Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the…Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the…

This was Pauls method in all his Epistles, which he diligently observed: Indeed, it hath been very hard so to give both their due, that either the preacher, or the hearer, hath not thereby been inclined to make one prejudicial to the other: Not but that the Gospel is to be preferred, and that in divers respects, but when it is so extolled that the Law is made useless, and unprofitable, this is to go beyond lawful limits; and how difficult it hath been to hit the mark here, appeareth in that the Jews, Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and generally all Heretics have advanced the Law, to the eclipsing of the Gospel, and there have been few who have extolled the Gospel to the prejudice of the Law.

This was Pauls method in all his Epistles, which he diligently observed: Indeed, it hath been very hard so to give both their due, that either the preacher, or the hearer, hath not thereby been inclined to make one prejudiciall to the other: Not but that the Gospel is to be preferred, and that in divers respects, but when it is so extolled that the Law is made useless, and unprofitable, this is to go beyond lawfull limits; and how difficult it hath been to hit the mark here, appeareth in that the Iews, Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and generally all Heretiques have advanced the Law, to the eclipsing of the Gospel, and there have been few who have extolled the Gospel to the prejudice of the Law.

To proceed therefore regularly, we will show when the Law is preached prejudicially to the Gospel, and when the Gospel to the Law.

To proceed therefore regularly, we will shew when the Law is preached prejudicially to the Gospel, and when the Gospel to the Law.

In the first place, the Law is then stretched too far, when the works of it are pressed to justification, whether these works be the fruits of grace, or antecedaneous to grace, it is not much difference to this point; and this is that dangerous doctrine of the Law, which the Apostle in his Epistle, doth so vehemently withstand, and for which, he is not afraid to charge the teachers thereof, with apostasy from Christ, and such who make Christ, and all his sufferings in vain. And this is indeed to be a legal Preacher, insomuch that it is an high calumny to charge Protestant Preachers, with the odious accusation of legal preachers; for he is not a legal preacher in the Scripture sense, which presseth the duty and works of the Law but that urgeth them for justification, and that righteousness which we must rely upon before the Tribunal of God: and thou mayst justly fear it is thy unsanctified & corrupt heart, which makes thee averse from the Law in the former sense.