LIVERER, FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN, AND CONSEQUENTLY FROM THE RULE OF THE LAW AND OF MAN; TO THE INTENT THAT BEING MADE SONS INSTEAD OF SERVANTS, AND PERFECT MEN INSTEAD OF CHILDREN, WE MAY SERVE GOD IN LOVE THROUGH THE GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. Gal. v. 1. "stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Rom. viii. 2. "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." v. 15. "ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Gal. iv. 7. "wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son." Heb. ii. 15. "that he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 1 Cor. vii. 23. "ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men." James i. 25. "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein." ii. 12. "so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty."

THAT WE MAY SERVE GOD. Matt. xi. 29, 30. "take my yoke upon ye.... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light," compared with 1 John v. 3-5. "this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. Rom. vi. 18. "being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." V. 22. " now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness." vii. 6. "now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." xii. 1, 2. "present your bodies.... a reasonable service; and be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." James i. 25. "whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." 1 Pet. ii. 16. "as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." Hence we are freed from the yoke of human judgments, much more of civil decrees and penalties in religious matters. Rom. xiv. 4. "who art thou that judgest another man's ser

vant? to his own master he standeth or falleth." v. 8. "whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." Matt. vii. 1. "judge not, that ye be not judged." Rom. xiv. 10. "why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." If we are forbidden to judge (or condemn) our brethren respecting matters of religion or conscience in common discourse, how much more in a court of law, which has confessedly no jurisdiction here; since St. Paul refers all such matters to the judgment-seat of Christ, not of man? James ii. 12. "so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty;" namely, by God, not by fallible men in things appertaining to religion; wherein if he will judge us according to the law of liberty, why should man prejudge us according to the law of bondage?

BY THE GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH IN LOVE. Rom. xiv. throughout the whole of the chapter; and chap. xv. 1—15. In these chapters Paul lays down two especial cautions to be observed; first, that whatever we do in pursuance of this our liberty, we should do it in full assurance of faith, nothing doubting that it is permitted us. v. 5. “let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." v. 23. "whatever is not of faith, is sin." Secondly, that we should give no just cause of offence to a weak brother. v. 20, 21. "for meat destroy not the work of God: all things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence." 1 Cor. viii. 13. "if meat make my brother to-offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend;" which resolution, however, must be considered as an effect of the extraordinary love which the apostle bore his brethren, rather than a religious obligation binding on every believer to abstain from flesh for ever, in case a weak brother should think vegetable food alone lawful. ix. 19-22. " though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might 3 Ex ore tuo, hominum corruptissime, te redarguo; illudque apostoli abs te prolatum in te retorqueo, quis es tu qui alienum servum judicas? coram domino nostro sine stemus vel cadamus. Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano. Prose Works, Symmons' ed. V. 247.

In religion whatever we do under the gospel, we ought to be thereof persuaded without scruple; and are justified by the faith we have, not by the work we do: Rom. xiv. 5. let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.' A Treatise of Civil Power, &c. Prose Works, II. 542.

gain the more; unto the Jews I became as a Jew.... to them that are under the law as under the law.... to them that are without law, as without law; being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.... to the weak became I as weak.... I am made all things to all men.” x. 23. "all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient." Gal. v. 13. "for, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh; but by love serve one another." 2 Pet. ii. 19. "while they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption." 1 Cor. viii. 9. "take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak.”

This appears to have been the sole motive for the command given to the churches, Acts xv. 28, 29. "to abstain from blood, and from things strangled;" namely, lest the Jews who were not yet sufficiently established in the faith should take offence. For that the abstinence from blood was purely ceremonial, is evident from the reason assigned Lev. xvii. 11. "the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." Thus the eating of fat was forbidden by the law, vii. 23, &c. yet no one infers from hence that the use of fat is unlawful, this prohibition applying only to the sacrificial times: Acts x. 13, &c.

No regard, however, is to be paid to the scruples of the malicious or obstinate. Gal. ii. 4, 5. "and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." 1 Cor. xiv. 38. "if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant." Christ was not deterred by the fear of giving offence to the Pharisees from defending the practice of his disciples in eating bread with unwashen hands. Matt. xv. 2, 3. and plucking the ears of corn, which it was considered unlawful to do on the sabbath-day, Luke vi. 1, &c. Nor would he have suffered a woman of condition to anoint his feet with precious ointment, and to wipe them with her hair, still less would he have vindicated and praised the action. John xii. 3, &c. neither would he have availed himself of the good offices and kindness of the women who ministered unto him whithersoever he went, if it were necessary on all occasions to satisfy the unreasonable scruples of malicious or

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D D

envious persons. Nay, we must withstand the opinions of the brethren themselves, if they are influenced by motives unworthy of the gospel. Gal. ii. 11., &c. "when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed." Nor ought the weak believer to judge rashly of the liberty of a Christian brother whose faith is stronger than his own, but rather to give himself up to be instructed with the more willingness. Rom. xiv. 13. "let us not therefore judge one another any more.'

Neither this reason, therefore, nor a pretended consideration for the weaker brethren, afford a sufficient warrant for those edicts of the magistrate which constrain believers, or deprive them in any respect of their religious liberty. For so the apostle argues 1 Cor. ix. 19. "though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all;" I was not made so by others, but became so of my own accord ; free from all men, and consequently from the magistrate, in these matters at least. When the magistrate takes away this liberty, he takes away the gospel itself; he deprives the good and the bad indiscriminately of their privilege of free judgment, contrary to the spirit of the well known precept, Matt. xiii. 29, 30. "lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them: let both grow together until the harvest."

5 I have shown that the civil power hath neither right, nor can do right, by forcing religious things: I will now show the wrong it doth, by violating the fundamental principle of the gospel, the new birthright of every true believer, Christian liberty.' A Treatise of Civil Power, &c. Prose Works, II. 539. Liberty, which is inseparable from Christian religion.' Ibid. 352.

6 None more cautious of giving scandal than St. Paul. Yet while he made himself servant to all, that he might gain the more, he made himself so of his own accord, was not made so by outward force, testifying at the same time that he was free from all men.' Ibid. 543.

7

On earth

Who against faith and conscience can be heard
Infallible?

Paradise Lost, XII. 528.

Seeing then that in matters of religion, as hath been proved, none can judge or determine here on earth, no not church-governors themselves against the consciences of other believers, my inference is, or rather not mine, but our Saviour's own, that in those matters they neither can command or use constraint, lest they run rashly on a pernicious consequence,

CHAP. XXVIII.-OF THE EXTERNAL SEALING OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE.

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE covenant of GRACE, under the law and the gospel respectively, has been considered; we are now to speak of the SEALING OF THAT COVENANT, or rather of its representation under certain outward signs.

This representation, like the covenant itself and its manifestation, is common both to the law and the gospel: under the former it consisted in CIRCUMCISION and the PASSOVER; under the latter it consists in BAPTISM and the SUPPER OF THE LORD. These ceremonies, particularly the two latter, are generally known by the name of SACRAMENTS.

A Sacrament is a visible sign ordained by God, whereby he sets his seal on believers in token of his saving grace, or of the satisfaction of Christ; and whereby we on our part testify our faith and obedience to God with a sincere heart and a grateful remembrance.

Respecting CIRCUMCISION, compare Gen. xvii. 10, &c. "this is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; every man child among you shall be circumcised; and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you." Rom. iv. 11, 12. "he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." Deut. x. 16. "circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked." xxx. 6. "Jehovah thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God." Jer. iv. 4. "circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, forewarned in that parable, Matt. xiii. from the 29th to the 31st verse, lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them; let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares,' &c. A Treatise of Civil Power, &c. II. 535.