1) 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 rigour and curse of the law,a and in their being delivered from this present evil world,b bondage to Satan,c and dominion of sin,d from the evil of afflictions,e the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave,f and everlasting damnation:g as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear,h but a child-like love and willing mind.i
All which were common also to believers under the law for the
substance of them;j but under the New Testament
the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom
from the yoke of a ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was
subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne of
grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God,
than believers under the law did ordinarily partake
of.k
(a Galatians
3:13; b Galatians
1:4; c Acts
26:18; d Romans
8:3; e Romans
8:28; f 1
Corinthians 15:54-57; g 2 Thessalonians 1:10;
h Romans
8:15; i Luke
1:73-75, 1 John
4:18; j Galatians 3:9,14;
k John
7:38,39, Hebrews
10:19-21)
2) God alone is Lord of the
conscience,l and hath left it free from the
doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary
to his word, or not contained in it.m So that
to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of
conscience, is to betray true liberty of
conscience;n and the requiring of an implicit
faith, an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of
conscience and reason also.o
(l James
4:12, Romans
14:4; m Acts
4:19,29, 1
Corinthians 7:23, Matthew
15:9; n Colossians 2:20,22,23;
o 1
Corinthians 3:5, 2
Corinthians 1:24)
3) They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do
practice any sin, or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby
pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own
destruction,p so they wholly destroy the end of
Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the
hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear,
in holiness and righeousness before Him, all the days of our
lives.q
(p Romans
6:1,2; q Galatians 5:13, 2 Peter
2:18,21)