Spirit the righteousness of the Law is and shall be fulfilled in me The brief Instruction to be gathered out of these Questions and Answers is this that the Law that is the Decalogue or ten Commandments is of good use to bring us to Christ but after that we be brought to him then his Grace and Spirit be sufficient to direct us so that we shall not much need the Law to be a Rule to us at leastwise not regard it more than any other piece of Scripture To this I answer We have hitherto in our Church been taught and have learned that the Decalogue is a Rule directing and a Law binding even justified and regenerate Christians though otherwise than it bindeth persons unregenerate Artic. 7th of the 39. Though the Law given by Moses as touching Ceremonies do not binde Christian men nor the civil precepts be of necessity to be received yet no Christian man what soever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral No man be he never so perfect a Christian So the Articles of K. Edw. 6. Assemblies larger Catechisme The Moral Law is a Declaration of the will of God to mankinde directing and binding every one as well persons regenerate as others to perfect and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto The Congregational Churches in the Declaration of their Faith chap. 19. 5 6. The moral Law doth for ever binde all as well justified persons as others to the obedience thereof and is a Rule of life to true beleevers as well as to others Thus have these taught agreeably to the Catechismes and Christian Institutions of other reformed Churches and writers For whether they have made the ends and uses of the Moral Law fewer or more this hath still been one to be Norma vivendi a Direction to order our life by We thought we had attained hitherto to walk by the same Rule and to be of one minde in this matter whatsoever our other differences be And why this Authour should by teaching otherwise draw away disciples after him let him see to it Open door Preface It 's injurious Many preachers in stead of Gospel-preaching become teachers of the Law and jumble Law and Gospel together so that they neither preach Law nor Gospel but a mingle mangle of both not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm talking of Duties to them who want Principles to perform them rightly by these words of his it should seem that as the Law must not be a Rule of Duties to persons unconverted so it must be no Rule at all to any person whatsoever But I prove that the ten Commandments even As given by Moses do oblige justified persons to the Duties therein enjoyned First by Scripture When Jesus Christ came he confirmed the Law Moral Matth. 5. 17. Think not that I came to destroy the Law I came to fulfill it Now that he meant the Law Moral and that As given by Moses appears by the following explication of the several Commandments vers. 21 and 27 and 33. Matth. 22 v. 38,39 He gave the sum of the first and second Table calling them the first and second the two great Commandments Moses gave the Law in ten Precepts and two Tables and as so given Christ confirmed it The Apostles also in their Epistles exhort Christians to the Duties of the Law As given by Moses as well for manner as matter Jam. 2. He that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill And the Apostle Paul Ephes. 6. calleth the fifth commandment The first commandment with promise the first to wit of the second Table Moses gave the Law in ten precepts and two Tables and as so given the Apostles do mention it and urge the Duties of it Secondly I prove by his own words the Law to be a Rule to them that are in Christ Qu. and Answ 197. he saith The first lawfull use of the Law is to shew us what is sin and to convince us that we do sin that is that the regenerate do sin as appears by his Text 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin c. How can the Law shew us that we do sin but by being a rule against which we sin Then next he alloweth the Moral Law to be profitable with all other Scriptures to instruct exhort rebuke c. indeed he doth not say to direct rule binde unless these be contained in his c. But if all other Scripture be a rule or Canon to us in belief and life why may not the Decalogue be so also or what reason can be given why the Decalogue written in the 20 Chapter of Exodus should be of use above other Scripture to discover sin and convince men Before Justification and yet after Justification should be of no more use then other Scriptures are to rule and direct us in our obedience for plainly he teacheth in his Answ to Qu. 197. What is the lawfull use of the Law That for justified persons to use the Law as a Rule of obedience More then other parts or places of Scripture is to use it unlawfully Qu. 197. he faith The Law sheweth what we may expect to be effected in us by the Grace of Christ and to that Qu. Oughtest thou not to walk in the observation of the ten Commandments the Answer is In acting forth faith and love we keep the Commandments because in walking after the Spirit the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us Rom. 8. 4. I answer First that place now named I beleeve he misunderstandeth for he taketh it to be meant of Sanctification whereas most probably it is meant of the righteousness of Justification as is evident by conferring the fourth verse with the first being both of the same import Secondly Whatsoever the teacher intends to sow the scholar may likely pick up here a seed of Enthusiasime for if walking in the Spirit and grace of Christ and Acting forth faith and love do bring a Supersedeas to the ten Commandments then why not to all the Scripture as well why may not the written word in general be thought needless to teach us our duties or minde us of Comfort Reproof or Instruction since this may be as well supplied in us as the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking after the Spirit But the Spirit of God directs us by the word not discharging it but causing us to understand beleeve embrace and remember it Thirdly whereas he produceth that text in the margin Rom. 13. Love is the fulfilling of the Law to prove that if we act forth love we shall not much need to walk in the observation of the Decalogue I shall now endeavour to shew his mistake To fulfill is taken two ways First to perform perfectly To fulfill all righteousness Matth. 3. To fulfill the Ministery Coloss. 4. And thus the Ceremonial Law of Moses was fulfilled while the Priests Levites and people performed the rites and Ordinances which were enjoyned
are the World the Flesh and the Devil Now in this Answer Mr Horn takes the word Flesh for the work of God or created nature even such as was in our blessed Saviour as by his text of Joh. 4. appears But it is not the sinfull lusts of the Flesh it is the Flesh which in Scripture ordinarily without any manner of Addition is spoken of as our Spiritual enemy and it signifies not the Body nor yet sense and appetite inferiour to reason but it signifies the corruption of our nature repugnant to the Law of God defiling Body and Soul and the highest faculties of the minde And thus the best of Popish expositours interpret the word howsoever others of them so give the meaning that many of their common followers think that to crucifie the flesh is to starve themselves as they think that to renounce the world is to go into a Monastery where they enjoy the plenty of the world without the trouble that belongs to it A man would think saith Saint Augustine De Civ. Dei lib. 14. cap. 2 that the Epicureans lived according to the flesh because they followed bodily pleasures and the Stoicks according to the Spirit because they placed happiness in the minde Sed sicut loquitur Scriptura divina secundùm carnem vivere utrique monstrantur but according as the holy Scripture speaketh both of them live according to the flesh That which deceived him was as I suppose the Epithet of sinfull as if therefore some lusts of the flesh were not sinfull Whereas Epithets are not always put for distinction but often for Amplification and Efficacy So may we read Vastum aequor gelidum Boream for Emphasis and not Difference and in Hebr. 12. 23. Spiritus justorum perfectorum out of which one of the Pontifician writers would prove Purgatory This sheweth saith he that there are spirits of just men not yet made perfect A weak argument as it was a wicked one of another that said the Apostle Peter did insinuate some service of Idols to be lawfull because he said 1 Epist. 4. 3. according to their vulgar illicitis idolorum cultibus unlawfull services of Idols The World Flesh and Devil which we have renounced are enumerated by the Apostle Ephes. 2. v. 2 and 3. This world said he there our Church added an Epithet This wicked world The lusts of our Flesh said the Apostle our Church added an Epithet sinfull lusts but neither of them for difference but for Emphasis and Aggravation Qu. and Answ 40. in marg. It was called the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil because God therein would try whether man would do good or evil and Adam had therein distinction of good and evil Good and Evil here do not signifie Duty and Sin or Obedience and Disobedience but Happiness and Misery happiness to be enjoyed and misery to be undergone And Knowledge here signifieth Experience or as we commonly call it wofull Experience when they should know Good by the losse of it and Evil by the sense of it Howsoever Satan took occasion from the name to abuse the womans credulity and curiosity as if she should have attained some rare knowledge that would have made her blessed and even God-like As therefore the one of the two was called the Tree of Life so might the other be called for so it was the Tree of Death and plainly they were told that whensoever they did eat of it they should die the death This being the reason of the name as it is in a manner agreed upon by all I marvell why our Authour should balk it and give us two other reasons why it is called the tree of Knowledge whereof the one is obscure and the other unsound referring it to Gods knowledge as if God did thereby come to know what man would do Yet should I not have noted this or made any stay at it but that I know how far the Socinians have gone in denial of Divine Prescience and what haste some of the Remonstrants make in following after them and what Doctrine one of the prime Universalists delivered long ago namely Fr. Puccius in his Catholick Assertion of the Efficacie of Christs Death in all men as they are men confuted both by Papist and Protestant above three score years now past The ways of Men and Angels saith he before the fall and after the fall which they might have gone in and did not as well as those they did go in were both alike foreseen of God not these more then those adeòut juxta sensum humanism possemus dicere cum ignorasse quae nos contingentia dicimus I grant that in holy Scripture God is said to Tempt or trie and no more then that is said here and that in Genes 22 12. Now I know thou fearest God is just as much as is said v. 1 God did tempt Abraham But who knoweth not that this and many the like are spoken humanitùs in a manner of speech borrowed from men as when he doeth as a man being angry useth to do then is he said to be angry and when he doeth as a man that repenteth him of anything useth to do then is he said to repent So commanding Abraham to offer his son yet not intending that he sould offer him he is said to tempt or trie him because he did ad similitudinem tentantis after the manner of men who will usually do or say this or that onely to learn or know the purpose or disposition of another as yet unknown And in like sort it may be said that God did tempt or trie Adam in the Precept touching the tree of knowledge But then first let us not make more figurative or tropical locutions than need or than there are And secondly whatsoever improper speeches there are found in Gods word that should be proper and plain and easie that is intended for the capacity and instruction of children They should be told and the common people also what irreligious principles those who plead so hard for Their libertie of mans will after all their tragical declamations are forced to maintain that so they may tremble to set foot in such ways as necessarily and naturally end among other things in denying Gods fore-knowledge of humane actions For what good Christian is there that will not soon take check at this though but meanly seasoned with Religion In the Question and Answer 83. he sheweth how Christ did exercise the office of a Prophet of a King and of a Priest of the last in these words As a Priest he prepared the sacrifice to be offered up to God for us and made intercession both for his Disciples and transgressours Q. 86. What was the Sacrifice that as a Priest he prepared to offer for us A. But one propitiatory Sacrifice which was himself or his own body Q. 87. How did he prepare himself this Sacrifice A. By giving up himself in obedience to his Father a ransome for us from sin and death Q. 88. How