Thus God from Heaven, and some of the best Men who ever lived upon Earth, do plainly tell us that the Gospel is no Law, but a pure Act of Grace. And as God sent these Men into the World to restore his Truth, to recover it out of the Darkness of Popery, in which the Nations of the Earth had for so many Ages lost themselves, and been wretchedly deluded by the worst of Errors, dressed up in the faint Resemblance of Truth; they were answerably faithful to the performance of that Work which God had sent them to do. They were careful to distinguish the Gospel from a Law, and would by no means suffer Works, tho insinuating themselves under never so specious pretences, to invade the Prerogative of Grace. They very well knew (as both aChemnitius andb Beza inform us) that playing with the Ambiguity of the word Law, confounded Law and Gospel, laid the Root of the most pernicious Errors to spring up and overspread the Church with nothing but Tares, or worser Weeds, in the room of nourishing Corn. They were aware that the perplexed Thoughts of Law and Gospel chained together, by ⟨p. 36⟩the unnatural Mixture gave Birth to that monstrous Metamorphosis by which the Monks transformed the Gospel into a Law; and as they were not at all ignorant that the proper Remedy to cure these distempered Thoughts, was exactly to distinguish between the one and the other, they suitably made a good and successful use of it: They would give every thing its proper Name suitable to its Nature. If they spoke of Works, they meant a Law prescribing them, and commanding Obedience under severe Penalties; but then in thus thinking, speaking, or writing, the Gospel never came into their Minds, nor was formed in their Voice, nor dropped from their Pens. But whenever an Idea or Notion of Grace arose in their Minds, then indeed the next following Thought was the Gospel of Christ. By thus reducing these two Notions into due Rank and Order, they baffled all the sophistical Cavils of the Monks, and afterward of the more cunning Jesuits, and made War against Antichrist with Success and Victory: for to drive that Man of Sin out of his dark Corners, and hiding-Places, is indeed to conquer him. In pursuing such a Conquest, these famed Divines of the first Reformation, once too much adored, and now as much despised, wrote and preached the pure sincere Grace of the Gospel to the People.
Thus God from Heaven, and some of the best Men who ever liv'd upon Earth, do plainly tell us that the Gospel is no Law, but a pure Act of Grace. And as God sent these Men into the World to restore his Truth, to recover it out of the Darkness of Popery, in which the Nations of the Earth had for so many Ages lost themselves, and been wretchedly deluded by the worst of Errors, dress'd up in the faint Resemblance of Truth; they were answerably faithful to the performance of that Work which God had sent them to do. They were careful to distinguish the Gospel from a Law, and would by no means suffer Works, tho insinuating themselves under never so specious pretences, to invade the Prerogative of Grace. They very well knew (as both aChemnitius andb Beza inform us) that playing with the Ambiguity of the word Law, confounded Law and Gospel, laid the Root of the most pernicious Errors to spring up and overspread the Church with nothing but Tares, or worser Weeds, in the room of nourshing Corn. They were aware that the perplexed Thoughts of Law and Gospel chain'd together, by ⟨p. 36⟩the unnatural Mixture gave Birth to that monstrous Metamorphosis by which the Monks transform'd the Gospel into a Law; and as they were not at all ignorant that the proper Remedy to cure these distemper'd Thoughts, was exactly to distinguish between the one and the other, they sutably made a good and successful use of it: They would give every thing its proper Name sutable to its Nature. If they spoke of Works, they meant a Law prescribing them, and commanding Obedience under severe Penalties; but then in thus thinking, speaking, or writing, the Gospel never came into their Minds, nor was form'd in their Voice, nor dropp'd from their Pens. But whenever an Idea or Notion of Grace arose in their Minds, then indeed the next following Thought was the Gospel of Christ. By thus reducing these two Notions into due Rank and Order, they baffled all the sophistical Cavils of the Monks, and afterward of the more cunning Jesuits, and made War against Antichrist with Success and Victory: for to drive that Man of Sin out of his dark Corners, and hiding-Places, is indeed to conquer him. In pursuing such a Conquest, these fam'd Divines of the first Reformation, once too much ador'd, and now as much despis'd, wrote and preach'd the pure sincere Grace of the Gospel to the People.
- aMultos enim insignes, & perniciosos errors peperit aequivocatio vocabuli Legis, non rectè distincta Monachi transformarunt Doctrinam Evangelii in Legem. Chemnitius Loc. Come. Tom. 2. pag. 4. Edit. in 8o. Francof. 1599.Multos enim insignes, & perniciosos errores peperit aequivocatio vocabuli Legis, non rectè distincta Monachi transformarunt Doctrinam Evangelii in Legem. Chemnitius Loc. Com. Tom. 2. pag. 4. Edit. in 8o. Francof. 1599.
- bHoc enim vere possumus affirmare, ignorationem differentiae Legis, & Evangelii, plurimis maximisque erroribus occasionem praebuisse, quibus hodie Christiana Religio perturbatur: i. e. For we can truly affirm this, that the Ignorance of the Law and Gospel, hath afforded Occasion to the most and greatest Errors with which the Christian Religion is at this Day disturb'd. Beza Confessio, cap. 4. §. 23. pag. 19. Tom. 1. oper. Genev. 1570.
