The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…

Gods will revealed) thy spirit is good (there is Davids mind, that enabled him to steer his course according to it) the Spirit of life doth free us from the law of sin and of death, but not from the holy, and pure, and good, and righteous Law of God, Rom. 8.1, 2, 3. The blood of Christ by the Spirit cleanseth us from dead works, to serve the living God, Heb. 9.14. not to serve our own selves, or lusts, or wills, to do what we please: the law indeed is not a rule of that by which we are to obey, viz. of our faith, yet it is the only rule of what we are to obey: we are not to perform acts of obedience now as Adam was to do, viz. by the sole power of inherent grace, but we are to live by faith, and act by faith (for without me you can do ⟨p. 332⟩nothing, Joh. 15.5.) we are not united to Christ our life by obedience as Adam was to God by it, but by faith: and therefore as all action (in living things) comes from union, so all our acts of obedience are to come from faith, from the Spirit on Christs part, and from faith on our part, which make our union: Noah built by faith, Enoch walked with God by faith, Joshua and his Soldiers fought by faith. Abraham travelled, dwelt in his tents, lived and dyed by faith; they acted according to the rule, but all by the power of faith. It is a weak reasoning to imagine a man is not bound to pay his debts, because he is to go unto another for the money: Obedience is our debt we owe to Christ, Luk. 17.10. though we are to go to Christ poor, and weak, and feeble, to enable us to pay: Tis true, Christ hath kept the law for us, and are we therefore free from it as our rule? No verily, Christ kept the law for satisfaction to justice, and so we are not bound to keep the Law; he kept the Law also for imitation, to give us a copy and an example of all holiness and glorifying God in our obedience; and thus Christs obedience is so far from exempting us from the Law, as that it engageth us the more, having both rule and example before us, 1 Joh. 2.6. He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk as he walked, ⟨p. 333⟩