righteousnes and holinesse that we doe 2 Did not the Apostles preach and write the Gospell Yet 1. Ioh. 2 7. they professe We write no new commandement but the old which yee have had from the beginning And what was that but the same which was written in mans nature before the fall and after written by Gods finger in tables of stone which same commandement though he call a new commandement in the next verse that is not because it is another in the substance but the same law of love renewed and reinforced upon new grounds by Christ the great Law-giver And ratified both by his owne doctrine and example and in this new manner it was never urged before 3. So farre is the Law of Christ fro◠〈…〉 morall law 〈…〉 according that 〈…〉 of S. August The Law knowes to command but the Gospell to assist to the commandement True it is that Christ abolished all Lawes that made difference betweene man and man Iew and Gentile Eph. 2 14. Yea and the Morall Law so farre as it made difference betweene God man beleeving And 2. as it is opposed to the Gospell And 3. as it hindreth entrance into the kingdome to beleevers And 4. as any thing in it was accidentall significative circumstantiall or tempoall But all matters substantiall essentiall and eternall Christ by his Law hath confirmed to continue for ever This harmony of the Morall Law and Christs Law judicious Calvin in his harmony avoucheth The whole Law saith hee agreeth with the Gospel both in condemning the saâ—e vices and commanding the same vertues And if this be so then certainly it destroyes not the Law And Pareâ—s on Rom 10. 14. saith They erre that thinke the Law repugneth Christ in the Gospel 4. It is little under blasphemie that they oppose the Father and the Sonne as if they had diverse wills divers rules or contrary Lawes wheras the Son professetâ— that hee spake nothing from
himselfe but from the Father Ioh. 5. 16 Besides how doth ignorance befoole them in â—eâ—ling us that Christ as 〈◊〉 hath loosed us from the obedience of the Morall Law due to our Creator For is not God the Redeemer the same with God the Creator Is any honour due to the Father for creation that is not due to the Sonne for creation Ioh 5. 23. That all men should honour the Sonne as they honour the Father or is any honor due to the Son for redemption that is not due to the Father for redempt â— Did not God the Father give up his Son for our our redemption shall not we well requite him in casting off all duty belonging to him as our Creator Or can the addition of the greatest most singular benefit that we are capable of loose us from our former duty or rather tie us faster Certainely the gift of Christ for our Redemption doubleth and fastneth the bond of love and dutie betweene our creator and us but no whit doth slacke or loosen it Such poore shiftes and doubts are they driven un to as a silly hare close followed and hard runne CHAP. 11. Shewing how these Libertines runne against the streame of our worthiest Writers graciously instructed to the kingdome of heaven IT is not unusuall with impostors when they ure driven off the authority of the Scriptures to shroud and hide themselves with some humane testimonies wrested and for most part distorted from the true meaning and intention of their alledged Authours and even so doe these men pretend that they have the consent and authority of sundry Protestant Writers of great note and name in the Church to strengthen and confirme their novelties wherein they are impudent to admiration seeing there is never a learned man that ever I met with that sideth with them in the abrogation of the Law nay not any but as occasion is offered doth urge the Morall Law as of great use to guide all true beleevers and justified persons in the right way of godlines and all Christian dutyes With what boldnes doe they claime Mr. Luther to be wholly theirs and themselves to bee wholly of his judgement and that they hold nothing in this point but what they sucked from his breests let us therefore see in this one instance how they serve all the rest And first I affirme that M. Luther was so farre from being an Antimonian that no man doth more expressely and soundly overthrow and contradict this wicked opinion than he neither can any man desire a stronger humane witnes against theÌ„ thaÌ„ M. Luther Read his words with a pause and judge Satan saith hee stirreth up daily new sects and now last of all he hath raysed up a sect of such as teach the ten commandements are to be taken out of the Church that men should not be terrified with the Law And after such is the blindnesse and presumption of franticke heads And are they other that challenge Luther the patrone of a Sect which himselfe saith the Devill hath raised And page 171. He speaketh of three sorts of men that abuse the Law First those that seeke justification by the Law Secondly Those that will utterly exempt a christian man from the Law as the brainsicke Anabaptists went about to doe And of this sort are very many also at this day which professe the Gospell with us who dreame that Christian liberty is a carnall liberty to doe whatsoever they list c. on cap 3. 25. And on cap. 3. 19. pag 153. Here I admonish saith hee all such as feare God and especially teacher of others that they diligently learne out of Paul to understand the true and proper use of the Law which I feare after our time will be troden under foote and utterly abolished by the enemies of the truth It is easie from these words of Mr. Luther to collect that 1. Hee did not conceive the Law thrust out of all use by Christ for then why should men fearing God learne the true use of it 2. That if hee feared men would abolish it then his judgement was it ought not to be abolished 3. That if hee esteeme this sort of men that would abolish the Law enemies of the truth then certainly he is not their patron in this loose and carnall opinion And pag. 154. Forasmuch as wee diligently and faithfully teach these things we doe therefore plainly testifie that we reject not the Law and workes as our adversaries doe falsely accuse us but wee doe altogether establish the Law and require the workes thereof and wee say the Law is good and profitable And cap 5. 14. pag. 254. It is necessary that godly Preachers should as diligently teach the doctrine of good workes as the doctrine of faith for Satan is a deadly enemy to both Is Luther now yours Is hee not as contrary and directly contradictory to your foolish tenents as the Sunshine of midday is to the darkenesse of midnight Doth not he disclaime you as adversaries yea as false accusers while you challenge a line or syllable of his doctrine in the patronage of your delusions You reject the Law and workes he professeth he rejecteth neither you abolish the whole Law wholly but he establisheth it you reject them for legall Preachers that teach not Christ aright who urge men to the duties of the Law but he imposeth it as a necessary part of their office to urge the Law yea as necessary as to teach the doctrine of faith For shame therefore never claime Luther more nor father your fooleries on him than whom you have no stronger enemy Object But doth not Mr. Luther say on â—ap 3. 28. That Christ hath abolished all lawes of Moses that ever were Answ. Yâ—s all the lawes of Moses whereof he speaketh in that place for take the whole sentence and yee shall know his minde Where Christ is put on saith he there is neither Iew nor circumcision nor ceremony of the Law any more for Christ hath abolished all Lawes of Moses that ever were that is all ceremoniall Lawes Yea and the Morall Law so farre as in Moses hand accusing terrifying and condemning the beleeving conscience in which regard it should be utterly ignorant whether there were any Moses any Law any Iew. Ibid Object Page 177. So many as are justified are justified not by observation of mans Law nor Gods Law but by Christ alone who hath abolished all Lawes Doth not Mr. Luther clearely say that all Lawes are abolished Answ. Nothing is more true for even the Morall Law in respect of justification is abolished to the beleever which is Mr. Luthers expression but that either the Law it selfe in the substance of it or in respect of all other uses is abolished Luther saith not and wee say with Luther Accursed be that doctrine life and religion which endeavoureth to get righteousnesse before God by the Law or workes thereof Ob. Luther on c 4 27 p. 222. saith that a Christian
laying hold on Christ by faith hath no Law but all the Law to him is abolished with all his terrours and torments And page seque We say that the Morall Law or the Law of ten commandements hath no power to accuse and terrifie the conscience in which Iesus Christ reigneth by grace for hee hath abolished the power thereof Answ. And we say so too and holde it our happinesse to beleeve this sweet Gospel But Luther speakes here and every where else of certaine uses of the Law either for justification righteousnesse and salvation or else for terrour accusation and condemnation and thus wee have proved long since and at large that it is abolished to the beleever 2. We say that to abolish the power of the Law is not to abolish the Law and to abolish the power of accusing and terrifying is not to abolish all the power of it And all their shreddings and cuttings and poore allegations out of Mr. Luthers workes doe onely prove the magnifying the Article of Christian righteousnes against the righteousnesse of the Law and workes wherein Luther was for the singular good of the Church most vehement but none of them doe so much as glance at the abolishing of the Law as a doctrine or rule of life which Mr. Luther not in a few places acknowledgeth to binde all men from the beginning of the world to the end of it But whereas no man better knew Mr. Luthers judgement than his owne schollers and followers it will not be amisse to heare them expressing their Masters minde in this argument and delivering unto us what they received from him from whom to depart in any thing they held almost piacular Chemnitius a most learned and moderate Lutheran in his common place de lege cap. 10. and 11. directly refuteth these Antinomists and sheweth that the regenerate are not under the Law in respect of justification accusation condemnation or coaction but yet affirmeth a threefold use of it in the regenerate 1. as a doctrine to direct in duties 2. as a glasse to see the defects of them 3. as a correcter and restrainer of remanent corruption In all treading in the very steppes of of Luther as we have declared Fredericus Baldwinus a learned professour in Wittenberg Passionis typicae lib 2. typ 6. hath these words Christ our Saviour by his most holy merit hath hid and covered alluding to the propitiatory the tables of the Law not that we owe no further obedience unto it but that it may not strike with maledictioÌ„ those that are in Christ for the Law is abrogated by Christ not in respect of obedience but in respect of malediction Many more were easily induced to speake the same thing but I content my selfe with these from whom none of the rest dissent and conclude that if Mr. Luthers schollers understood their Masters doctrine better than these Libertines then they sew but a fig leafe to cover their nakednesse by stretching any of Mr. Luthers phrases to the proving of their profane opinion And as Mr. Luther hath abundantly cleared unto us this truth so have we the consent of all godly learned Protestant Writers both ancient and moderne whom I might induce as a cloud of witnesses not like that cloud which Elias his servant did see as bigge as a mans hand but like the same cloud when it covered the whole heavens My spare time is not so much nor perhaps the Readers neither in so cleare a case were it so needfull to make this volume swell with such numberlesse testimonies of orthodox Divines as professedly refute this profane and lawles and as brainles a fancy I will onely therefore shew these delinquents against the Law to be cast by the verdict of an whole Iurie of godly Divines And because they shall not deny but they have faire triall and proceeding we have empannelled twelve men the most of which they acknowledge their friends and well-willers even as they challenge Mr. Luther the foreman to be wholly theirs and one man shall not speake for all as in ordinary trialls but as it is in great and extraordinary trialls every one shall deliver his owne sentence The first of them is Mr. Calvin who in the second booke of his Institutions cap. 7. sec. 12. having spoken of two uses of the Morall Law addeth a third which especially concerneth the faithfull namely that therby they must daily more certainly know what is the will of God to which they aspire as also by the frequent meditation of it they should be excited to the obedience of it and strengthened in that obedience and restrained from the offences of it In the 13 section he answers the Libertines objection But because the Law containes the ministration of death therefore Christians must reject the Law Farre be from us saith he such a profane opinion for Moses excellently sheweth that the Law which can beget nothing but death among sinners hath among the Saints a better and more excellent use and what that is hee sheweth namely to be one perpetuall and inflexible rule of life In the 14. section he answereth at large that objection that the Law is abrogated to the faithfull speaking still of the Morall Law namely not that it doth not still command what is right as it did before but that it is not that to them as it was before in terrifiyng their consciences confounding condemning and destroying them In which sense saith he Paul manifestly sheweth that it is abrogated not in respect of institution of life but of the former vigorous obligation of conscience sect 15. Thus have I abridged M. Calvine his larger Tractat upon this Argument wherein wee see him wholly consenting to the doctrine we have propounded through our whole discourse Adde only her unto that in the 3 booke cap. 19. sect 2 Christian libertie consisteth first in this That the consciences of the faithfull in the confidence of their justification before God must lift themselves above the Law forget the whole righteousnes of the Law Yet saith he no man must hence collect that the Law is needlesse For it doth not therefore cease to teach to exhort and incite to good though before Gods tribunall it hath no place in their consciences The Law therefore by Mr. Calvins de eâ—mination abideth by Christ aâ— inviolable doctrine the which by teaching us by admonishing by rebuking and by correcting doth secure prepare us to every good worke The second is Reverend Beza in his defence against Castillion on Rom. 7. 6. farre be it from me saith he that I should assent to you who say the Law is dead to them to whom it is cheifly alive that is those that are most obedient unto it meaning beleevers For a King doth not more manifestly regine over any theÌ„ those which freely and willingly obey his Lawes See also his judgement constant to himselfe in his
annotations upon 2 Cor. 3. 11. In what regard the ministery of Moses is abolshed concluding that the ministry of the Law is ever to be retained in the Church And in his notes upon 1 Ioh 2. 7. he saith Neither is the Law abolished by the Gospell so farre forth as it commandeth that which is right but onely so farre as it threatneth death to all that doe not perfectly fulfill it and as the Law by the terrours of death admonisheth us to think of seeking life in the Gospell so the Gospell supplieth us with the grace of regeneration whereby according to the measure of the spirit and grace we begin to will and to doe that now the Law becommeth to us in respect of the inner man a sweet Master as the Apostle plentifully teacheth Rom 6. 7. and 8. chapters The third is learned Doctor Whitaker the Iewell of the Vniversity of Cambridge who when Duraeus the Iesuite objected against Mr. Luther the same which these Libertines affirme of him that it was his judgement that the Decalogue appertaineth not to Christians thus gravely answereth That Luther most truly affirmed the Decalogue that is that condition of the Decalogue either of full and perfect obedience or of malediction for disobedience not now to pertaine to Christians because Christ to them hath taken away that condition 2. That Luther saith no more than the Apostle doth in sixe or seven places there alledged and therfore they must first accuse the Apostle or through Luthers sides wound the Apostle 3. He sets downe his owne judgment most expresly The Law saith he pertaineth to Christians neither did Luther ever deny it for that justice of the Law is immortall and every one ought to indeavour with all his strength to live moâ—t exactly according to the prescript of the Law Thus we have this proâ—ound and most worthy Doctour affording us a double strength and together with 〈◊〉 brings us Mr. Luther wholly and constantly avouching the same truth which we have defended through our whole discourse The fourth is judicious Mr. Perkins from whose gracious mouth and Ministery I received in my youth often the same holy truth as now in his fruitfull writings appeareth every where As in his golden chaine chap 31. having set downe the use of the Morall law in the unregenerate he coÌ„cludeth that the use of the Law in the regenerate is farre otherwise for it guideth them to new obedience which obedience may bee acceptable to God through Christ. And upon Gal 3. 12. hee answereth this question why the Lord saith He that doth the things of the Law shall live considering that no man since the fall can doe the things of the Law and sheweth that still the Lord repeateth his law in the olde tenure 1. To teach that the law is of a constant and uncheangable nature 2. to advertise us of our weaknesse and shew us what wee cannot doe 3. To put us in minde still to humble our selves after we have begun by grace to obey the law because even then wee come farre short in doing the things which the law requireth at our hands And on verse 23. he inquireth that now seeing faith is come what is the guard whereby wee are now kept Answ. The precepts of the Morall Law The sayings of the wise are as nayles or stakes fastned to range men in the compasse of their owne duties Ecclesiast 12. 11. And most plainely he coucheth our whole doctrine concerning the Law in the answer of our question upon vers 15. eiusdem capitis The question is how farre the Morall Law is abrogated Answer Three wayes 1. In respect of Iustification 2. Of malediction 3. In respect of rigour For in them that are in Christ God accepteth the indeavour to obey for obedience it selfe Neverthelesse saith he The Law as it is a rule of good life is unchangable and admitteth no abrogation And Christ in this regard did by his death establish it Rom. 5. 31. And on c. 4. 5. The Law must be considered two wayes First as a rule of life Thus Angels are under the Law and Adam before his fall and the Saints now in heaven and none yeeld more subjection to the Law than they and this subjection is their liberty Againe consider it as a grievous yoke three wayes none can beare it c. And in his Treatise of conscience cap. 2. saith That the Morall Law bindeth the consciences of all men at all times to obedience The fifth is our learned and industrious Doctor Willet Bellarmin saith he is not ashamed to slaunder us that wee affirme christian liberty to stand herein that we are altogether freed from the obedience and subjection of the Law Vt Moses cum suo decalogo nihil ad not pertinent But we call God and all the world to record that we witnes no such thing knowing tha-Christ came not to dissolve but to fulfill the Law Here therefore Bellarmin fighteth with his owne shadow But Christian liberty consisteth in three things that we are exempted 1 From Ceremonyes 2 From the curse and guilt 3 From the servitude and reigne of sinne c. And upon Exod. cap. 20. commandement 10. quest 9. saith thus The Morall Law is not now in force quoad justificationem that is in respect of justification but it bindeth quoad obedientiam in respect of obedience for we are bouÌ„d to keep all the precepts of the Law but yet quoad modum obedientiae et terrorem in respect of terrour and rigorous manner of obedience we are not bound c. The sixth is that grave and learned Bishop Downam whom I must honourably mention not onely for his worthy parts and labours in the Church but in the speciall reference of a painfull and worthy Tutor and teacher of my selfe in the Vniversity That right Reverend Bishop in his Treatise entituled The doctrine of Christian liberty doth exactly as his manner is open and cleare this whole doctrine and in section or paragraph 15. hath these words The Papists charge us that wee place Christian Liberty in this that we are subject to no Law in our conscience and before God and that we are free from all necessity of doing good works which is a most divelish slander for though we teach that the obedience to the Law is not required in us to Iustification but that wee are free from the exaction of the Law in that behalfe yet we deny not but that unto sanctification the obedience of the Law is required we by necessity of duty bound to the observation therof And againe We confesse to be free from obedience is to be servants of sinne and the willing cheereful worship of God is true liberty And we acknowledge that the Morall Law of God is perpetuall and immutable and that this is an everlasting truth that the creature is bound to worship and obey his Creator and so much the more bound as he hath received the greater benefits And after the
more a man is assured of his free justification the better he is enabled and the more he is bound to obey it And the Law hath singular use in them that are justified 1. as a rule of direction for al obedience 2 As a glasse of detection of our imperfection to keepe us humble 3 As a rod of correction in respect of he flesh and old man for mortification c. And concludeth that section thus We are therefore in our sanctification freed though not from the obedience yet from the servitude and bondage of the Law in three respects The seventh is that learned Bishop Davenant a speciall ornament of our Church and one worthy to succeed that famous Iewell in the sea of Salisbury In his elaborate commentary upon Coloss hath these words on cap 2. 14. Seeing this handwriting of the Law is abrogated and abolished in respect of the damnatory power of it wee gather that it yet retaineth a directory power wee may not therefore hence take to our selves a liberty to sinne but an alacrity in our service to God c. The eighth is Bishop Cowper an ingenious and reverend Divine who in his fruitfull Commentary on the 8. to the Romans delivereth himselfe wholly unto us in this point in the end of the 4 verse hath these words Albeit by Christ we be delivered from the curse of the Law yet wee are not exempted from the obedience thereof In respect of the one the Apostle said we are not under the Law but under grace In respect of the other he had said that the Law is good and our Saviour protesteth he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it both in himselfe and his members not onely by righteousnes imputed but also inherent For the Law stands to us as a rule of our life wee love the holines thereof and strive to conforme our selves unto it The ninth is that most sound and learned professour of Divinity in Basil Amandus Polanus who in the 6. booke of his Syntagma cap. 10. proveth the decalogue which is the summe and substance of the Morall Law to belong unto beleevers and is of great use among Christians by nine strong arguments I will forbeare the recitall of them because the booke is common and easie to be consulted The tenth is learned Amesius professour of Divinity in the Vniversity of Franeker who speaking of the Morall Law saith that although in respect of the faithfull it is as it were abrogated both in respect of the power of justifiing which it had in the state of integrity and in respect of the power of condemning which it had in the state of sin yet it is of strength and force in respect of the power of directing Yea and it reteineth saith he some power of condemning because it rebuketh and condemneth sinne even in the faithfull although it cannot indeed condemne the faithfull themselues that are not under the Law but under grace The Eleventh is Hieronimus Zanchius a laborious and perspicuous writer Who in 1 Ioh. 2. saith that the observation of the Law is necessary to a christian man neither can it be seperated from faith And in his Common place on Eph. 2 Loco quinto de legis Mosaicae abrogatione sect 9. speaking of the Morall Law saith consider the substance of it it is manifest that it is not abrogated that is that Christ hath not delivered us from our duty whereby wee are bound according to the eternall will of God to worship God to love our neighbour and to demeane our selves honestly and modestly c. And after If we consider the substance of the Law that is the summe of doctrine concerning piety wee deny with Christ that the Law is simply abrogated who said I came not to destroy the Law But if wee consider the accidents which wee have declared it is manifest that it is abrogated Thus Mr. Zanchius wholly agreeth with us in our grounds laid downe for the opening of the point cap. 2. The twelfth is our owne worthy Estius from whose learned tongue I received many gracious instructions in my youth whilest he lived in the Vniversity This godly man in his exposition on the commandements pag 37. saith That the Law shall keepe the use that ever it had since the fall till the generall resurrection and therefore is as needful now to bee understood as at any time To whom agreeth Bucanus who saith that the Law in respect of the precepts of it shall not be abolished neither in this life nor in the life to come for God requireth perpetuall love both toward himselfe and toward the Creatour suo ordine c. loc de lege All these worthies have passed a joynt sentence against these violaters of Gods most righteous Law and pronounce them guilty of high treason transgression against the Lord and of spreading scandalous words and writings against the dignity equity and validity of his eternall Law and so against himselfe the most righteous judge and authour of it and in so high and presumptuous a sinne in vaine expect they that any should pleade for them It was Elies speech to his sonnes sonnes of Belial that is lawlesse men and Libertines that knew not the Lord. If one man sinne against another the Iudge shall judge it but if a man sinne against the Lord who shall pleade for him verse 25. which implieth a sinne of an high nature directly against God and very hardly forgiven surely so is this sinne of an high nature directly against the glory of God and the majestie of his Law yet upon their returne and repentance as they have a Mediatour in heaven to pleade pardon so also the Saints in earth cannot but pleade and pray for the pardon of those for whom Christ in heaven pleadeth and even so is our earnest prayer that they may be helped out of their errour and come backe into the way of truth But in one sence howsoever they applaud themselves they have none to pleade for them never a learned man nor judicious Divine that came in my hands or under mine eye in all my reading for these many yeares nor any classicke authour that leaneth that way I must needes witnesse to Mr. Calvin that they learned not their delirium as he calleth it out of bookes And if you will yet persist selfe-wise and ascribe more to your selves than to all the Protestant Divines of such singular learning and holinesse then may you make use of my service in producing so many godly writers and witnesses against you to fill up your list and catalogue of false teachers that preach not Christ aright and to the names of London Preachers which your scandalous scattered papers and lost libells mention as Pharisaicall enemies to the truth now by you discovered you may put in Calvin Beza Whitakers Perkins and the rest of the godly Bishops and renowned Doctours who are so cleare also against that which you call truth
reverses sinne when we are come to Christ wee must by it be brought to Christ still And it is false that they say that the Law is indeede a scoolemaster to bring us once unto Christ but then wee have done with it and it with us for it must ever bring us to Christ so long as by sinne wee estrange our selves from him or him from us That place in Galat. 3. 24 25. nothing contrarieth our doctrine After faith came we were no longer under a schoolmaster that is such a schoolemaster as it was The place is notably opened by learned Pareus to whom for brevity sake I remit the Reader Eighthly Wee must conceiue the Law in the substance of it the image of God written in the heart of Adam in innocency and by the finger of the same spirit written in the hearts of all the elect and consequently must feare tremble to sin against this Law which floweth from the righteous nature of God and the impugning of which is the violating of his owne image and nature so farre as wee can reach it A man may breake the Princes Law and not violate his Person but not Gods for God and his image in his Law are so straitly united as one cannot wrong the one and not the other Ninthly Wee must frame our selves to love this righteous Law for this image of God ingraven upon it yea and the more that wicked men hate and resist it the more that sonnes of Belial rise up against it wee must love it the more obey it so much the more maintain and defend the power and honour of it with so much the more zeale and earn estnesse so did holy David Ps. 119. 126. Wicked men have destroyed the Law therefore I love it above fine gold where the Prophet concludeth them enemies to God that are enemies to the Law And 2. that then is the time to pleade for God and his Law when wicked men most oppose and oppresse it Now then is the time when the godly must awaken themselves not onely to observe but also to preserve it FINIS Contra Legis adversarios Adversus furiosam sectam Libertinorum Nemo miretur aut consternetur cum tam insolitos ab omni ratione alienos errores cernas Calv. 2 Thes 2. Quod hostis machinatur in perniciem convertit Deus in adiutorium Aug Epist ad Sextum 105. Deus ecce furentibus obstat Optimus portus poenitentiae mutatio consilii Cic Philip Etiam loquendum cum Ecclesia recte sentiente Cyprian Sublime et tumidum dicendi genus pere grino quodam idiomate loquuntur ut qui ipsos audiunt prima facie stupefiant Calv advers Libert c 2. Quemadmodum circulatores aliique errones c peculiari sermonis genere utunturâ— Vide cap 7 eiusdem libri 2 Cor 4. 2 Non est humano aut seculi sensu in Dei rebus loquenduÌ„ Hilar. lib. 8 de Trinit Sequamur loquendi regulam quam tradit Scriptura neque extra illos fines evagemur Calv. cap 7. 1 Cor 14. 9 It is the priviledge of beleevers not to be under the Law 4 Reasons Gal. 3. 10. The danger of being under the Law in 4 things How a man may get from under this dangerous state Habak 2. 4. Sixe notes of tryall to know one gotten froÌ„ under the danger of the Law Ephes. 2. 10 The substance of the Law in 5 things Psal. 119. 89. The beleever is under the whole substance of the Law Seven appendices of the Law in none of which the beleever is under the Law Rom. 8. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which regard it Iâ— called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod non licâ—t acrius urit Gens humana ruit in vetâ—tum â—eâ—as Regenerat are not without a Law 1 Tim. 1. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor under the Law in 5 respects But under that is within the compasse of the Law Psal. 2. 2 3 Iudg. 16. 9 1 Reason All the same sins are forbidden after faith as before Rom. 7. 7. 1 Ioh. 3. 4. The Saints are perfect not perfectists Psal. 119. 120. Rom. 7. 15. 19. 23. Hypocratis magis fomentis quam monitis nostris indigent Non dicit non peccat sed non dat operam peccato Beza Qui ambulant in viis Domini non operantur peccatum et tamen non sunt sine peccato August in Psa. 118 conc 2. Non peccare Dei iustitia est hominis iustitia indulgentia Dei Bern. ser. 23 in Cantic Nunc bene vivitur si sine crimine sine peccato autem qui se vivere existimat noÌ„ id agit ut peccatum non habeat sed ut veniam non accipiat Aug. Enchirid. Haec est regeneratorum perfectio si se imperfectos esse agnoscant August 2 Reas. The same duties are required after faith as before Quod accuratius Christus exposuit magis pertinere ad Christianos creditur 1 Cor. 4. 21 2 Cor. 5. 11 3 Reas Christ cam not to abolish the Law and therefore it is not abolished Christ cam not to destroy the Law why But to fulfil it how Rom. 8. 2. 4 Reas. Nor the Apostles abolished the Law Lex et fides mutuo se iuvant mutuo sibi dant manus P. Mart. But confirme the authority of it 1 Ioh. 1. 9. Dicatur mihi in decem praeceptis quid non fit a Christiano observandum Cant. Faust. lib. 3. Fides impetrat gratiam quâ— Lex impletur Quia quae in Lege dicta sunt facienda per fidem ostenduntur facta Ambros. 5 Res Every beleever is bound to strive to conformity with the Law 1. In his inner man Iustificati amici Legis efficiuntur Ambr. in Rom. 8. Qui dicit se diligere Legem mentitur tam enim amamus Legem quam homicida carcâ—rem 2. In his outward man 3. In his whole man Nisi dum Scriptuâ—ae bonâ—e intelliguntur oÌ„â— bene quod in ijs non benâ— intelligitur etiam temere audacter asseritur Aug. expos in Ioh. trac 18. Habent â—cripâ—urasâ— aâ— spâ—ciem non aâ— salutem Deâ— Baptis contra Donat. lib. 4 The first maine ground of this schism Ignorance Hi quidem homâ—nes indocti sunt ac idiotae qui non usque adeo evolvendis chartis sunt exercitati ut exijs deâ—â—ria sua addiscâ—re potuerint Instruct. advers Libert cap. 1. Alter cubicularius alter hostiarius libenter fieri sustinuerâ—t Cap 4. câ—usdem libri Iune 12. Ignorance of the end of Christs comming 2. Of the nature of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 5. 3. Of the nature of faith Godly life is nothing but keeping commandements Hab. 2. 4. Wee are meere patients in the causes of blessednesse but not in the conditions of it Christs righteousnesse onely gives right to heaven but our sanctification gives a fitnesse and aptitude to it Rev 21. 27 Iustification freeth the beleever from the condemnation of sinne but not