A30249:744
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…
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1647
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
LECTURE XXIX.
LECTVRE XXIX.
MAT 5. 17. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven.
MAT 5. 17. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandements, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven.
Our Saviour being to vindicate the Law from all corrupt 1glosses of the Pharisees, he doth in the first place (as Chrysostom thinketh) remove the odium that might be cast upon him as if he did indeed destroy the Law; for it was then generally received, that only was Law, which the Pharisees declared to be so. And this he doth, ver. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law. The reason he giveth, is from the perpetual nature of the Law: heaven and earth, the whole world shall sooner fall into pieces, then any tittle of that. And the Prophets are here joined to the Law, not so much in regard of their predictions, as because they were Interpreters of the Law. The second reason is from that evil which shall befall him, that doth break it, and here he nameth a two-fold Antinomianism; one ⟨p. 274⟩in life and practise, the other in doctrine: That in practise is aggravated, though it be one of the least commandments. They are called least, either because the Pharisees thought them so, or else indeed, because all the commands of God were not concerning duties of the same consequence. The other in doctrine is expressed in those words, And teach men so. I cannot consent to Beza's interpretation, making this teaching to be by example and life, or else [Greek or Hebrew], to be put for [Greek or Hebrew], although, as if the meaning were, He that doth break in his practice my commandment, although he do teach them in doctrine. There is no necessity of offering such violence to the Text. But if we interpret it of doctrinal breaking, it will very well agree with the Pharisees, who made void the commandments of God by the doctrines of men. The evil that shall befall such, is in those words, [He shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven.] Called is put for is. or be; He shall be the least. By Kingdom of heaven,