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Chapter 20. Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience

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Chapter 20. Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience

I. The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law;398 and in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin,399 from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation;400 as also in their free access to God,401 and their yielding obedience unto him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love and402 willing mind.403 All which were common also to believers under the law;404 but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in

their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Church was subjected;405 and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace,406 and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.407

II. God alone is Lord of the conscience,408 and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his Word, or beside it in matters of faith or worship.409 So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands410 out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience;411 and the requiring of412 an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.413

III. They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty; which is, that, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.414

IV. And because the power415 which God hath ordained, and the liberty which Christ hath purchased, are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another; they who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, shall oppose any lawful power, or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, resist the ordinance of God.416 And for their publishing of such opinions, or maintaining of such practices, as are contrary to the light of nature, or to the known principles of Christianity, whether concerning faith, worship, or conversation; or to the power of godliness; or such erroneous opinions or practices, as, either in their own nature, or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them, are destructive to the external peace and order which Christ hath established in the Church; they may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against by the censures of the Church,417 and by the power of the Civil Magistrate.418419

Footnotes

  1. 398

    Titus ii. 14; 1 Thess. i. 10; Gal. iii. 13.

  2. 399

    Gal. i. 4; Col. i. 13; Acts xxvi. 18; Rom. vi. 14.

  3. 400

    Rom. viii. 28; Psa. cxix. 71; 1 Cor. xv. 54–57; Rom. viii. 1.

  4. 401

    Rom. v. 1, 2.

  5. 402

    [Am. ed. inserts a after and.]

  6. 403

    Rom. viii. 14, 15; 1 John iv. 18.

  7. 404

    Gal. iii. 9, 14.

  8. 405

    Gal. iv. 1–3, 6, 7; v. 1; Acts xv. 10, 11.

  9. 406

    Heb. iv. 14, 16; x. 19–22.

  10. 407

    John vii. 38, 39; 2 Cor. iii. 13, 17, 18.

  11. 408

    James iv. 12; Rom. xiv. 4.

  12. 409

    Acts iv. 19; v. 29; 1 Cor. vii. 23; Matt. xxiii. 8–10; 2 Cor. i. 24; Matt. xv. 9.

  13. 410

    [Am. ed. commandments.]

  14. 411

    Col. ii. 20–23; Gal. i. 10; v. 1; ii. 4, 5; Psa. v. l.

  15. 412

    [Am. ed. omits of.]

  16. 413

    Rom. x. 17; xiv. 23; Isa. viii. 20; Acts xvii. 11; John iv. 22; Hos. v. 11; Rev. xiii. 12, 16, 17; Jer. viii. 9.

  17. 414

    Gal. v. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 16; 2 Pet. ii. 19; John viii. 34; Luke i. 74, 75.

  18. 415

    [Am. ed. powers.]

  19. 416

    Matt. xii. 25; 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14, 16; Rom. xiii. 1–8; Heb. xiii. 17.

  20. 417

    Rom. i. 32 with 1 Cor. v. 1, 5, 11, 13; 2 John v. 10, 11; and 2 Thess. iii. 14, and 1 Tim. vi. 3–5, and Titus i. 10, 11, 13 and iii. 10, with Matt. xviii. 15–17; 1 Tim. i. 19, 20; Rev. ii. 2, 14, 15, 20; iii. 9.

  21. 418

    Deut. xiii. 6–12; Rom. xiii. 3, 4, with 2 John v. 10, 11; Ezra vii. 23–28; Rev. xvii. 12, 16, 17; Neh. xiii. 15, 17, 21, 22, 25, 30; 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 6, 9, 20, 21; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33; xv. 12, 13, 16; Dan. iii. 29; 1 Tim. ii. 2; Isa. xlix. 23; Zech. xiii. 2, 3.

  22. 419

    [Am. ed. omits and by the power of the Civil Magistrate, also the prooftexts.]