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
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
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
mee No the more is your sin and shame Doe you preach amongst a tumult of artizans and illiterate men so as our Ministers cannot understand you what is the reason you doe so hide your selfe seeing light feareth nothing but darknesse and truth nothing but to be hid I must say to you as Ierome of the crabbed Poet Persius If you will not be understood you ought not to be read so if you will not be understood you ought not to preach unlesse perhaps it may be more beneficiall to the Church that if you doe preach you be not understood Alas that men professing the doctrine of godlinesse and pretending the practise of wisedome and sobriety should by the pride of their hearts become thus disguised and transported into raptures and fits next to frenzie and madnesse But against this windy conceit of perfection I will now say the lesse because I have dealt more fully against this pernicious errour before in the third chapter Yet here 1. let it be considered wherein the Scripture placeth the perfection of Saints here below and that is not in the want of sinne but in the fight against sinne and not in the absence but in groaning in the presence of sinne For 1. would Christ teach men without sin to pray daily for forgivenesse of sinne 2. Would hee command those to pray daily not to be led into temptation that cannot sinne if they would 3. Did hee ordaine the Sacrament of the Supper for men perfect that want nothing to whom nothing can be added or to the sicke who neede the physitian and to such as hunger and thirst after righteousnesse which is a senâ—e of defect not of perfection 4. Are they in holinesse and perfections of grace beyond the Apostle Paul who many yeares after regeneration complaineth that he found evill present with him and a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde and professeth that he had not attained and that all is here in part and imperfect till that perfect come 5. Are they perfect without sinne why doe they then as other sinfull men doe hath death any commission where is no sinne or if their sinnes be gone and their persons justified and yet they die why deny they that any correction abideth any whose sinne is pardoned unlesse they will say they die onely for triall Secondly Sanctification hath three degrees in this life the highest of which is imperfect 1 Is the death of the body of sin Which is not all at once but resembleth the death of Christs body on the crosse which was diminished by degrees till his spirit by his last breath was surrendred to his Father Thus is it in the christian whose last breath of sinne and of the body goe out together The Second degree is the buriall of the body of sinne which is a further proceeding in mortification as buriall is a proceeding of death and a consumption of the dead body not all at once but by little and little So mortification is not an act of a day but of the life The Third degree of sanctification is a raising from the grave of sinne to a new life by vertue of Christ his Resurrection that looke as a graft set in to a new stock draweth juice and life from that stock not all at once and then no more but still draweth and by drawing groweth by degrees unto the full height and age of it eveÌ„ so is it here christian life is continued as naturall by dayly supply and addition of that which is daily wanting God indeed if he had pleased might in a moment have freed his servants from all sinne as well in life as in death but he wold not because his wisdome procures himselfe more glory in his protection and assistance of the Saints and in the victory of his servants against sin than if they were free from sinne The fiercer the enemies were that rose up against Moses in the wildernes and against Iosua in the Land of Canaan the more it turned to the glory of Gods mighty power in giving them possession in despight of them all And so greater honour returneth to the Lord because greater is his grace in making the sinnes of the Saints remedies of sinne to humble them for sinnes past to shame them for sinne present and to worke in them feare watchfulnesse against sinne for time to come then if he should at once abolish sinne in them All which these men shake off their hands as easily as Sampson did the greene cords when the Philistins came upon him Thirdly As he that exalteth himselfe must be brought low so the Scriptures shew those to be in highest estimation with God that have beene and are least in their owne eyes Abraham seeth himselfe but dust and ashes Iacob seeth himselfe lesse than the least mercie Gideon saith of himselfe Who am I or what is my Fathers house but the least in all Israel Iudg 6. 13. Iohn Baptist than whom a greater was not borne among women said I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shooe The Centurion I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under the roofe of my house Peter Goe from mee Lord for I am a sinfull man Paul I am the least of all the Apostles but the chiefe of all sinners But we never read nor heard those vaine voyces from any truely regenerate man I am perfect I am pure so as nothing can be added unto me I cannot sin if I would Gods eternall power can see no sinne in me I am beheld no otherwise then Christ himselfe for I am Christed with Christ and Godded with God I will neither greive for my sin nor pray for pardon of sinne and the like No no true grace which St. August calleth the first second and third grace of Christians would keep the heart from these high staires and straines of pride it would fetch them off such mounted thoughts and change them into mournefull complaints that they must needs will they nill they admit the Cananit and Iebusits within their borders that they must finde sinne in them as a law forcing them to the evill they would not Rom. 7. 24. And godly experience concludeth that humility is a signe of worth but hautines is never without emptinesse and vanity Emptiest vessels sound lowdest and the husbandman liketh better those heavie eares of corne that hang downe their heads than the light and empty ones that stand so upright Fewer words would serve wiser men I will onely say to this proud perfectist as Constantine the great did to Acesius one of the proud Bishops of the Catharists Set up a ladder Acesius by which thou alone maist climbe to heaven CHAP. 8. Discovering the third proper ground of this opposition which is affectation of licentiousnesse and love of a lawles liberty ioyned with hatred of holinesse and the power of godlinesse AS pride attends ignorance so an inseperable fruit
Regula Vitae THE RVLE OF THE LAW VNDER THE GOSPEL Containing A Discovery of the pestiferous sect of LIBERTINES ANTINOMIANS and sonnes of Belial lately sprung up both to destroy the Law and disturbe the faith of the Gospell Wherein is manifestly proved that God seeth sinne in iustified persons By THOMAS TAYLOR Dr. of Divinity and Pastour of S. Mary Aldermanbury London Numb 12. 8. Wherefore were ye not afraid to speake against my servant Moses Imprinted at London by W. I. for Robert Dawlman at the Brazen Serpent in Paules Churchyard 1631. The Preface to the godly Reader WHat Mr. Luther in his last Sermon at Wittenberg observed and foretolde we see in these our dayes fully performed and accomplished hee had observed thirty severall sects and sectaries raised up by Satan in his time against that holy doctrine preached by himselfe all which had hee not beene able by the Scriptures to have resisted and refuted he must have beene as himselfe said of thirty severall religions Among them he mentioneth the Anabaptists Antinomists Libertines Servitians c. of all whom he foretold that though now they saith hee by the power of the word and by the vigilancy of godly teachers lye close and still yet will they be intent and ready on all occasions to rise and raise up their damnable errours to disturbe the peace of the Church and the prosperity of the Gospel And indeede accordingly have we observed the Church of God in all times since lesse or more infested with these dangerous sectaries I meane the Libertines the professed enemies to the Law of God and to the holy obedience of it Against whom as St. Augustine in his time wrote two books against the Adversaries of the Law so Mr. Calvin dealt worthily in his time in his booke intituled Against the furious sect of the Libertines and many other godly men since that time Let not us be offended that the spawne and succession of those lewd libertine sectaries are now issued forth in troopes amongst us nor marvaile that the hatred of Gods most righteous Law prevaileth amongst a rude multitude the sonnes of Belial whom Mr. Calvin calleth a prodigious and belluine sect furious and madded in their opinions and fierce as unbroken coltes against whosoever would curbe them and straiten the reines of their unbridled licentiousnesse But rather let us observe 1. Satans malice in sowing tares where good seede was sowne and that in the Lords field 2. Gods just permission of so many schismes as tares rising with the graine and therein revenging the contempt and disobedience of his word he hath sent strong delusions that many should believe lies who received not the truth in the love of it 3. The levity wantonnes and instability of unsetled Gospellers that are in every new fashion of opinion with every new man that hath the tricke of molding novell conceits against received truthes that if thirty new-minted fansies should rise up in their age they were like enough to be of thirty religions and of every last praise God that the truth was never truly preached till now 4. Let us excite our selves to the love of truth to the hatred of errour and to the fencing of our selves against seducers importuning in serious invocation the God of truth not to punish our wantonnesse in profession with taking the word of truth utterly from us and thus shall we temper poyson to a remedy and turne that to an help which the enemy intends for our hurt For the setling of mine owne people some of them looking that way I delivered lately some grounds both to enforce the rule of the Law upon the regenerate as also to refute the contrary errour of our new audacious Antinomists and Libertines and Famelists who as the olde Manichees and Marcionists abolish the whole Law and that wholly One preacheth that the whole Law since Christs death is wholly abrogated and abolished Another that the whole Law was fulfilled by Christ 1600 yeares agoe and we have nothing to doe with that Another that to teach obedience to the Law of God is to teach popery and to leade men into a dead faith Another that to doe any thing because God commands us or to forbeare any thing because God forbids us is a signe of a morall man and of a dead and unsound Christian. And upon these hollow and deceitfull grounds doe these masters of errour bottome a number other ridiculous conceits which yet they deliver as oracles and anathematize whosoever shall not so receive them As 1. That the Law being abolished to the justified God can see no sinne in them for hee can see no Law transgressed 2. That the regenerate cannot sinne for where is no Law is no transgression according to that Luciferian principle rife among them Be in Christ and sinne if thou canst 3. That being in Christ they are Christed with Christ as pure as Christ as perfect as Christ as farre beyond the Law as Christ himselfe the right brood and spawne of the olde Catharists and Puritans 4. That the Law is not to bee taught in the Church and they are legall Preachers that doe so and preach not Christ. 5. They hence disclaime all obedience to the Law and raile at the precepts and practise of sanctification as good for nothing but to carry men to hell and cry out on the Ministers as Popish and as having Monks in their bellies who set men on working and doing and walking holily 6. They renounce and reject all humility confession and sorrow for sinne they scorne fasting and prayer as the seeking not of God but of our selves One saith that neither our omissions nor commissions should grieve us and another Neither doe my good deedes rejoyce mee nor my bad deedes grieve mee They deride and flout the exercise of repentance and mortification and upbraid such as walke humbly before God What say they Will you repent all your dayes and You cannot sinne but you must repent an whole fortnight after Nay they are set upon so merry a pin as they can thinke of their former sinnes with merriment I am glad of my sinne saith one because it hath drawne me to Christ and why doest thou not mourne that by those sinnes thou hast pierced Christ 7. They reject the Saboth as Iewish wholly abrogated with all other commandements as one of them professed that were it not for offence of men he would labour in his calling on that day as well as any other These with many other consequents of the same stampe all tending to loose the conscience from all awe of God from all care of duty from all feare of sinne and judgement to come though they walke in all licentiousnesse and prodigious courses are such as a right bred Christian cannot but tremble at and were there but a few droppes of modest blood in their veines the Masters of such lewd and libertine opinions could not but blush at who cannot answer before God without
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 person of the surety and gets acceptance when perfect obedience is done for the person though not by him 2. Another appendix of the Law is that this rigorous exaction of personall and perfect obedience is urged upon paine of eternall death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law Deut. 27. 26. and Gal. 3. 10. Now the beleever is not under this coâ—sequent of the Law for Christ was made a curse for us and redeemed us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. and by him being justified by faith we escape this damnatory sentence Rom. 8. 1. But it is one thing to be free from the curse of the Law another from the Law it selfe and it is no good sequell We are free from this sanction of the Law therefore from the substance 3. Another appendix of the Law is that it urgeth and forceth it selfe upon the conscience with feare and terrour for as was the manner of the Lawes delivery at the first so it still thrusts it selfe upon the souâ—â— by coaction and constraint Aâ—â— thus the beleever is not undâ—â— the Law for the grace of 〈…〉 empteth him from the rigorous exaction of it and frameth his heart to a willing and cheerefull endeavour in obedience for what the Law prescribes to be done it helpeth in the doing of it and as Christ himself became under the Law not forced or coacted but freely so is now the Christian. But this being but an adjunct shall we argue from removing an accident to the remotion of the subject or because we are not under the Law as a rigorous exactour and terrible revenger therefore we are not under it as a righteous commander and holy conductour The 4 consequent of the Law is that it acknowledgeth no justification or life but by comâ—â—eat obedience no life or salâ—ation must be expected by the â—w but by keeping it wholly 〈◊〉 exactly And thus it is an impossible yoake for by the workes of the Law no flesh can be justified Rom 3. 20. so as now the beleever is not under the Law for justification unto whom Christ is made righteousnesse and whose perfect obedience is imputed Rom 4. 5. But it is no good argument that because the Law is fulfilled by Christ it is therefore abolished by Christ surely every simple man can distinguish betweene accomplishing and abolishing the Law nor it will not follow that because the Law cannot justifie therefore it cannot instruct guide or edifie The 5 consequent is that the Law is the vigour and strength of sinne that it arraignes and condemneth the sinner and is the minister of death 2 Cor 3. 7. But there is no condemnation to those that are in Iesus Christ Rom 8. 1. for that heavie sentence of the Law is transferred upon Christ himselfe and carried off the beleever But it will never hold weight or water in argument that because a beleever is freed from the damnatory power of the Law he is free therefore from the mandatory and directory power of it The 6 consequent or appendix of the Law is that thereby sinne is excited and provoked by our owne corruption rebelling against the Law Rom 7. 11. which is not by the fault of the Law which remaineth holy just and good v. 12. but by our wicked nature which is more violently carried to that which is forbidden even as an untamed colt the more it is hampered the more mad and stirring it is But the beleever is not thus under the incitation of the Law who by grace is in great part freed from this reluctation and resistance and by the same grace made tractable and willingly subject to the Law which they discerne to be so concordant and a very counterpaine of the holinesse and justice of God himselfe and thinke themselves so farre from being loosed from the Law by the doctrine of grace that they are faster tyed to the obedience of it The 7 and last appendix of the Law is to consider it as the Law of Moses and in Moses hand given to the Church of the Iewes in which respect it had many circumstantiall references to that people and many accessories in the administration towards them besides some strictnesse rigour and terrour to that people under rudiments In regard of which beleevers in the new Testament are not under the Law as it was in Moses hand but sundry references and circumstances as suppose time place persons tables testament manner measure terrour rigour are altered and changed in the Church since Christs death But it will prove no good reason that because an heire in minority is under tutours and rods therefore he may being come to yeares live as he list and become a lawlesse man or that because the Law as given by Moses to the Church of the Iewes is in some circumstances altered therefore it must be in the whole substance of it abolished and that wholly or that because the Church of the olde Testament was under a strait Law therefore the Church in the new Testament must be under none The summe of all is comprised in these three following conclusions 1. That the regenerate are never sine Lege that is without Law of wicked men is said that they are lawlesse and described to be disobedient ungodly sinners unholy prophane the genuine epithites and right characters of our late Anomists and Antinomists but the regenerate are no such 2. That the regenerate are not as our Text saith sub Lege not under the Law namely in respect 1. of Iustification by the Law 2. of Condemnation by it 3. of Personall and perfect obedience which Châ—ist in their stead hath undertaken and performed 4. of Coaction and constraint from which the spirit of liberty hath freed theÌ„ in great part 5. of the sundry accessories of Moses his administration to that people to whom it was delivered in these regards and some other they are not under the Law 3. That the regenerate may be truly said to be in Lege that is in or under the Law or within the compasse of the Law in respect 1. of the doctrine rule and instruction of it 2. of their subjection unto it who frame their lives secundum Legem according to the Law 3. of the spirits inscription who writing it in their hearts keepes them within the compasse of it and holdeth them in the respect and cheerfull obedience unto it And thus we have cleared the meaning of the Apostle in this and other phrases of the like sound Ye are not under the Law CHAP. 3. Proving beleevers under the rule and direction of the Morall Law NOw because the sonnes of Belial are come out and tumultuously are risen as did the heathens against the Lord and his most righteous Law saying Let us break these bonds and cast these cords from us for we are under the teaching of grace and under the rule of
see and confesse and bewaile his sinne even past and pardoned therefore himselfe seeth them much more For we have no eye nor facultie of minde to discerne any thing but from him that enlighteneth every man that commeth into the world Iohn 1 Doth he work in us the knowledge oâ— our sinnes and hee not know them Nay doth he enjoyne the Saints to set before his eye daily their sinnes in the humble confession of them and prayer for pardon and doth he not yet see them Doe we not heare David confessing the sins of his youth long after they were not onely committed but remitted Psal. 25. and doth he not confesse with humility those foule sinnes after he had a speciall message from God that they were pardoned Psal. 51. And in the new Testament did not Paul long after his conversion and justification confesse sinnes pardoned I was a blasphemer and a persecuter c. And did not God now see and know these sinnes past and pardoned or not heare their confessions 6. If the spirit of God maintaineth a continuall combat against the sinnes of the justified then he sees those sinnes against which he fighteth for wee must not thinke that the spirit of light and wisdome either fighteth in the darke or blindfold or that the elect can ever find the power of the spirit subduing those sins which he cannot see 7. Hee that recordeth the sinnes of the elect many yeares and ages after they are pardoned seeth sinne in the justified for how could hee inspire his servants in that which he did no way see But so doth the Lord. For of David was said long after his death that hee was right save in the matter of Vriah Rahab was called an harlot many ages after her and yet the holy Ghost forgat not that she was a beleever Heb. 11. 31. By faith Rahab the harlot perished not Elias was said to be a 〈◊〉 subject to the same infirmities Iames 5. God that sees the infirmities of the Saints so many ages after seeth and knoweth greater errors much more though not to impute them Object But these were in the olde Testament but since the death of Christ God cannot see sinne pardoned Sol. O grosse ignorance Was the death of Christ lesse efficacious in matter of remission of sinne and righteousnesse to beleevers in the olde Testament than to us in the new was hee not the same lambe slaine from the beginning of the world even the same yesterday to day and for ever 2. Doe they never reade the Scriptures or doe they reade them and winke at such pregnant and plentifull examples of beleevers recorded and yet many ages before pardoned 1 Corinth 6. 11. speaking of theeves covetous c. And such were you but now yee are justified now yee are sanctified Did not God and his spirit see sinne past and pardoned in the justified Rom. 6. 19. Yee did give up your members weapons of unrighteousnesse These were sinnes past and pardoned in justified persons in the new Testament and after Christs death Ephes 2. 11. Remember that yee were Gentiles in the flesh without God aliants without hope it seemes God saw and remembred sinnes past and pardoned and putteth them in remembrance of them Col. 3. 7. The Apostle chargeth the Colossians with what they had beene and in what fearefull sinnes they had walked though now they were justified Did the Lord charge them with that hee did not see I might be abundant in such testimonies but if these places cannot cleare this truth to them let them still shut their eyes against the Sunne and hide themselves in their owne thickets to enjoy more securely all their licentious courses as those wicked men that say Tush God seeth us not there is no knowledge in the most High CHAP. 6. Containing foure other as libertine and dangerous Errours as the former 9 ERROR That God is not displeased with the sinnes of the justified and much lesse correcteth them for hee is fully satisfied in Christ for all the sinnes of the elect and how can he be displeased with them for that for which hee hath received full satisfaction Answ. 1. The perfect good must for ever hate that which is perfectly evill so as God can never be at agreement with sin in any nay he so hateth sinne even in the justified that he maintaineth in them a perpetuall combate and irreconciliable warre against it 2. They conceive not that anger and love may be at the same time tempered in a father to his children whom because he loveth he chasteneth But this hatred is not a simple hatred or an hostile wrath or a revenging anger such as hee putteth forth upon contumacious sinners but a loving fatherly and fruitfull chastisement upon sonnes neither doth this wrath redound and seaze upon their persons but upon their sinnes But these confused men not distinguishing betweene persons and sinnes cannot conceive how God can hate their sinnes and at the same time love their persons Neither can they apprehend aright the nature of reconciliation which is a freedome from revenge upon the persons because they are sonnes but not a freedome from the chastisement of their sinnes for then saith the Apostle they were bastards and no sonnes Object But haâ—h not Christ borne all the punishment of the sinnes of beleevers Answ. Yes all the punishment of malediction which is indeed properly called punishment but not of correction for we must daily beare his crosse and fulfill the remainders of the sufferings of Christ. 2. Christ hath most fully satisfied the justice of God for the sinnes of the elect so as no punishment satisfactory remaineth to purge or satisfie for sinne past but there remaineth a monitory castigation to bring the Saints to mourne for sinne past and to watch against sins to come Object But can God punish one sin twice once in Christ and againe in the person himselfe Answ. No if we understand it of the punishment of divine revenge and not of fatherly correction intended not for perdition but for â—rudition and caution and to make them partakers of his holinesse Object It is true the godly are afflicted but these afflictions have no respect to sinne but onely for tryall Answ. What none are they not merited by sinne are they not from the just God whose justice cannot punish the guiltlesse Farre be it from thee to doe this thing to punish the righteous with the wicked Gen. 18. 25. Surely correction must needs imply offence and affliction commeth not without respect of sinne either past to correct it or present to mourne for it or to come to prevent it Micah 1. 5. For the wickednes of Iacob and for the sinne of Israel is all this Lam. 3. 34. Man suffereth for his sinne Micah 7. 9. The Church will beare the wrath of God because shee had sinned Object Yea this was in the old Testament but since that time Christ hath dyed and actually borne the
punishment of sinne and you can bring no such place out of the new Testament Answ. Hath Christ done lesse for beleevers in the old Testament than in the new did they beare more wrath for their sin than we or did not Christ carry as much wrath from theÌ„ as from us was not his death as vertuous to the first ages of the world as to the last or did the vertue of it begin at the time of his passion or is not the faith of Messiah to come alike precioâ—s as the faith of him come already 2. But have we no place in the new Testament to shew beleevers corrected for sinne What is that 1 Cor. 11. For this cause many are weake and are sicke and many die It is too rash to say as one that these were carnall and hypocrites unlesse they be carnall and hypocrites that must not be condemned with the world 1 Pet. 4. 17. Iudgement must begin at Gods house Heb. 12. 6. He scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth Why because they are sonnes or because they have sinnes Object Ioh. 9. 3. Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents therfore afflictions are not for sinne and Iobs afflictions were all for tryall not for sinne Answ. 1. In generall The difference of the judgements of the godly and the wicked is not either 1. in the meriting cause for both are merited by sinne 2. Nor in their matter being materially both one the same sword the same plague the same famine the same blindnesse sicknesse and death 3. Nor in the ground of them for both are threatned and inflicted by the same Law 4. Nor in their sence and feeling for there is no difference between the smart of sonnes and slaves But the difference is in 1. the person inflicting 2. in the persons bearing and suffering 3. in the end of God which is not the same 4. in the fruit and issue which are much different in different persons the serious consideration of these grounds would let them see wherein their errour lurketh if they will not be willingly ignorant 2. For the instances First of the blinde man I answer that the position of one cause is not the remotion of another where many concurre neither doth the affirming of the principall cause deny the lesse principall God in this judgement principally intended his owne glory in the honouring of his Sonne and not principally the sinne either of the parents or sonne 2. Christ speaketh not of the meritorious cause of this judgement but of the finall cause and so the objection is not to the purpose Secondly The like we may say of Iob the principall end of his affliction was for tryall and not for correction but this excludeth not the meritorious cause nor proves that there was no correction in it at least might not be Object But Christ was extremely punished but not for sinne and therefore there are afflictions without sinne Answ. This is as impertinent a cavill as the case is singular Christ had no sinne in him but had sinne on him he had none inherent but had enough imputed he had none of his owne but the infinite burden of all the sinnes of all his members lay upon him for which he was plagued of God because he stood before God as the greatest malefactour that ever was not because he had proper sinne but appropriated not because he did any sinne but was made a sinne for us â—hat we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Gods justice could not have punished him if he had not stood before him as a sinner So the objection turneth quite against themselves Object But Christ by his Kingly power reigneth to maintaine in the conscience the peace procured both against the Law and sinne and the Divell and the world and worldly reason Answ. Peace without disturbance neither within nor without the Apostle knew not Rom. 7. nor yet Christ himselfe who so left his legacy of peace of his Disciples as that notwithstanding in the world they must have affliction 2. It is enough that Christ reigneth to maintain our peace by weakening and subduing the power of sinne daily although he totally and wholly abolish it not here below and fatherly and loving correction rather furthers and strengtheneth his reigne than hinder or weaken it in us 10 ERROR That justified persons have no more to doe with repentance and to repent of every particular sinne is to beleeve that a man is not perfectly justified or at once but by peece-meale as sinne is committed yea it is to undervalue the sufferings of Christ as not haâ—ing sufficiently satisfied for all sinnes past present and to come Answ. A desperate principle as much abolishing the Gospell as any of the former doth the Law and indeed no enemy to the Law can be a friend to the Gospell But we must know 1. That never can man be free from repentance till he be free from sinne to be repented of which can never be shaken off in this world The whole life is but one day of repentance and repentance is the work of that whole day and who but a profane libertine would not have his Master find him so doing We sweepe our houses every day and wash our hands every day because one contracteth dust and the other soyle every day much more have we need to cleanse daily the houses of our hearts See my treatise inâ—ituled The practise of Repentance Cap. 10. and therein many reasons for conâ—inuance of repeâ—tance 2. They forget that David and Peter repented after saith That the Church of Pergamus that kept the name of Christ and had not denied the faith must yet repent her selfe else Christ will come against her Rev. 2. 12. and 16. And how much cause have the best men to repent of their daily sinnes that must repent daily of their best duties which they must confesse are as a filthy clout 3. Although the spirit by faith assureth the beleever that all his sinnes are satisfied by the death of Christ yet the spirit also perswadeth the heart that in this way of humiliation and repentance we shall receive assurance of remission of daily sinnes and particular infirmities for else the spirit should faile in his office which is to bring even the house of David and the inhabitants of Ierusalem that is true beleevers to the fountaine of grace and stir up in them deepe sorrow and earnest lamentation in seeking pardon for daily sinnes and speciall provocations against the Lord whom by their sins they have pierced 4. Prayer for forgivenesse of daily sinnes is an act of repentance enjoyned by Christ on him that hath formerly repented is justified and calleth God Father as in that petition of his most holy prayer Forgive us our trespasses 5. They that overflow with love and outboast all others in their pretence of love which is so strong and active as they need no other mover forget that increase of love to God must
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
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
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