Secondly, There is the Evangelical and Christian liberty, whereby we are freed from many things of the law, not only the curse of the moral law and the spirit of bondage, which did accompany the legal administration thereof, but also from the obligation unto, and exercise of the ceremonial; This Evangelical liberty is often commended in the Scripture, as the glorious privilege of the Christian Church, which the legal Church wanted; of this legal servitude, and Evangelical freedom the Apostle, Gal. 4, doth largely, and most divinely treat, This Christian liberty also from Jewish rites, The Apostle, Gal. 5. 1. ••horteth us to stand fast in, as being purchased for us by the death of Christ, as a glorious privilege; only the Apostle Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 16, giveth good advice, That we turn not our liberty into licentiousness; It is true, the Apostle doth once use the word [free] abusively and improperly, Rom. 6. 20, where the servants of sin are said to be free from righteousness, or to righteousness, now this is improperly called a freedom; for as the service of God is the truest freedom, so freedom from holiness is the greatest slavery. Although Austin doth from this Text make a division of liberty into two kinds, which he maketh perpetual use of, Libertas à peccate, and Libertas a justitiâ; The godly man hath the former liberty, the sinner hath the latter, but this latter is improperly called liberty.
Secondly, There is the Evangelical and Christian liberty, whereby we are freed from many things of the law, not only the curse of the moral law and the spirit of bondage, which did accompany the legal administration thereof, but also from the obligation unto, and exercise of the ceremanial; This Evangelical liberty is often commended in the Scripture, as the glorious priviledge of the Christian Church, which the legal Church wanted; of this legal servitude, and Evangelical freedome the Apostle, Gal. 4, doth largely, and most divinely treat, This Christian liberty also from Jewish rites, The Apostle, Gal. 5. 1. ••horteth us to stand fast in, as being purchased for us by the death of Christ, as a glorious priveledge; only the Apostle Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 16, giveth good advice, That we turn not our liberty into licentiousness; It is true, the Apostle doth once use the word [free] abusively and improperly, Rom. 6. 20, where the servants of sinne are said to be free from righteousness, or to righteousness, now this is improperly called a freedome; for as the service of God is the truest freedome, so freedome from holiness is the greatest slavery. Although Austin doth from this Text make a division of liberty into two kinds, which he maketh perpetual use of, Libertas à peccate, and Libertas a justitiâ; The godly man hath the former liberty, the sinner hath the latter, but this latter is improperly called liberty.
