An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

The Apostle,¹ Rom. 7. vers. 4. Shows that we are dead to the Law by the body of Christ; that is, by Christ crucified, we have remission, and the holy Spirit, and so are dead to the cursing and irritating power of the Law, that we might bring forth fruits of holy works to God: Before, when we were in the ⟨p. 381⟩flesh, in our corrupt unregenerate estate, the motions of sin, which were accidentally irritated by the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death; that is, to bring forth sinful actions, which tend to death, vers. 5. But now saith the Apostle, we are delivered from the Law, from the curse and irritating power of it, That being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the Letter, vers. 6. That is, in those new Divine Principles, which our spirits have from Gods, not in the old nature, which by the outward Letter of the Law is irritated unto sin: This I think is the scope of the Apostle, he discourses of the regenerate and unregenerate; the one dead to the Law, the other irritated by it; he discourses not of the difference between those under the Old Testament, and those under the New; for the regenerate under the Old Testament, were dead to the cursing and irritating Law; they had internal Righteousness, which the Author calls [Greek or Hebrew]; they had the circumcision of the heart, Deut. 30.6. which in the Author is the [Greek or Hebrew], of the fleshly circumcision, they had the law in the heart, ⟨p. 382⟩Psal. 37.31. And by consequence they had true regeneration, in which (saith our Author) all the legal washings and purifications are fulfilled; they were not irritated by the Law, but delighted in it, as in their joy, choice, treasure, honey-comb of sweetness, and what not, as appears in the Psalms: They served in the newness of the Spirit, in new Divine Principles, which they had from the holy Spirit, in the easiness of the New Creature; to which the Will of God is natural: Even in their Rituals and Sacrifices, they knew all must be done in newness of Spirit, in the exercises of internal Graces. The very Heathens themselves, thought that they were to Sacrifice, Meant candidâ, & expurgatâ conscientiâ: How much more did the servants of God under the Old Testament do so; they knew, that there were better Sacrifices than the outward ones: Sacrifices of righteousness,