asked wherein doth the first Couenant and the second chiefly differ Answer There are sundry opposite differences betweene the two Couenants 1 The first Couenant was of mans works the second of Gods grace and these two in the poynt of iustification are opposite one to the other Rom. 11.6 2ly The first couenant was made with Adam and all his posterity vniuersally the second onely with Abrahams seede called the womans seede Gen. 3.15 to wit Christ and all the Elect. so Rom. 4.1 3ly The first couenant stood vpon mans owne righteousnesse the second stands vpon anothers righteousnesse to wit Christs rigteousnesse made ours by imputation 4ly The first couenant stood vpon the mutability of mans will so as it was quickly broken but the second stands firme vpon the sure foundation of Gods immutable will good pleasure and eternall purpose in himselfe so as it can neuer bee broken being an euerlasting Couenant 5ly The first was a couenant of iustice without mercy the second a couenant of iustice and mercy together iustice fulfilled by Christ and mercy extended in and for Christ to all the Elect. 6 The first Couenant had no other reward reuealed to the first Adam from the Earth earthy but what was confined to the earthly Paradise but the second hath the Kingdome of Heauen set open in Christ the second Adam the Lord from Heauen vnto all the Elect. These and the like differences betweene the first Couenant and the second well considered and conferred together will plainely shew that the Law giuen vnder Christ the Redeemer in Mount Sina was not that first Couenant of workes For besides the fore alledged reasons there is mention made of Gods mercie in the second Commandement and of the promise of the land of the liuing the Kingdome of Heauen tiped in Canaan in the fifth Commandement Which mercy and kingdome were not comprehended in that first Couenant of workes But so much of the first proofe of our Assumption which was that true iustifying fayth though it rests vpon Christs righteousnesse onely for iustification yet it lookes vpon the Morall law as a rule of Christian conuersation and acknowledgeth the obedience thereunto as a duty which God requireth of euery true belieuer The second proofe is in Math. 5. Reade for this from the 16. verse to the end of the chapter Where our Master Christ in his diuine sermon vpon the Mount expounddeth to his disciples and all faythfull hearers and doth as it were giue them a Commentary vpon the Morall law which the same Christ deliuered to Moses in the Mount which hee sets before his scholars as a rule of the duties of sanctification and christian conuersation Math. 5.20 in which their righteousnesse they must exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees otherwise they could not enter into the Kingdome of Heauen But how shall Christ escape the censure as one that preacheth the dead fayth surely I know not while his faythfull Ministers preaching the same doctrine are censured as preaching the blinde zealous dead fayth and are called doggs for their labour But because Christ preached and pressed the Morall Law as a rule of Christian obedience and called that also their righteousnesse therefore did he teach or meane that this was their righteousnesse in the sight of God Nothing lesse For he that said Math. 5.20 Except your righteousnesse exceede the righteousnesse of the scribes and Pharises yee shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heauen sayd also VVhen yee haue done all these things that are commanded you say wee are vnprofitable seruants we haue done that which was our duety to doe Marke he cals our obedience to the Law of God our duty yet so as wee are not thereby iustified And yet wee preach the same doctrine of our Master Christ must bee rated as Doggs as preaching the dead fayth The 3d proofe is from that exquisite forme of Prayer prescribed by Christ in the fifth petition Math. 6 12. Forgiue vs our debts as wee forgiue our debters All sins are debts to God All sins are breaches of the Morall Law therefore the keeping of the Morall Law is a debt that wee owe to God The Proposition is Christs The Assumption is the Apostles So as nothing remaines for the Aduersary to deny but the Conclusion The fourth proofe is from the Apostles words Gal. 5.6 that which the aduersary also alledgeth for the proofe of his third position In Iesus Christ neyther circumcision auaileth anything nor vncircumcision but fayth which worketh by loue Loue to God and to our neighbour is a duty we owe to God and to our neighbour But the Morall Law is the rule of this loue Therefore fayth working by loue lookes vpon the Morall law as a rule of those duties of loue we owe to God and our neighbour That loue is a debt the Apostle prooueth Ro. 13.8 Owe no man any thing but to loue one another so that is a debt that we owe one to another And if loue be a debt to man then much more to God Againe that the Morall Law is a rule of this loue the same Apostle prooueth in the same chapter v. 9. For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steale Thou shalt not beare false witnesse Thou shalt not couet and if there be any other Commandement it is briefely comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe Loue worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore loue is the fulfilling of the Law So that the conclusion remaines firme that fayth working by loue lookes vpon the Morall Law as a rule of those duties of loue we owe to God and our neighbour The fifth proofe is from the Apostles words Rom. 12.1 c. I beseech you therfore brethren by the mercies of God Proposition that yee present your bodies a liuing sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable seruice And bee not conformed to this world Assumption but bee transformed by the renewing of your minde that yee may proue what is that good and acceptable Conclusion and perfect will of God c. Now from this generall exhortation hee descendeth to particular duties as so many branches springing from our reasonable seruice of God From thence to the very end of the Epistle Whence I argue thus All Christian duties of loue to God and to man are branches of our reasonable seruice of God But the Morall Law containes all christian duties of our loue to God and to our neighbours Therefore the keeping of the Morall Law is our reasonable seruice of God The Proposition is euident by the whole context of the Apostle in the foresayd part of his Epistle The Assumption is vndenyable proued before The sixt proofe is from 1. Thes 4 1. c. Further more then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Iesus that as yee haue receiued of vs how yee ought to walke and to please God so yee
THE LAW AND the Gospell reconciled OR The Euangelicall Fayth and the Morall Law how they stand together in the state of grace A treatise shewing the perpetuall vse of the Morall Law vnder the Gospell to beleeuers in answere to a letter written by an Antinomiâ—◠〈◊〉 a faithfull Christian Also how the moraâ—â—â—â— of the 4th Commandement is continued in the Lords day proued the Christian Sabbath by diuine institution â—â—fe Catalogue of the Antinomian doctrinoc By HENRY BVRTON 1 TIM 1.5 The end of the Commandement is charity out of a pure heart of a good conscience and of fayth vnfained Vt Rota intra rotam currit sic lex intra Gratiam et obseruantia legis intra diuinâ— curriculum misericordiae est Ambros. de Iacob c li. 2. cap 11. LONDON Printed by J. N. for Thomas Slatter and are to bee sould at his shoppe in Blackfryars 1631. TO THE HIGH and Mighty Prince Charles by the grace of God King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Fayth c. GRatious Soueraine this small treatise humbly pleades your Royall Patronage by a double title the one from the Author of it your old seruant who oweth all he is to your Maiesty the other from the worke it selfe being a defence of the Morall Law of God against the Antinomian Libertines in these daies who deny to beleeuers any more vse thereof And what one subiect can more iustly clame your Maiesties protection then this of the Morall Law sith you are not only by a proper title Defender of the fayth but by a common trust committed to Kings keeper of both Tables The discharge of which trust as it tends much to the honour of the great Lawgiuer who hath made you his Vicegerent to see his Lawes well executed So it is the maine propp and pillar to support and secure your royall Throne The consideration whereof when I saw these sonnes of Belial thus vndermining the Kings Throne hath prouoked my zeale both to God and to your Maiesty to write this simple Treatise For to deny the Morall Law to be of any more vse to belieuers or to be so much as a rule of conuersation or that they owe obedience vnto it in poynt of duety and conscience this strikes at the very root and cutts in sunder the kâ—â—ot not onely of christian charity but euen of all ciuill society and happy vnion and communion betweene King and Subiects Head and Members For first the rule of Gods true and vnmixed worship commanded in the first Table is taken away Secondly the rule of all christian and ciuill duties betweene man and man in whatsoeuer relation they stand of equality or inequality Commanded in the second Table and all this with one stroke of cutting off the Morall Law from belieuers And particularly these Antinomians cut off all dutifull and conscionable obedience to Princes grounded on the fift Commandement wherein they being principall Parents namely of our Country all due honour and obedience in the Lord is commaunded to bee giuen them in the first place as of children to their Father Againe on the other side they breake downe the bankes that God himselfe hath pitched to confine the course of Kings whose hearts in the Lords hand like the riuers of waters keeping within their bankes refresh the Land on euery side with their sweete streames but being without the bankes of Gods sacred lawes how soone might they ouerflow and drowne all Therefore it was the care of the wise and good God to the end he might prouide for the hapy welfare both of the King and People to leaue it in charge to the King of Israell that he should haue a coppy of the Law alwaies by him to reade therein day and night Deut 17.18 19 20. to learne thereby to feare the Lord his God to walke humbly among his brethren to doe iustice and iudgement to the end hee may prolong his dayes in his Kingdome hee and his Children in the middest thereof But these Lawlesse Antinomians enemyes to God to Kings and States would robb Christian Kings of this blessed Booke of Gods Law that soe if they could strippe them of the grace and feare of God in their hearts letting loosse the reynes of all honestie and conscience they might vsurpe a gouernment after the lust of man not after the law of God and so precipitate ineuitable ruine to Princes and Common-weales For take away Gods Law and what law of man can bynde the conscience eyther in poynt of obeying or of commanding For though it hath euer beene a Maxime among the very heathen that humaine Lawes and such as were ratified by solemne oathes and couenants betweene Prince and people they held sacred and inuiolable as that Law of the Medes and Persians the Kings writing and seale c. Dan. 6.16 Yet the maine ground that bore vp all the rest was the conscience they had by naturall instinct of Gods eternall Law written in their hearts accusing or excusing knowing that God was an auenger of the breach of lawes oathes couenants such as were agreeable to his Law This then being the strongest ligature to combine the Head and Body politicke in a firme society whereby it becomes inuincible perpetuall and glorious these sonnes of Belial would dismember all Wherein they plainely shew who is their syre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that lawlesse one whose Motto is Volumus et iubemus wee will and command which style Platina notes to be first taken vp by Boniface the third who first vsurped the Papall Headship ouer the Church So as casting off all lawes of God and man hee became that great Beast described in the Reuelation whom no law or reason can bound or limit accounting it a disparagement to his tyrannicall greatnesse to bee confined within the lists of any lawes oathes vowes couenants though neuer so iust and sacred Now the Lord Iesus so blesse your Maiesty that trampling this Antinomian Anomian heresie both syre and sonnes vnder your sacred feete you may long and happily raigne ouer your people as a tender father ouer his children while your chiefe care is first for the mayntenance of Gods pure worship without mixture and for the execution of iustice and iudgement these two being the summe of both the Tables and the supporters of the Kings Throne which the Lord euer defend from all Antinomian Anomian spirits In this Treatise also J haue occasionally proued the diuine institution of the Lords day our Christian Sabbath denyed by some And as your raigne hath beene honoured with a pious law for the due obseruation of this great Holy-day of Christ So I trust that this my vindicating of it to its owne right of diuine institution will not a little helpe to the better execution of that your Christian law Which that it may be more reuerently and religiously obserued both in Court City and Country to the purging out of profanesse and to the increase of all christian graces in your
semqer all wayes in their due time and place Fiftly they deny that the Lords day the christians Sabbath hath any relation to the fourth Commandement of the Sabbath day as succeeding in the place of it And their reason is because say they the Lords day is not by any Diuine institution but humane onely and therefore not of the same force with the fourth Commandement This assertion reason is noe lesse vnresonable and peremptory then the former How The Lords day not of Diuine instiutiō but humane onely Ecclesiasticall they grant though Apostolicall they name not but in no case diuine that they expressely and stiffely deny First therefore wee will proue that the Lords daye is of diuine institution Secondly that it succeeds in the place of the Sabbath and so beitng of deuine instituiton hath the force of a Commandement First that it is of deuine institution thouigh wee haue no expresse Word of Christ yet we haue his Act worke for it Which is euer as good as his word We shewed before how Gods Act in his resting in blessing and sanctfying the Sabbath or seauenth day was his institution For to what end did he blesse and sanctifie it For himselfe what needed hee No surely for man for whom the Sabbath day was made to rest in as well as the sixt to labour in For the Sabbath was made for man saith the Lord of the Sabbath This institution was in Paradise It stands indeede Gen. 2.2 before the fall of Adam But if Adam fell the same day of his Creation being the sixt day as the best Diuines thinke then it is set by way of anticipation or Hysteron Proteron and so this seuenth day began next after the Fall when the son of God incarnate was cleerely promised in which respect the Sonne of man Christ was Lord of the sabbath day being the Institutor of it vnder whom Adam began his spirituall life in the obseruation or sanctification of the Sabbath And then I doubt not he began to Sacrifice as hee taught his sonnes afterwards as wee see Gen. 4. it being not vnprobable that those skins wherewith God cloathed Adams shamefull nakednes were of the Sacrifices which God taught him now vnder Christ to offer as a type of Christ cloathing vs with the robe of his righteousnes imputed to vs and merited for vs by the sacrifice of his death which sacrificing shall wee deny to bee of diuine institution because wee find it not there expressely commanded Otherwise it had beene will-worship and so abominable whereas God had respect to Abel and to his offering And that he respected not Cain it was on Cains parte for want of faith Heb 11 4 And why should not man then in the state of inocency haue a Sabbath to rest solemnly in and to be vacant for Gods worship as hee had a taske though not toylesome layed vpon him to dresse the garden and so much the more being now cast out hauing a hard and sore toyle imposed on him to till the ground whence hee must eate his bread with sowre or brackish sauce to wit the sweat of his face Other wise if hee had had no Sabbath to rest in his state had bene most miserable as attended with incessant toyle and trauell And when in most likelyhood did Cain and Abell bring their sacrifices Most likely on the Sabbath For the text sayth Mikets iamim in the end of the dayes which some referre to the end of the yeare Gene. 4.3 as Ex. 22.16 and why not also may it be ment of the end of the weeke dayes But I will not contend Thus Adam no doubt had the Sabbath not onely before his fall written in his heart but after his fall a speciall day euen the seauenth assigned him vnder Christ the Redeemer the Lord of the Sabbath And Gods owne act in resting from the worke of Creation and in blessing and sanctifying the Sabbath day for mans vse and comfort was warrant enough to make it of diuine institution without any other expresse Commandement The like wee say of the Lords day That which gaue it a stampe of diuine institution was the Lords owne Act in blessing and sanctifying this Lords day with his blessed and glorious Resurrection when now hee ceassed from the worke of Redemption a greater and more glorious worke then that of Creation now beginning also and consecrating the eternall Sabbath So that this very act of Christ was a sufficient consecration of this day as the Sabbath of our Redemption and therefore iustly styled by the Holy Ghost the Lords day because consecrated not onely to him but by him as the author of it Therefore also is he rightly intitled Lord of the Sabbath day of the Iewes as alone hauing a power to abrogate that and to initiate this day For in like manner the Sabbath is called Gods owne Holy-day Isay 58. and the Sabbath of the Lord our God Exod. 20. which hath relation to Christ the Redeemer Exod. 20.2 to shew that hee is the Lord and institutor of it So that it belonged to him alone to cancell the old and to consecrate a new Sabbath to Christians in memoriall of a better Creation and as the entrance iniatition to the eternall Sabbath Againe obserue how he honours this day For the very day of his Resurrection his Disciples being assembled hee presents himselfe personally vnto them comforting and confirming them with the sensible euidence of his Resurrection and breathing on them the gifts of the Holy Ghost And because they should take speciall notice further of this day iust eight dayes after when this day came about againe hee appeared to them the second time where they were assembled and standing in the midst of them as Lord of his Church salutes them with his peace and shewes them many signes for the fuller confirmation of his Resurrection And yet for the more abundant confirmation of the consecration of this day after his Ascention hee sends the Holy Ghost on this very day 50 dayes after his Resurrection whose powerfull presence was an euident sanctification of this day by his manifold giftes graces to his Church vnto the end of the world And it is specially to be noted that on those dayes wherein Christ appeared to his Disciples and the Holy Ghost descended they were all assembled solemnly together in a holy communion in prayer and other sacred duties So that Christs twice appearing vnto and the Holy Ghost descending visibly vpon his Disciples when they were assembled and all vpon this day was warrant sufficient for the Apostles and so for the succeeding Churches to continue the sanctification of this first day of the weeke by their holy assemblies and exercises as Prayer Preaching administring the Sacraments Almes c. They saw that this was the speciall day selected and sealed by Christ and the Holy Ghost For in the mouth of 2. or 3. witnesses shall euery word be established for publique sacred assemblies wherein they might