Garland and that signal work 24. Christ is opposed likewise in his Servants of the Ministry as First By the former Errors So secondly By the Socinians Seekers Behmenists Revelationists Quakers and Libertines who deny corrupt and oppose it Thirdly by the Papists who set up an Antichristian Head and Hierarchy mangling and perverting it wofully Fourthly By Innovators who exalt a Power therein above others unknown to Christ and others slighting what Christ hath set up AGainst these various Evils the Knowledge of Christ improved graciously will fence our Judgements and make us to see the excellency and perpetuity the necessity and utility of his Gospel-ministry It was his care of old to set it up in his Church for their common good that the Priests lips might preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord. The first Insurrections against it which assaulted also the Magistracy by a strong levelling party under holy pretences were dreadfully rebuked and plagued by an extraordinary hand from Heaven The Lord made also Aarons Rod to blossom and fructifie miraculously that he might ratifie this great Ordinance of his to all Ages He appointed the Levites to be therefore settled in all the parts of Israel that every one might be provided with ministerial Help Himself promised in a peculiar way to be their best Portion and took a special care that among their Brethren they might never want a plentifull portion From time to time did he renew that charge and sharply visited for the neglect thereof He honor'd and prosper'd those Princes and people that did carefully observe his Will therein His Magistracy and his Ministry went still hand in hand both in doing good and suffering evil Moses and Aaron in all their Successors were still duly observed by God and good men The Jewish Church and State declined together by their sinfull neglects of Christs Institutions Christ therefore came at last himself personally that he might repair those wofull Ruins The vile abusing of his Ministry brought on them first a Babylonian yoak and afterwards a Roman slavery after many Persian and Grecian Oppressions The Revolts of Jason and of Onias with their Anti-temples in Aegypt and Samaria brought in many more confusions then both on Church and State Their corrupt opposings of Christs Ministry cost them very dear When Christ came in the flesh the many disorders of the ministerial Office and persons had disordered all His great care was then to rectifie things in the best method An end of all shadows he made in himself by his own Ministry and settled himself a substantial Ministry that should continue unto the worlds end His great business still was to purge his Temple and to commission his ministerial Servants for the successive building of his house His twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples were to that end succesfully employed by him When he ascended and triumph'd over all he bestowed then Coronation Gifts of a choice Nature Then gave he Apostles Prophets and Evangelists in extraordinary Pastors and Teachers in ordinary for Ambassados for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the building up of his body untill we all come to the full stature of the Son of God Thus Christ settled this ministerial function with spiritual Authority by setting apart in a regular Call persons by him duly qualified to the full employment of the Ministry The Circumstantials of the ceremonial Law he pared off thereby and settled the substance of his will therein in this solemn office for his special honor and his peoples good The Father and Spirit joined with God the Son in the Commission given from above to settle this Office and assure thereon a signal Blessing till the end of all As the Son gave these Residents of his to his Church below so did the Father set them in the Church and the holy Ghost still makes them overseers thereof In the renewing of their Commission he enlarged it unto all Nations gave them the keys of his Kingdom to act under him as Deputy-stewards Titles of Honor he gives them many fit Emblems also of their weighty work They are his Agents and the peoples Guides Shepherds and Rulers Angels and Leaders Elders they are and Overseers as Ambassadors acting in his name As he taught his Apostles the things of his Kingdom so were they carefull to instruct the rest Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus are a directory for all Church Affairs The Apostles needed extraordinary Gifts as did the Prophets and Evangelists in the first planting of Churches everywhere That work being done then ended with them their immediate infallible Call Extraordinaries are but for a time to make sure way to Ordinaries Snccessors they had in the substantials of the Ministry though not in all their Circumstantials Paul in his progress having shew'd the way of ordaining such gave Timothy and others further Rules still to prosecute that work Pastors and Teachers must abide in charge whilst there is one soul to be brought to Christ and built up in Christ These stars are kept in the Lords own hand being the Lights of his own setting up Many Ministers and Churches may perish for their Apostacy as they of Asia but the Ministry in the Church of Christ shall be sure to stand These witnesses of his may be much abused to the very Death but they shall rise again very speedily to the confusion of all enemies Lest they should grow proud and usurp Lorship Christ charged them timely to act as Servants in his name and work His word holds forth all Elders equal in ordinary since extraordinaries removed from men Some priority of order and age the Primitive Churches thought fit to admit Pride and Ambition corrupted the same adding Jurisdiction and Power thereto At first they did chuse a Moderator who might be Speaker in their regular meetings That was first elective and then became fixed and gradually did degenerate Under fair colors many did encroach and subjected Elders to Bishops Power Thence did Arch-Bishops and Patriarchs rise with other Limbs of that Hierarchy By Princes bounty too sadly abused this evil did rise and brought forth a Pope That Antichristian Beast with his double horn speaking like the Lamb acted Dragon-like He gradually subdued Christs Magistracy and Ministry by usurpations of the double sword That Pestilential Wen grew so fast on the Church that it did over-spread and consume it in its noblest parts Many Excrescences did rise under it as their Cardinals Archdeacons Chancellors Thence a further Rabble of Commissaries Porters Acolyths Subdeacons Exorcists Thence also their Monks Friers Eremits Nuns and Jesuits swarming everywhere Thus gradually did Abaddon prevail to waste Christs portion for a thousand two hundred sixty years The witnesses whilst
not admit of conviction or cure 16. As ignorant sots fitter for the Asses scourge Balaam-like then for rational course and company 17. As empty vain Boasters speaking great swelling words of vanity 18. As subtile Deceivers alluring through the Lusts of the flesh and much wantoness of spirit in fair promises of Liberty such as had clean escaped from them that live in Error 19. As relapsing Apostates like the dog turning to his vomit and the sow washed to her wallowing in the mire Thirdly He sets forth Prophetically a ranting Crue of scornful mockers that should pester the latter dayes whom he doth accurately paint out in this third Chapter that we might be effectually provided against such a storm Scoffers saith he shall arise walking after their own lusts deriding the promise of Christs coming wilfully ignorant of the Angels fall the worlds drowning Sodoms firing and all such Preludes of divine vengancee upon all impenitent Infidels Thence he hastens towards his close by sure demonstrations of that grand Truth which they mainly opposed Christs last coming he lively represents and assures of which would be sudden seasonable and successfuls That Christ of Gods so much slighted by men shall come upon them saith he as a thief in the Night to fulfill that divine Word which hath reserved heavens and earth to be burnt up with fire then shall the heavens pass away with a great Noise the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth and works therein shall be burnt up Thereby moving all Christians to have a singular care of holiness and Godliness in Heart and Life But least the friends of Christ should be troubled at the terribleness of his Approach he promiseth to them a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Thereby he Revives their hearts and presses them to improve savingly what others abuse desperately The patience of God bearing so wonderfully with all gives his Elect time of returning home and renders the rest inexcusable This he uses as a strong Incentive to Re-inforce on them his former Exhortation whereto also his fellow-Labourer Paul had in his Epistle cogently pressed them His writings so divine as all other Scriptures could not escape the abuse of wicked minds and Reprobate Consciences They were then as still they are shamefully wrested by unlearned and unstable souls to their own and others destruction He therefore with the more vigour charges Gods people to study and observe them with more diligence and sobriety with more prudence and circumspection with more sincerity and self-denial Therefore ye Beloved saith he seeing ye know these things beware lest ye be led away by the Errour of the wicked and so fall from your own stedfastness but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Thus you see the ushering in of our Text to give us an excellent Counter-poison against all sin and Errour suted to the Complexion of these latter dayes in a peculiar manner and that by way of Epilogue and Conclusion III. This Epilogue or close sums up all in an Emphatical Exhortation by a pressing Disuasive from evil v. 17. and a pregnant persuasive to good ver 18. 1. THe Dissuasive expresses three main particulars 1. The proper subject of damnable Errors viz. wicked Lawless persons 2. The contagious danger thereof good men themselves being too ready to be led away thereby and so to fall from their own stedfastness 3. The singular method of self-preservation from it by improving of all divine Warnings to the faithful keeping of our selves in our stedfastness 2. The Persuasive in ver 18. Exposes also three choyce things to our consideration 1. The chief Ingredients of our spiritual Antidote Viz. the Grace and Knowledge of Christ 2. The gradual compleating and fitting therereof by growing therein 3. The due Application of the same in Opposition to that infectious Venom by a proportionable Improvement or this Antidote implyed in the particle But but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ These several Points are to be more distinctly viewed to our present purpose 1. From that special Attribution of Errour to wicked men which our Apostle pathetically expresses by the double demonstrative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby he Emphatically denotes their property and Interest in such a way of Error We may observe to good purpose that Doctrine 1. Lawless wicked Persons are exceeding subject to be carried away with destructive Errours The Godly may accidentally fall into them but the ungodly are peculiarly totally and finally carried away therewith 1. WIcked Ones are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Lawless or boundless ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Privative adversative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex Law They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposite to Gods Law as well as destitute of it They love not they know not they own not Gods law they observe it not whereas the regenerate delight in Gods Law as Paul though they look not to be justified by the works of it Gods Law is the Revelation of his Will concerning mans duty fully Registred now in the Scriptures of Truth the perfect Rule of Faith and obedience summed up in Gods Statute-books of the old and New Testament Errour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wandring from the Truth either Natural Moral or Spiritual either in foundation or superstructure According to the Import of the Truth opposed so is every error more or less dangerous Those Errours are damnable in the Apostles phrase which deny or destroy Fundamental Truths as about the Natures Person and Office of Christ Mediator the misery of man his Recovery by Grace the need of Regeneration resting on Christ alone c. To be led away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be carried by the force of a torrent and stream or in a croud and hurry Thus Lawless men are hurried away by the fraud and force of Error into evil thence ver 12 13. they are compared to natural bruit Beasts fiercely running to their destruction It hath been too sadly confirmed in all Ages specially in our dayes Those grand Seducers and their prime followers which did so much pester the Apostolical Churches are thus described and we are told at large what monsters of wickedness should follow their steps Paul and Peter John and Jude set them forth in lively portraictures as Christ himself had done before Scripture and Ecclesiastical History do fully demonstrate it In this very Chapter and the foregoing the direful characters given by our Apostle of those Impostors that would successively disturb Christianity demonstrate it ex abundanti Such were Simon and Menander Ebion and Cerinthus Basilides and Priscillian of old Paracelsus and David George Muncer and John of Leydon with many more of later date Reason 1 The Reigning corruption of such Lawless ones must needs incline them
habits and acts inclinations and allurements provocations and examples yea every appearance of evil in our selves and others 3. Is our Joy spiritually delighted in that Soveraign good presented to us to be certainly and intimately enjoyed both in free and present fruition Do we rejoice thus in the Lord always from the possession of that Kingdom of Christ which is Peace Righteousness and Joy in the Holy Ghost Doth the Pledge and Earnest of his eternal Glory given us thereby fill us with that Joy both unspeakable and full of Glory Is this Joy of the Lord our strength to quicken and supple all the wheels of our souls 4. Is our Sorrow spiritually active in grieving for all sin Original habitual and actual for the great dishonor still done to Christ the contempt of his Gospel abusing his Mercies breaking of his Laws slighting his warnings hardning under his Judgements Do we mourn for the failings and distempers of his people and make their case ours among his Mourners marked for safety 5. Doth our Desire move spiritually with unsatisfiableness after that Good not yet attained setting an edge upon all endeavours sweetning all troubles in the way facilitating all difficulties spurring on sluggishness and teaching all Improvements of what 's received in order thereto 6. Doth our Disdain act spiritually to scorn all sinfull baseness which might hinder us from the good desired Doth it make us flie from whatsoever might keep that from us by keeping God at distance Doth it make us disown what might grieve Christ and offend his Spirit whose acquaintance is our chief desire 2. The sensitive Appetite moves irascibly against all difficulties by the Affections of Hope and Despair Fear Confidence and Indignation Doth this knowledge of Christ act thus within us 1. DOth our Hope stir spiritually towards the full enjoyment of eternal good though surrounded with discouragements from Earth and Hell Doth it cast Anchor within the vail upon the rock of Ages to stay our souls in the midst of all storms Is it that Helmet which safeguards our head in all Conflicts with many Legions of sins and devils 2. Do we spiritually despair not of Christ but of sin of selfe of all creatures expecting all good only from Christ in the use of good means appointed by him but not from themselves much less from self or sin 3. Is our fear spiritually active lest we should displease him and frustrate our own good by neglecting our duty or doing any thing contrary to him Doth this filial fear move us with Noah by faith to prepare all things and repair to the Ark casting out all slavish tormenting fears 4. Doth our Confidence appear spiritually in Christian resolutions against all Christs enemies to the discharge of our proper Duty he calls us to Are we bold with a generous audaciousness to follow Christ the Captain of our Salvation through all Impediments 5. Doth our spiritual Indignation move in holy Zeal to the removing of all obstacles that lie in the way of our Allegiance to our Soveraign Christ Are we enflamed with that prudent zeal which consumed the very heart of Christ for the purging and settling of his house Is our fire kindled against sin whilst our heart melts for the sinners good as far as possible It it not a blind but a well-guided zeal not a wild fire but duly ordered III. Natural Life appears in the Rational faculties by the several Acts of the Mind and Judgement Conscience and Will Memory and Affections doth our spiritual Life appear therein also 1. DOth our mind act spiritually in understanding of spiritual Matters and apprehending the mind of Christ made known to us by his Spirit Word and Providence 2 Doth our Judgment act in discerning of things that differ and reasoniug of things answerably to his divine Reason signified to us either expresly or consequentially Do we judge our selves first and our own sins that Satan may be judged in us and by us 3. Doth our conscience move spiritually in a due reflection on self with subordination to Gods Judgement Doth it speak for God as becomes his Deputy and Substitute in Teaching and Ruling in Witnessing and Recording in Judging and Executing according to Gods Will Is it not blinded bribed and feared Is it not benum'd deaded and gangrened by self-love and corrupt Opinions 4. Doth our will spiritually stir in chusing true good and refusing true evil Is it brought over to subject freely and fully to the will of Christ Hath the Key of Heaven opened the great Spring to lift up these everlasting Gates to the King of Glory Is thy heart of stone turned into flesh and this Iron sinew melted into Gods mould 5. Doth our Intellectual memory spiritually act in laying up those things which those faculties have committed to its charge Doth it recal such things to Remembrance by its peculiar Acts of Reminiscency and recovering those many useful things which accidentally had slipt away Doth it carry it self like a good Steward indeed bringing out of its store good things new and old 6. Do our rational Affections move spiritually towards good against evil under the guidance and Rule of these superiour Powers which are stil to follow the dictates of Heaven Do these wheels and weights stir Regularly Do these wings and feet carry our souls orderly Do these Sails and Oars convey us safely through the current of all our Relations to the service and enjoyment of God Thus may we take a due Estimate by this scantling and Abstract of our spiritual Acquaintance with God according to our measure of this gracious Knowledge variously acting toward Christ and from Christ for him and through him by his Spirits Energetical motions He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life Vse 4. This Truth speaks singular Consolation to the real friends of Christ Choyce is the Jewel afforded to them as former particulars do fully evince This precious Cordial will be of excellent use against all corruptions and temptations against all Afflictions and desertions There will a season come for the benefit thereof to all Gods people It concerns all to make the best of it Objection This is good indeed may the trembling heart say but it s none of mine that am so far from the Knowledge of Christ I fear I am a stranger to him yet Answ It s bad indeed to be far from Christ but its good to be sensible of it The knowledge of thy disease is a good step to the cure There is hopes of good in sensible sinners nothing but wo to sensless Perfectionists Answ 2. But what makes thee fear thy estrangedness Is not thy desire
will still cherish it self-conceit and folly will still be its Nurses Meddle not with pitch to avoid its filth Trie all things aright that you may suck no evil Advice from sure hands will preserve you much from the common Wo of this erring Age. Improve your own and others Experience confirmed to you by Scripture-Records 5. Forget not Temperance the Nurse of Vertue and the Ruin of vice Let your moderation appear to all men the Lord is an hand Sobriety in all things lawfull must attend abstinence from things unlawfull The supream Physician directs often to this both by his own mouth and his Servants Pen. Intemperance is the womb and breast of all sinfull evil that would weaken you You may soon surfeit with worldly Creatures if you be not singularly carefull that you may grow apace in the things of Christ be very moderate in all other things Nature is content with little and Grace with less where Inordinancy hath not burst the bounds Know well what becomes your Complexion and Condition that you may still cut your garment to your cloth and to your wearing He is rich indeed that hath learn't Contentment the choice Jewel which Christ alone gives Paul studied long and hard for the same being instructed in the School of Heaven Follow his steps to attain his End so shall you know how to want and abound Godliness with Content will be your great gain the Blessing of the Lord will make you so rich as to add no sorrow thereto Sixthly Be very watchfull this is Christs own Rule often inculcated to spur on our dulness We naturally are very drowzy much inclining to sloth and slumber In this sleepy age the wisest Virgins contract infection among the foolish They all slumber and sleep through their own default the Bridgroom tarrying for some longer space then some expected Watch and pray watch and be sober lest ye be surprized ere you be ware You are surrounded with mortal enemies very numerous cruel and cunning Look well to your Guards inward and outward your danger within is often greatest Redeem the time well walking circumspectly not as fools but as wise in these evil days Watch unto all good against every sin so shall you be ready for your Masters comming The lazy Servant shall see him with horror whom the diligent shall welcome with Joy The night of Ignorance Error and all sin is the season that requires this most Troubles of all sorts will attend the same if all due care be not rightly used Christ comes as a Thief unexpectedly both on the former and this latter world whilst robbing Spirits are catching abroad Blessed is he that watcheth and keeps his Garments If any of us be stripped by their Wiles we shall be found naked to our open shame Seducing Spirits do haunt every place with their cheating drugs and Mountebanck Tricks Look well to your selves and to all under you that ye be not poisoned by their Artifice They can cog the dice and shuffle their Cards with all nimbleness and secret methods The Prince of this world is still teaching them to abuse Scripture and corrupt its sense by wresting its words Watch therefore to improve the knowledge of Christ with more vigor zeal and diligence Be moved thereto by further viewing the following point as the Remedy against such Maladies Doctrine VI. Spiritual Growth is a Soveraign Antidote against Error and Apostacy This clearly appears from the respective Aspect of this Text upon the Context as is implyed in the particle But. ERror is a subtile and a strong Poison as doth appear from the former hints It blinds the Judgement and misleads the soul into Satans road of falshood and deceit Spiritual Errors are most dangerous in the great matters of our Salvation Scruples and doubts are more unsettled Error grows fixed and radicates it self In Circumstantials of Religion there is less danger among sober and humble Christians If this disease grow to greater height near the foundation and the noble parts t' will be worse still If once it strike at Fundamentals its intolerable not to be born with The venom thereof is set out in Scripture by the most poisonous Creatures that can be Minerals and Plants Vermin and Serpents do all come short in setting it forth The vilest Excrements and the worst disease cannot sufficiently express its deadliness It s the sad abstract of all kind of evil wherein sin and Sorrow do fully center All sorts even the best being subject thereto in different ways should be made carefull to provide against it As Countryes vary so do their poisons as bodies vary so do their diseases This poisonous disease doth likewise vary on divers accouts to be distinctly known towards a cure Apostacy and Revolt from God is a pernicious evil and the common Attendant of Error which still endangers a Christians stedfastness The word signifies a turning aside and setting mans back against the living God Every sin is Gods enemy and turning to sin is running from God In the first Adam we revolted all and corrupt nature is still bent to sin through the sinfull venom received from him Christ the second Adam came into the world to save his people from their sinfull death by a gracious Covenant published in the Gospel Some do embrace it but externally others cordially Satan is still attempting to turn every man from it by various Errors and Methods of his He prevails with-most to their undoing and gains too much credit with the best This Apostacy and turning from God is total or partial Total Apostacy raigns still in all the unregenerate that do shake off the good ways of Christ Partial Apostacy often distempers the Regenerate to a high degree though it never proves total nor final They turn as far from God as they turn aside into crooked ways being disturbed with the fumes of corruption and temptation They turn from one Truth and then from another by following Satan and his counterfeit Lights from one disease they contract another by the putrifying of their ill humors to more malignity These dreadfull evils need a Soveraign Antidote and a sutable Counterpoison that they may not turn all into confusion All Societies civil and spiritual are very much endangered thereby as well as mens souls Spiritual Growth is a choise Remedy fitted by the Lord for such a disease In every Country Providence affords some Preservative against all diseases and poisons that infest the same Wise Physitians know this very well though they make use of forraign drugs also ex abundanti God hath shewed no less care of the souls of men then of their bodies having sent his own Son to be the Saviour and Lord of his people He is held forth indefinitely to all that will hear and is peculiarly given to such whose heart is by special Grace renewed efficacioussy to the embracing of him
force of the Comand but ratifies it He only could do it that is the Lord thereof There is no change made in the quamdiu and continuance nor in the quoties and frequency of the same The whole Precept being moral in part naturally in part positively is perpetual therefore and not to be altered by any Creature That some special time should be observed for Gods solemn worship is moral natural That it should be such a proportion in such a Revolution is moral positive That the duty should be moved from the seventh to the first day of the week makes no substantial change therein but only directs to the season thereof upon pregnant ground Paul clears this by a large demonstration The first day Sabbath was eminently typified in the most notable Providences of the old Testament On the first day Light was created Noahs Ark rested Circumcision was first ordained Israel was redeemed from Aegyptian Bondage on the same day Christs Law was first given by himself to Israel on mount Sinai the cloud of his special presence first rested on them the Tabernacle with his pertinances was rear'd Aaron and his Children first executed their Priesthood On that day his fire from Heaven first came down to consume the Sacrifices to make them acceptable in Christ by his Spirit The Israelites were first solemly by the Lord himself blessed their Princes first publiquely offered to the Lord. So for the new Testament Christ thereon first shewed his Miracles in Cana he first rose and appeared to his Disciples the Saints that slept then rose out of their Graves the holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles solemnly met and thereon still they met for divine worship When the Jewish Sabbath ended by reason of its Typicalness expiring with Christs death then began the first day to be the Christian Sabbath Christ sanctifying it to that end by his resurrection honouring it in a special manner which is the ground given by God himself for the keeping of a Sabbath So carefull were Christ and Christians of it that he bids them pray that their flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath lest it should distract their bodies and souls Prophaning of the Sabbath hath ever been threatned and punished signally as the due observance of it hath been choicely encouraged and rewarded in all Superiors and Inferiors It s the Lords court-day wherein he expects due Homage and Rents from all his Tenants It s his Muster-day for all his Christian Souldiers It s his solemn Feast-day to welcome all his friends It s his weekly Market for the getting in of all heavenly provisions It s his Chancery-day for the sealing and grant of his deeds of Favour What enemies are they to his honor and mans good who slight and abuse that Heaven upon earth It s the beginning of an eternal Sabbath All Cavils against it have been fully dispelled by many choice pieces When Paul condemns the distinction of days his meaning is cleared by the Context to speak of Jewish Ceremonials not of Christian Morals The neglect and abuse of the Christian Sabbath hath been observed formerly and lately to be still the Inlet to all other errors Englands prosperity began in Queen Elizabeths time when the Sabbath began to be duly maintained by Authority The troubles of England began afterwards when the Sabbath was publiquely by Authority profaned and by the same party * The famous Kings and Witagen Mots among the Saxons still renew'd strict Laws for due observance of the Christian Sabbath 15. The Law of Christ is variously abused 1. By the the foresaid Errors 2. By Antinomians denying the Obligation of a Christian to the moral Law 3. By Papists in mangling of it and dispencing therewith at pleasure many ways 4. By Quakers and other Innovators joining too much with Papists 5. By Socinians that rest thereon teaching people the like and so making it their satisfaction to justice and their Salvation AGainst such evils Scripture-knowledge of Christ will help us to see the need and use of that Law of Christ As he printed it on mans heart at first so doth he by his Grace renew it there gradually He published it himself from Mount Sina to his people adding the Ceremonials and Judicials afterwards as fit accommodations of that moral Law suited to the Jewish Church and State The Decalogue then is the sum of that Law which obliges all men without exception The sevetal Explications and Applications thereof we find through the Old and New Testament Christ ratified the same from Mount Zion also in taking away the Pharisaical Rubbish which their false Glosses had cast about it The Apostles further clear and confirm it in their several Epistles and Writings Where the Scripture seems to speak against the Law the sense is cleared by viewing the Context 1. They speak against the justifying Power of the Law through mans weakness since the fall none being able to keep it without fault or to make amends for his breach thereof Thus by the Law can none be justified and the regenerate are not under it to get pardon and salvation by a Law of works The Pharisees thus pressed and owned it and were confuted by Christ and his Apostles Thus also do they sin that do rest upon any Gospel-duty making it to themselves thereby a Law of Works Secondly They speak against the condemning effect of the Law which the regenerate are freed from by Christs Righteousness imputed to them They are not under the curse of it having their sins pardoned by Christs satisfaction made theirs actually through faith in his blood though their sin deserves the Curse yet that reatus and guilt doth not redound upon their persons being taken off by Christ Thirdly They speak often of the ceremonial Law as not obliging any Christian since Christ though it was used indifferently for a while to bear with tender Converts then unsatisfied about the abrogation thereof Fourthly They still own the royal Law of Liberty that moral Law which is the Transcript of Gods holy Will for the Rule of mans Duty in conformity to Gods Image It s called therefore the Law of Christ the perfect Law and the Law of Truth which men do well when they observe and ill so far as they neglect it God indeed writes his Law on his peoples heart but gradually and variously that is to them an internal Principle of Obedience which is still attended by the Law of their Members in opposition thereto This Principle moves them still to observe that Law which God hath given to be their standing Rule perfect and unchangeable Men are as far from his Grace as they are from observing his Law God never leaves his Children without Rule He