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But forasmuch as heretofore he hath endeavoured to persuade me to believe divers points, which then I could not see to be true, and therefore could not assent unto them, methinks I do now begin to see some show of truth in them; therefore, sir, if you please to give me leave, I will tell you what points they are, to the intent I may have your judgment and direction therein.

Evan. Do so, I pray you.

Neo. 1. Why, first of all, he hath endeavoured to persuade me that a believer is not under the law, but is altogether delivered from it.

2. That a believer does not commit sin.

3. That the Lord can see no sin in a believer.

4. That the Lord is not angry with a believer for his sins.

5. That the Lord doth not chastise a believer for his sins.

6. Lastly, That a believer hath no cause neither to confess his sins, nor to crave pardon at the hands of God for them, neither yet to fast, nor mourn, nor humble himself before the Lord for them.

Evan. These points which you have now mentioned have caused many needless and fruitless disputes; and that because men have either not understood what they have said, or else not declared whereof they have affirmed; for in one sense they may all of them be truly affirmed, and in another sense they may all of them be truly denied; whereof if we would clearly understand the truth, we must distinguish betwixt the law as it is the law of works, and as it is the law of Christ. ¹

Now, as it is the law of works, it may be truly said, that a believer is not under the law, but is delivered from it, ² according to that of the apostle, (Rom 6:14), "Ye are not under the law, but under grace"; and (Rom 7:6), "But now we are delivered from the law." And if believers be not under the law, but are delivered from the law, as it is a law of works, then, though they sin, yet do they not transgress the law of works; for "where no law is, there is no transgression," (Rom 4:15). And therefore, says the apostle John, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not," (1 John 3:6); that is, as I conceive, whosoever abideth in Christ by faith, sinneth not against the law of works. ³ And if a believer sin not against the law of works, then can God see no sin in a believer, as a transgression of that law; ⁴ and therefore it is said, (Num 23:21), "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel"; and again it is said, (Jer 50:20), "At that time the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found": and in Canticles 4:7, Christ says concerning his spouse, "Behold thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee." And if God can see no sin in a believer, then assuredly he is neither angry nor doth chastise a believer for his sins, as a transgression of that law; ⁵ and hence it is, that the Lord says concerning his own people that were believers, (Isa 27:4), "Anger is not in me": and again, (Isa 54:9), the Lord speaking comfortably to has spouse the Church, says, "As I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will no more be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." Now, if the Lord be not angry with a believer, neither doth chastise him for his sins, as they are any transgression of the law of works, then hath a believer neither need to confess his sins unto God, nor to crave pardon for them, nor yet to fast, nor mourn, nor humble himself for them, as conceiving them to be any transgression of the law, as it is the law of works. ⁶ Thus you see, that if you consider the law in this sense, then all these points follow: according as you say our friend Antinomista hath endeavoured to persuade you.

But if you consider the law, as it is the law of Christ, then they do not so, but quite contrary. For as the law is the law of Christ, it may be truly said, that a believer is under the law, and not delivered from it; according to that of the apostle, (1 Cor 9:21), "Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ," and according to that of the same apostle, (Rom 3:31), "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea, [by faith] we establish the law." And if a believer be under the law, and not delivered from it, as it is the law of Christ, then if he sin, he doth thereby transgress the law of Christ; and hence I conceive it is that the apostle John says, both concerning himself and other believers, (1 John 1:8), "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"; and so says the apostle James, chapter 3:2, "In many things we offend all." And if a believer transgress the law of Christ, then doubtless he seeth it: for it is said, (Prov 5:21), "that the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings"; and in Hebrews 4:13, it is said, "all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." And if the Lord sees the sins that a believer commits against the law, as it is the law of Christ, then doubtless he is angry with him; for it is said, (Psa 106:40), that because the people "went a whoring after their own inventions, therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance"; and in Deuteronomy 1:37, Moses says concerning himself, "The Lord was angry with me." And if the Lord be angry with a believer for his transgressing the law of Christ, then assuredly, if need be, he will chastise him for it: for it is said, (Psa 89:30-32), concerning the seed and children of Jesus Christ, "If they forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes." And in 1 Corinthians 11:30, it is said concerning believers, "For this cause," namely, their unworthy receiving of the sacrament, "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." And if the Lord be angry with believers, and do chastise them for their sins, as they are a transgression of the law of Christ, then hath a believer cause to confess his sins unto the Lord, and to crave pardon for them, yea and to fast, and mourn, and humble himself for them, as conceiving them to be a transgression of the law of Christ. ⁷

[Back] [1] The Antinomian sense of all these positions is, no doubt, erroneous and detestable, and is opposed and disproved by our author. The positions themselves are paradoxes bearing a precious gospel truth, which he maintains against the legalist; but I doubt it is too much to call them all Antinomian paradoxes. But to call them simply, and by the lump, Antinomian errors, is shocking: one might as good say, it is a Popish or Lutheran error, "that the bread in the sacrament is Christ's body"; and that it is a Socinian, Arminian, or Baxterian error, "That a sinner is justified by faith"; for the first four of the paradoxes are as directly scriptural as these are; though the Antinomian sense of the former is anti-scriptural, as is the Popish, Lutheran, Socinian, Arminian, and Baxterian sense of the latter, respectively. At this rate, one might subvert the very foundations of Christianity, as might easily be instructed, if there were sufficient cause to exemplify it here. How few doctrines of the Bible are there that have not been wrested to an erroneous sense by some corrupt men or other! yet will not their corrupt glosses warrant the condemning of the scriptural positions themselves as erroneous.

The first four of these paradoxes are found in the following texts of Scripture, viz:

1st. (Rom 6:14), "Ye are not under the law, but under grace."—(7:6), "Now we are delivered from the law."

2d. (1 John 3:6), "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not."—(verse 9), "Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin, and he cannot sin."

3d. (Num 23:21), "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel."—(Cant 4:7), "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee."

4th. (Isa 54:9), "So have I sworn, that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee."

The case standing thus, these paradoxes must needs be sensed one way or other, agreeable to the analogy of faith, and so defended by all who own the divine authority of the holy Scripture. And as an orthodox divine would not condemn the two propositions above mentioned, brought in for illustration of this matter, but clear the same by giving a sound sense of them, and rejecting the unsound sense, as that it is true that the bread is Christ's body sacramentally; false, that it is so by transubstantiation, or consubstantiation: that it is true, sinners, are justified by faith as an instrument, apprehending and applying Christ's righteousness; false, that they are justified by it as a work, fulfilling the pretended new proper gospel law: so our author gives a safe and sound sense of these scriptural paradoxes, and rejects the unsound sense put upon them by Antinomians; and this he does, by applying to them the distinction of the law, as it is the law of works, i.e., the covenant of works, and as it is the law of Christ, i.e., a rule of life, in the hand of a Mediator, to believers. Now, if this distinction be not admitted here, neither in these nor equivalent terms, but the law of Christ, and law of works, must be reckoned one and the same thing; then believers in Christ, whom none but Antinomians will deny to be under the law, as it is the law of Christ, or a rule of life, are evidently staked down under the covenant works still; forasmuch as, in the sense of the holy Scripture, as well as in the sense of our author, the law of works is the covenant of works. And since it is plain from the holy Scripture, and from the Westminster Confession, that believers are not under the law as a covenant of works; a way which, by this distinction, our author had blocked up, is, by rejecting of it, and confounding the law of works and law of Christ, opened for Antinomians to cast off the law for good and all.

The two last of these paradoxes are consequently scriptural, as necessarily following upon the former, being understood in the same sense as they are, and as our author explains them.

[Back] [2] "True believers be not under the law as a covenant of works." Westm. Confess. chap. 19, sect. 6.—"The law of works," says our author, "is as much as to say, the covenant of works."

[Back] [3] "As the world is altogether set upon sin, and can do nothing but sin, so they that are born of God sin not; not that their sins of themselves are not deadly, but because their persons are so lively in Christ, that the deadliness of sin cannot prevail against them." Mr. John Davidson's Cat. p. 32. What he means by the deadliness of sin, appears from these words a little after: "Howbeit the condemnation of sin be removed from the faithful altogether," &c. The penalty which the law of works threatens, says our author to Neophytus, is "condemnation and eternal death; and this you have no cause at all to fear."

[Back] [4] Mr. James Melvil to the same purpose expresses it thus:—

[Back] [5] Such anger is revenging wrath, and such chastisement is proper punishment inflicted for satisfying offended justice; in which sense it is said, (Isa 53:5), "The chastisement of our peace was upon him," namely, on Jesus Christ; and therefore it cannot be on believers themselves.

[Back] [6] Our author does not indeed here refute the Antinomian error, that the believer ought not to mourn for his sins; he does that effectually in the next paragraph. But here he refutes the legalist, who will needs have the believer still to be under the law, as it is the covenant of works; and therefore to confess and mourn, &c. for his sins, as still committed against the covenant of works. But it is evident as the light, that believers are not under the covenant of works, or, in other terms, under the law, as that covenant; and that principle being once fixed, the whole chain of consequences, which our author has here made, does necessarily follow thereupon. It is strange that nothing can be allowed in believers to be mourning for sin, unless they mourn for it as unbelievers, as persons under the covenant of works, who doubtless are under the curse and condemnation for their sin, (Gal 3:10). But "as our obedience now is not the performance, so our sinning is not the violation of the condition of the old covenant. Believers' sins now, though transgressions of the law, are not counted violations of the conditions of the covenant of works, under which they are not." Brown on Justification, chap. 15. p. 224.—"If sense of sin be taken for the unbelieving feeling of, and judging myself cast out of his sight, and condemned; whereas yet I am in Christ, and 'it is God that justifies me; who is he that shall condemn?' (Rom 8:33,34); we shall agree with Antinomians. This is indeed the hasty sense of unbelief. (Psa 31:22, John 2:4). Hence let them be rebuked, who say not that Christ in his gospel hath taken away this sense of sin." Rutherford on the Covenant, p. 222.

[Back] [7] Thus our author hath solidly refuted in this paragraph the Antinomian sense of all the six positions above mentioned.