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…

5. That Interpretation of some, though of solid Judgement, ¹who make the phrase [Not to be under the Law] to be as much as, Not under the curse of the Law; or, Not obnoxious to the guilt by it, seemeth not to agree with the context. I know this is generally received as the sense of the place; and there is this argument urged for it, because the Apostle maketh an objection from hence; Shall we sin because we are not under the Law, but under grace? Therefore it should seem that the Law is taken for the condemning power of it, and grace for pardoning and free Justification: but because the Apostle is here speaking of sanctification, both in this Chapter, and the Chapter following, I prefer ²Beza's interpretation, which makes the being under the Law, to be the same in sense with, under sin; for the Apostle, speaking of himself as carnal, Chap. 7. saith, that the Law wrought in him all manner of evil: and this indeed is the work of the Law in every unregenerate man; so that the more the Law is applied to him, the more doth his corruption break forth. Now then this is the Apostles argument, Let not sin reign in you, for now you are not under the Law stirring up sin, and provoking it in you, but under grace; not justifying or pardoning, as properly and immediately meant here (though they were under that also) but sanctifying and healing. And the Apostle maketh the objection following [What then, shall we sin, because ⟨p. 228⟩we are not under the Law?] because the phrase was ambiguous,, and might be thought to have such a sense, as the Libertines make it to have, to wit, to do every thing as we please without any control by any Law: and in this explication, we shall see a sweet harmony in the context.

5. That Interpretation of some, though of solid Judgement, ¹who make the phrase [Not to be under the Law] to be as much as, Not under the curse of the Law; or, Not obnoxious to the guilt by it, seemeth not to agree with the context. I know this is generally received as the sense of the place; and there is this argument urged for it, because the Apostle maketh an objection from hence; Shall we sinne because we are not under the Law, but under grace? Therefore it should seem that the Law is taken for the condemning power of it, and grace for pardoning and free Justification: but because the Apostle is here speaking of sanctification, both in this Chapter, and the Chapter following, I preferre