Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience
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, and rigour
and curse of the law,1 and in their being delivered from this present
evil world,2 bondage to Satan,3 and dominion of sin,4 from the evil of afflictions,5 the fear and sting of
death, the victory of the grave,6 and everlasting damnation;7 as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto
Him, not out of slavish fear,8 but a child-like love, and willing mind.9 All which were common also to believers under the law for the substance
of them;10 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, 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.11
God alone is Lord of the conscience,12 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.13 So that to believe such doctrines, or
obey such commands out of conscience, it to betray true liberty of conscience;14 and the requiring of an implicit faith, and absolute and blind
obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.15
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,16 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 righteousness before Him, all the days of our lives.17
Footnotes:
1. Gal 3:13.
2. Gal 1:4.
3. Ac 26:18.
4. Ro 8:3.
5. Ro 8:28.
6. 1Co 15:54-57.
7. 2Th 1:10.
8. Ro 8:15.
9. Lk 1:73-75; 1Jn 4:18.
10. Gal 3:9,14.
11. Jn 7:38-39; Heb 10:19-21.
12. Jas 4:12; Ro 14:4.
13. Ac 4:19,29; 1Co 7:23; Mt 15:9.
14. Col 2:20,22-23.
15. 1Co 3:5; 2Co 1:24.
16. Ro 6:1-2.
17. Gal 5:13; 2Pe 2:18,21.