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
satisfied it for us for this is testified by keeping the commandements Ioh. 14. 23. If any man love me hee will keepe my commandements What love then in these men that will keepe no commandements Object Our love makes us keep his commandements but what is that to the commandements of the Law Answ. As if Christ did not command the same love and duties in the Morall Law See Matth. 22. 37 38. where Christ enjoyneth the young man all the duties of both tables 1 Ioh. 3. 23. This is his commandement that wee should beleeve and love one another Is this his commandement of any other love than that which is the summe of the second table and what were the commandements of the Apostles but evangelicall commandements commandements of Christ and yet they commanded duties of the Law 1 Thess. 4. 2. Ye know what commandements we gave you by the Lord Iesus What were they Such as concerned fornication v. 3. and oppression fraud v. 6. and were not these the same duties of the Law The 3 error floweth from ignorance of the nature of faith which is so farre from renouncing obedience that it is never severed from obedience and it is not true faith that worketh not by love for what is it to beleeve it is not onely to assent to what the scripture saith but to adhere and cleave unto it and to the Lord in the obedience of it as Henoch by faith walked with God Abraham by faith left his Country abode in the land of Canaan as a stranger offered his son Isaac c. And whence is it that obedience is called a fruit of faith for every act of grace must rise from the roote of that grace as every fruit from his owne roote so as workes of charity are rooted in charity which is a distinct grace from faith yet are they called fruits of faith because the doctrine of faith enjoynes them and the grace of faith inclines the soule unto them and because faith receives the spirit of Christ for sanctification as well as the merit of Christ for justification But why doe they exclaime against us for preaching and embracing a dead faith while they obtrude on their proselites a faith which must not work by love which if they will beleeve S. Iames is a dead faith 2 ERROR That godly life hath nothing to doe with keeping commandements Answ. The Scripture saith that godly life is nothing else but the fulfilling of the commandement and will of God revealed 1 Ioh. 2. 17. He that fulfilleth the commandement abideth for ever which is to be meant of evangelicall fulfilling not legall See chap. 3. arg 5. One thing it is to exercise good workes in way of obedience another to rely on them in way of righteousnesse 2. Our charge is in every thing to prove and try what is the good and acceptable will of God and have we nothing to doe with commandements the rule of tryall certainly we can neither doe any just thing without the rule of justice nor prosecute it justly 3. The life of Christ was most godly yet was said of him Heb. 10. 7. In the volume of the booke it is written of me that I should doe thy will and hereunto must every member be framed that must be in conformimity with the head 4. Not any duty of godly life can be acceptable or comfortable but that which is warranted by a commandement and we must know it so to be there can be no right worship or worshipper but hee that doth the will of God Ioh. 9. 31. If any be a worshipper of God and doth his will him hee heareth So doest thou expresse love shew mercy execute justice or practise any vertue and not by vertue of any commandement he that will not heare the Lord saying What I command thee that doe onely shall heare Who required these things at your hands 3 ERROR That blessednesse is meerly passive and therefore it is in vaine to put men upon actions for that end Answ. It is so to us in respect of merit and price but in respect of fruition it is obtained instrumentally by faith which is an action and is said to be ours yea our owne for the just lives by his owne faith not because we are authours or causes of it but subjects in whom God worketh it and because by it things beleeved become our owne 2. We are meere patients in the causes of blessednesse but in respect of conditions we are not so for as we said of faith wee may also say of good works God enableth to them but man worketh them and walketh in the way of them to blessednes not that our works are causes but conditions without which blessednesse is not attained See Matth. 25. 35. 3. This assertion bewrayeth great ignorance of the proper and present use of sanctification and the duties of it which they conceive as legally urged to helpe the beleever in his title and right to the blessed inheritante purchased in heaven whereas onely Christs righteousnes and merits give right and title unto heaven but yet the grace of sanctification gives us an aptitude and fitnesse unto it for without holinesse none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. and no uncleane thing shall enter into the gates of that City Yea it is proceeding in sanctification to the measure and stature of Christ that fits us to the vision and fruition of the glorious presence of God and for the full possession of that heavenly inheritance 4 ERROR That the justified person is free from all spot of sinne and perfectly righteous for justice requires that a man should be as perfect as by creation before acceptation Answ. 1. Iustice requireth that Gods wrath should be pacified and a righteousnes procured whereby the sinner may be accepted to mercy but not a plenary and personall perfection 2. They shew grosse ignorance in the nature of justification which frees the beleever from the condemnation of sin but not from the inhabitation or molestation for sinne is in the godly after justification 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If wee that is wee that walke in the light and have communion one with another say we have no sinne we deceive our selves 3. Faith it selfe in the justified is sincere but not perfect for as we know things beleeved but in part so we beleeve but in part our eye is not more dimme to see than our hand is weake to receive yea even in the best faith is imperfect and mingled with doubting Mosesâ—aith â—aith quailed at the Rocke Elias in a passion would be dead yea even Abraham himselfe who was strong in faith though he doubted not of infidelity yet he doubted of infirmity Gen. 15. 3. By long delay his faith was sore shaken when he said that Eliezer of Damascus must be his heire Now would I know how that which is it selfe imperfect and not free from spot of sinne can make another altogether spotlesse See more hereof
doe have rather commended the Pharises for weakning it by their glosses than have vindicated it and restored to the full strength and power of it 2. Our Lord not onely confirmes it in it selfe by his doctrine and life but also in the conscience of every Christian. Matth. 5. 19. He that breaketh the least of these commandements and teacheth men so to doe shall be least in the kingdome of heaven but he that shall teach and observe them shall be called great in the kingdome of heaven that is shall be honoured and counted a worthy member in the Church of God No saith the Libertine we must not teach the Law in the Church and those that doe are legall Preachers that lead men into a dead faith we must doe nothing because God commands us nay we not onely reverse the least of them but all at once and teach others so to doe See now if fire be more contrary to water or Christ to Belial than Christ to these sonnes of Belial that will be under no yoke of the Law no rule no obedience 3. The Apostles after Christ bring converted Christians every where to the rule of the Law and frequently alledge the Law to urge the duties of it and therefore the Law ceaseth not to be the rule in the new Testament for if it had they would not have pressed exhortations by the Law Rom. 12. 19. Dearely beloved avenge not your selves Why For it is written Vengeance is mine Rom. 13. 8 9. pressing the duty of love the onely debt beseeming a Christian he urgeth it by this argument because love is the fulfilling of the Law and repeateth all the commandements of the second Table not to repeale or reverse any of them but to confirme them as the rule still and comprehendeth them all in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe Ephes 6. 1. Children obey your parents and presseth the duty from the Law for this is the first commandement with promise Heb. 12. 28. Let us have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and feare Why For our God is even a consuming fire Did not now the Apostles come as well with a rod as with the spirit of meeknesse did not they perswade men as knowing the terrour of the Lord did not they call mens eyes not onely to behold the goodnesse of God but also to behold his severity Rom. 11. 22. Dare now an audacious Libertine step out and tell the Apostles as they tell us that they were legall Preachers that they taught men popery and justification by workes and that they made men onely morall Christians because they held the Law before them as the rule of all duties both of piety and charity If Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it then the Law is not abolished for either Christ abolished it or none and either by his comming or not at all But Christ chargeth us not to thinke that hee came to abolish it Matth. 5. 17. For what is it to destroy the Law but to take from it that vertue and power whereby it is a Law and to make it of none effect And that Christ came not to destroy the Law is manifest because 1. It is his owne Law which must endure for ever in heaven Psal. 119. 2. Because it is holy just and spirituall Rom. 7. 13. Which words imply 1. That there is in it a supernaturall divine and unperishing vertue resembling God himselfe who shall as easily be destroyed as his Law 2. That it serveth to be a divine direction of all men in all holy just and spirituall duties 3. That it is an holy instrument of the spirit by which he leadeth out the faithfull into the practise of those duties 4. That whosoever have the spirit sent to dwell and rule and to write the Law in their hearts they cannot detract from the Law but the more spirituall themselves are the more doe they discerne the spirituall power of it and frame to the spirituall observance of it so did the Apostle in this place so David Psal. 19. 7 8. and 119. 39. Nay Christ came to fulfill it in himselfe and in his members 1. By preaching illustrating and inforcing the Law by vindicating it from false glosses and restoring to the full and first strength of it by all which he sheweth it to bee immutable and eternall 2. By plenary and full satisfaction of it and by his perfect and personall obedience both active and passive so as he fulfilled all the righteousnesse of it and left not one iota of it unfulfilled 3. By donation of his spirit writing the Law in the hearts of the elect and inciting them to new and cheerfull obedience of it for to this end the Saints receive the law of the spirit of life that they may not walke after the flesh any more but after the spirit If the Apostles after Christ did not abrogate the Law but establish it then it is not abolished to beleevers in the new Testament But they by the doctrine of faith did not Rom. 3. 31. Doe we abrogate the Law by faith God forbid nay wee establish it Where the Apostle cryes downe that grosse conceit of the contrariety of the Law and Gospell so as one of them must needs devoure the other as Moses rod did the rods of the inchanters True it is they are a distinct and divers doctrine but in God and his word is no contrariety And true it is the Law and Gospell will never stand together in the justification of a sinner before God yet they friendly concur and agree in Christian conversation wherein they are inseperable as also they are in Christian institution yea here they helpe one another as one hand doth another Whēce the holy Apostles who knew that the Gospell was not properly and substantially the Law yet usually in the publication of the Gospell confirme the authority of the Law See some instances Rom. 1. 18. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation and by it not onely the righteousnes of God is revealed from faith to faith but the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlines not that the Gospell is a ministery of wrath but a witnesse that wrath hangs over the heads of wicked men rejecting the Gospell Rom. 2. 16. Christ shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospell that is according to the witnesse of the Gospell preached by me 1 Iohn 2. 1. Brethren I write these things to you that you sinne not and what did he write else but the sweet tidings of the Gospell that is any confesse his sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive them and that if any sinne wee have an advocate with the Father c For as no man can teach any duty of the Law but therin calls to faith for call to the love of God the substance of the first Table must not he be first beleeved and then
sin know himselfe in the service of righteousnesse as Rom. 6. 18. if he be under no command or if his obedience be without rule or direction 2. or how should he discover his daily errours to be humbled for them how should he remember from whence he is fallen or be raised to doe his first workes for all this must further his sanctification without the rule of the Law 3. Or how should he see the imperfection and uncleannesse that cleaveth to his best duties whereby he is kept from proud Pharisaisme and the arrogant conceits of these libertine perfectists but by this straâ—ght and unalterable rule of the Law By all which reasons it appeareth it that the Morall law is not without force and 〈◊〉 unto beleveâ—â— CHAP. 4. Discovering the true grounds of opposing so cleare a doctrine WEE never reade of hereticke but hee would challenge the sacred Scriptures as the grouÌ„ds of his heresie which indeede are the onely hammer of heresie and even so these spiders who sucke poyson out of the sweetest flowers set a flourish and varnish over their poysonfull opinions with some Scriptures either wrested and writhen out of their owne sence or broken off from other Scriptures theÌ„selves for they have the Scriptures as Aug saith the Donatists had the Sacraments for ostentation rather than for salvation This vizard we shall put off in the 9 chapter which shall vindicate the Scriptures fouly mistaken and misapplied by them and restore them to their true sence and strength against themselves for no sword is so fit to take off Goliahs head as his owne and no weapons can be more keene a-against these as those which wee shall wrest out of their owne hands But in the meane time we will first lay open the true grounds of this unhappy schisme and the right rise of these palpable errours And these I observe to be three 1. Grosse ignorance 2. swelling pride 3. love of licentiousnesse joyned with the hatred of holinesse as we shall discover in their order As truth hath no enemy but falshood neither light any contrary but darknesse so the cleare rayes and beames of saving knowledge issuing from Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse are darkned and obscured in corrupt mindes by the clouds and mists of ignorance the common mother of mistakes and errours for what can a man in the darke doe other than misse his way and marre his worke And what hath made these audacious Libertines bold but blindnes who while they busie their heads in idle and fruitlesse speculations and waste their discourses in idle and impertinent questions are grosly ignorant in the very principles of Catechisme and farre to seeke in the very lowest grounds of religion I remember Mr. Calvins observation concerning the same sectaries of his time That whereas other heresies were raised and defended by men of learning wit education and reading this was set on foot and maintained by ideots rude illiterate men that never learned their frensie by turning bookes but in some coblers or artificers shops and places of rude resort for the basest schoole saith he will serve to teach a man to blaspheme God and to prove his assertion he nameth the two chiefe champions who in his time raised and spread it about Geneva both wel known to him and drew a great multitude after them of whom one would willingly have had the preferment of an hostler or porter and the other of a chamberlaine or tapster fit captaines for their skill to levie and lead such a band and even such are the bricks that at this day are framed out of such clay a base sort of people whose ignorance in the high conceit of knowledge layes them open to delusion and wrappeth them in errors so as none that savour of liberty commeâ—h amisse unto them whereof while I give a list or catalogue let none thinke that I father any childe on them but their owne if they will owne their owne writings or any opinion but such as for the loosnesse of it and likenesse with the rest of the brood will father it selfe I know I have to deale with men as slippery as eeles who can play fast and loose with their owne tenents at their pleasure for what can holde them whom Gods Law cannot Sure I am many of them will deny those to be their opinions or in this sence or reject them on some private persons or absolutely deny what they resolutely holde if any way they may either advantage themselves or disadvantage their impugâ—er Nor herein I am not uncharitable It is not long since one of their Masters in the hearing of a Minister who himselfe related the story unto mee taught a number of silly women gathered into his house on the saboth day That the Law was wholly abolished That God could see no sinne in the justified That they were as perfectly pure as the Angels yea as Christ himselfe with great vehemency and contention both establishing these and the like grounds and principles of his Catechisme and reviling our legall Preachers that leade men into a dead faith But upon the thursday after meeting the same Minister at the High Commission Court and fearing some danger towards him he disclaimed to him with as much earnestnesse all that hee had then taught in every particular The Minister onely dismissing him with admonition to consider how hee could answer God and his owne conscience in seducing so many silly women against his knowledge onely to maintaine his teeth It shall not much trouble mee whether they owne them or renounce them I avow them to be errours and not onely creeping in the darke but emboldening themselves into the light and such as are very prejudiciall to many well-meaning but weake mindes for whose satisfaction and setling I have set them downe as I have met with them in their papers with some short antidot and preservative against them intending rather a short survey than any large refutation of them 1 ERROR That Christ came to abolish the Morall Law and that the Gospel takes away all obedience to the commandements and that true faith standeth at defiance with working and doing Answ. This threefold error ariseth out of a threefold ignorance 1. Out of the ignorance of the end of Christs comming who saith expresly that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it in himselfe legally in beleevers evangelically as we have proved largely in the former chap reas 3. 2. In the ignorance of the nature of the Gospel which is so farre from taking away all obedience to the Law as that it indeed teacheth and requireth obedience unto it not whereby we performe the Law but testifie our faith in the Gospell and is therefore called the obedience of faith The Law indeed calleth for personall obedience to satisfie and justifie before God but so doth not the Gospell but onely for an obedience to testifie our love to Christ who hath
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
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