A77854:574
Vindiciæ legis
Vindiciæ legis: or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians. In XXIX. lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London. / By Anthony Burgess, preacher of Gods Word.Vindiciæ legis: or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians. In XXIX. lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London. / By Anthony Burgess, preacher of Gods Word.
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1646
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.
4. The Antinomian distinction of the Law abolished as a Law, but 1still abiding in respect of the matter of it, is a contradiction. This is a rock, that the adversary hath daily refuge unto. The Law (saith the Antinomian) in the matter of it, so far as I know, was never denied to be the rule, according to which a believer is to walk and live: Therefore I take the contrary imputation to be an impudent slander. Asser. of grace, pag. 170.
4. The Antinomian distinction of the Law abolished as a Law, but 1still abiding in respect of the matter of it, is a contradiction. This is a rock, that the adversary hath daily refuge unto. The Law (saith the Antinomian) in the matter of it, so farre as I know, was never denyed to be the rule, according to which a beleever is to walk and live: Therefore I take the contrary imputation to be an impudent slander. Asser. of grace, pag. 170.
- 1It is an absurd contradiction to say the matter of a Law bindeth, but not as a Law.
But to reply, if they hold the matter of the Law to be a rule, how can they shelter themselves from their own argument; for, if the matter oblige, then, when a believer walketh not according to his duty, he sinneth, and, to sin the curse is due: so that this evasion will no ways help them; for still an obligation or bond lieth upon them, which, if broken, they are made obnoxious unto the Law of God. Again, to say the matter of the Law bindeth, but yet not as a Law, is a mere contradiction; for, what is a Law, but such an object held forth by the command and will of a superior? Then I demand, whether [love to God] being the object, or matter held forth, have not also Gods will passing upon it that it should bind. According to the Antinomian assertion, it should be true, that love to God should bind us, because the matter it self is good; but not because God willeth us to love him: Nay, they must necessarily deny the will of God obliging us in the Law to love him; for a law is nothing but the will of the Law-giver, that such things should be obeyed, or avoided. And if there were any colour for that distinction between the matter of the Law binding, and not the Law, it would only hold in that matter which is perpetually and necessarily good; as, To love God, To honour parents: but in that matter which is only good by some positive divine institution; as, Keeping of the Lords Day, there we must say, that the Law binds vi, as a Law, and not merely from the matter of the Law.