Then & Now · 22 of 42
21. Of Christian Liberty And Liberty Of Conscience
21. Of Christian Liberty And Liberty Of Conscience
Paragraph 1: The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the Gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the severity and curse of the law,348 and in their being delivered from this present evil world,349 bondage to Satan,350 and dominion of sin,351 from the evil of afflictions,352 the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave,353 and everlasting damnation:354 as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear,355 but a child-like love and willing mind.356 All which were common also to believers under the law for the substance of them;357 but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.358
Paragraph 1: The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the Gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the severity and curse of the law,348 and in their being delivered from this present evil world,349 bondage to Satan,350 and dominion of sin,351 from the evil of afflictions,352 the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave,353 and everlasting damnation:354 as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear,355 but a child-like love and willing mind.356 All which were common also to believers under the law for the substance of them;357 but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.358
Paragraph 2: God alone is Lord of the conscience,359 and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to His Word, or not contained in it.360 So that to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience;361 and the requiring of an implicit faith, and absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.362
Paragraph 2: God alone is Lord of the conscience,359 and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to His Word, or not contained in it.360 So that to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience;361 and the requiring of an implicit faith, and absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.362
Paragraph 3: They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do practice any sin, or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction,363 so they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our lives.364
Paragraph 3: They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do practice any sin, or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction,363 so they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our lives.364