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A13836
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The three questions of free iustification. Christian liberty. The use of the Law Explicated in a briefe comment on St. Paul to the Galatians, from the 16. ver. of the second chapter, to the 26. of the third. By Sam. Torshell pastor of Bunbury in Cheshire.
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Torshell, Samuel, 1604-1650.
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1632
(1632)
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STC 24143; ESTC S101743
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73,396
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324
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or use of this Truth Vse 1. If we be at liberty by the Law dead unto the Law let us then stand fast in our liberty and labour ders Nor desire wee so to plead for thou wilt say to such Depart from me We have not sought such a righteousnesse and therefore we sing for ioy I now proceede to follow the Apostle againe in his owne method we are still upon his first argument which is continued in the 20. verse Hee had told us before that he was Dead unto the Law Now he expounds his meaning I am crucified with Christ Christ was upon the Crosse as a publicke person hee was dead to the Law because crucified being dead the Law could no more command And hee being dead to the Law we being crucified with him are dead with him We are crucified with Christ for he was in our stead as a burgesse in a Parliament for a whole Corporation or there is a Donation to us of Christ and al his so that his death is ours Yet this death gives life and liberty Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Christ lives in us in our hearts so that this our spirituall life is no other than the life of Christ living in us really and numerally the same for as the life of the naturall body and head Rollocus in loc is really numerally the same because of that strict coniunction of the head and body so and much more is this as the coniunction is greater and more close and therefore is Christ called Amb lib. 2. de poen c. 20 Our Life Col. 3.4 Hee that lives in Christ ceaseth to be what he was before It is a pretty story which we finde in Saint Ambrose A young man who had loosely mis-spent his time taking a iourny into other parts was by the mercy of God converted at his returne home hee is met and saluted by his wanton Love hee entertaines her with a coy and strange looke Shee wondring at his carriage and thinking his Travel might make him forget his former acquaintance begins to tell him who shee was It is I it is I but the new Convert returnes an answer much like rhis of the Apostles Sed ego non sum ego Ambr. ib. But I am not I. When we are crucified with Christ we live not any longer a Non vivit ille qui quondam viuebat in lege quiâ—pe qui persequebatur Ecclesiam vivitautem in eo Christus sapientia fortitudo sermo pax gaudidium caeteraeque virtututes quas qui non habet non potest dicere vivit in me Christus Hier. in loc our own life Hee saith not Hee lives in Christ but which is more divinely elegant Christ lives in him As sinne is said to live in us when we obey it so when Christ guides us he lives within us This he seemes to promise Ioh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also We must not live onely in our owne person but must still have our eye on Christ as it were the forme of our soule whereby it lives and is actuated If we separate Christs person from ours Then we abide under and live in the Law Thus hath the Apostle by preoccupation answered that obiection If you are dead how doe you then live He answers by distinction of a double life Non sufficit nostrarelinquerâ— nisi retinquamus et nos c. Aliud sumus perpeccatum lapsi aliud per naturam conditi c And a little after Extinctus fuerat saevus ille persecutor vivere coeperat pius praedicator Greg. in Evang Hom. 32. Naturall that is my owne Spirituall that is the life of another made mine I as Paul am dead but I live as a Christian The furious persecutor was crucified the godly preacher now lives as Gregory excellently explicates that of our Saviour He that will bee my Disciple let him deny himselfe But again they might obiect thou livest by thine owne life we see thee breathing moving performing the actions of a natual life Wee see thy flesh but Christ we see not That he cleares Indeed I live in the flesh but 't is as no life I see speake eate drinke sleepe but 't is not the flesh that leads me in these very outward things I am also guided by my Christ This hee pleads against the malitious 2 Cor. 10.2 3. There are some which thinke of us as if wee walked according to the flesh though we walke in the flesh wee doe not warre after the flesh We live not so as to obey the command of our lusts He lives by faith and in the latter words of this verse hee noteth to us the causes of his faith I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me These together firme the beleever that Christ is the Son of God that the Son of God loves us that hee manifests his love by his death for us Faith stayes not upon the Sonne of God as simply such but upon the Sonne loving and dying therefore it is said Rom. 3.25 through faith in his bloud Hitherto have wee pursued the first Argument of this Apostolike truth or according as our method cals it The first Reason of Pauls Doctrine I shall passe the others more briefly to hasten to his use or application Argum. 2 2. The second argument is in the last verse the 21. verse of this second Chapter The Text. VERS 21. I doe not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousnes come by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine IT is an argument ex absurdo from a double absurdity that would easily follow upon the granting of a contrary to this truth 1. If wee should seeke Iustification by the law then wee should make frustrate the grace of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do not make frustrate The word Ambr. Non sum ingratus gratiae Dei Aug. Non irritam facio gratiam Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie 1. To contemne as Heb. 10.28 the word is used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee that despised or contemned Moses Law 2. To reiect as Ioh. 12 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c He that reiecteth me and receiveth not my words 3. To disanull as Gal. 3.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If it be a mans Covenant no man disannulleth it How great is that evill and consequent absurdity by seeking a legall righteousnesse to make frustrate that is to contemne to reiect to disannull the grace or free dispensation of mercy of God What sin is there more hainous and yet what more common When wee doe expect of our owne wee doe as it were spit upon Christ contemning him as vile We as it were tread him under foot casting him away as unusefull we as it were frustrate all his merits as being of no value High and fearefull sinnes of a bloudy Dye and treasonable nature For thus we set workes in the place of Christ and
Iewes it pertained not to the Gentiles and thus it cannot rightly be said to be abrogated unto them for none can be freed from the Law but they that were under the Law Gal. 4.5 The Gentiles were no more under Moses his Law as being the Law of Moses than the Romans under the lawes of Lycurgus or Solon the law-givers of Lacedemon and Athens The Gentiles sinned not against Moses hiâ— law but against the law of Nature and therefore are they said to have sinned without Law Rom. 2.12 Yet for substance this Law is the same with that of Moses the Decalogue for when the Gentiles which have not the Law doe by nature the things contained in the law These having not the law are a law unto themselves Rom. 2.14 Concerning the sâ—aelites some of them beleeved some of them persisted in unbeliefe of the former of these there is not any Question but they were freed Christ was given to redeeme them that were under the Law that they might receive the Adoption of sonnes Gal. 4.5 And of these we may understand the Scripturâ—s of the first position The latter sort though they were not freed by Christ because not in Christ yet now they are nec Mosaici nec Christiani properly neither Christians nor Mosaickes because Christ howsoever is the end of the Law therefore they are without ceremony and without law as being but usurpers upon that which they still hold and use To Beleevers it was not given as from Moses and therefore none of them are obnoxious to it as his for though they embrace the same commands that Moses gave yet they are not subjects to it but as now theirs by Christ A New Commandement I give unto you That ye love one another Iohn 13.34 ' Tts a Commandment for Christ is a Saviour and a Lord 'T is a New one for wee have it from the hand of our Christ 2. The Causes why law should be abrogated These were 1. That the Gentiles might be called Now in Christ Iesus ye who sometimes were afarre off are made migh by the bloud of Christ for hee is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken downe the middle wall of partition betweene us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 2.13 14 Whatsoever was Intergerinus paries A middle wall of partition betweene Iewes and Gentiles is broken downe and abrogated But the substance of the Law did not hinder their consociation for these did by Nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2.14 The Curse was that among other things which divided and equally divided them both from Christ now that they might bee subjected to and meete in one Christ the Curse must be abrogated 2. A second cause was because it was an intolerable burthen as Peter tells them in the Councell it was such a burthen as neither they nor their Fathers were able to beâ—re Act. 15.10 Hee speakes of the whole law all the kinds and the Apostle applyes it I testifie againe to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to doe the whole Law Gal. 5.3 That which makes the Law heavy proves it to be a burthen is abrogated and therefore Christ calls us to another burthen an easie one Take my Yoake upon you for my yoake is easie and my burthen light Mat. 11.29 30. This is the love of God that wee keepe his Commandements and his Commandements are not grievous 1 Ioh. 5.3 3. A third Cause was because the Law was unprofitable There is verily a disanulling of the Commandement going before for the weakenesse and unprofitablenes thereof for the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God Heb. 7.18 19. In the first Tabernacle were offered gifts and Sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience Hebr. 9.9 Saint Paul more particularly of the morall What the law could not doe in that it was weake through the flesh Rom. 8.3 The law being unprofitable unto Iustification therfore in the businesse of Iustification it is abrogated 4. A fourth cause was because the law was pernicious though not of its owne nature yet through the flesh The Minister of sinne working wrath But where the Spirit is there is liberty And therefore the law as a coacter Aug. 3. Tom lib. de Spir. et Lit. is abrogated 3. I have passed these two more briefly yet enough of them to the Question the third will challenge a longer stay to enquire what things are signified under the word Law and to apply what wee enquire for the difference of the abrogation It signifies 1. The whole Scripture The blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law hee doth exercise himselfe Psal 1.2 The people understood it in this sense when they answered We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever Ioh. 12.34 So the Law is not abrogate not one Title of it failes 2. The Bookes of Moses All things must be fulfilled which were written of me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets in the Psalms Luk. 24.44 Neither thus is the Law abrogate for the Doctrine and writings of Moses remaine 3. The paedagogy of Moses in his foure last bookes Had ye beleeved Moses yee would have beleeved me Ioh 5.46 So 't is not wholly not simply abrogate There are in it Promises Types and Commands 1. The Promises and Types doe cease because the things typified are fulfilled the things promised are received The house is built and now no more need of the Idea or exemplar 2. The Commands which were all those things whatsoever were delivered in nomine Dei in Gods name to the people These are not simply abrogate some are eternall all are called Law Of which 1. In generall 2. More specially 1. In the generall wee may take our description of Law 1. From the end It is an ordination of right reason to the common and singular good of all and singular subordinates given by him who hath the care of the whole Community and every singular in it 2. From the forme It is an Ordinance commanding what is to be done and to be omitted made by him that hath right to require obedience binding the apt creature to obey with an holy promise of reward and a threatning of punishment Both of these are either Divine from God or Humane from man as collected from Gods Law Here we speake of Divine which may be considered 1. As impressed on mens mindes by an innate speech 2. As enuntiated by speech declarative 3. As comprehended in writing Here of the last And this in generall 2. More specially the Law written is called Moses Law which is threefold as is the variety of the object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Morall Ceremoniall Iudiciall The two latter are as Accessories to the first the Ceremonies being added to the first and the Iudgements to the second Table The