The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, Title page – Dedication
THE TRVE BOVNDS OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOME: Or a Treatiſe wherein THE RIGHTS OF THE Law are vindicated, THE LIBERTIES OF Grace maintained, And the ſeverall late Opinions againſt the Law are examined and confuted. Whereunto is annexed a Diſcourſe of the Learned Iohn Camerons, touching the threefold Covenant of God with man, faithfully Tranſlated, By Samuel Bolton Miniſter of the Word of God at Saviours-Southwark.
Plane dicimus deceſſiſſe legem quoad onera, non quoad juſtitiam. Aug.
1 Pet. 2.16. As free, and not uſing your libertie for a cloak of maliciouſneſſe, but as the ſervants of God.
LONDON, Printed by J. L. for Philemon Stephens, at the Golden-Lion in Pauls Church-yard. 1645.
I Have peruſed this Treatiſe, intituled, The true bounds of Chriſtian Freedome, together with the Tranſlation of Learned Camerons Tractate, Of the three-fold Covenant, and finding them both to be ſolid and judicious, pious and very profitable for theſe times, I doe approve and allow them to be printed,
Iohn Downame.
TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE EDVVARD Earle of Mancheſter.
Right Honourable,
TImes of trouble have ever been times of triall, they are ſifting times; wherein God ſifts us, as he tells us, Amos 9.9. and men ſift us; But with a great deale of differrence, God to preſerve the flowre, Men to diſcover the bran; the obiect of Gods triall is our graces, of mans our corruptions; that which God aymes at is to evidence our good, that which men, to diſcover our evill; your Honour hath paſſed Gods triall, who tries the heart, and the good he hath diſcovered, hath rendered you truly honourable: And you have ſuffered mans, I ſay ſuffered, and to ſay no more, have endured the temptation. And indeed your Honour hath been a rock in greater ſtormes, and acquitted your ſelfe in greater trials then theſe are; what are the trials of theſe times to the ſiftings of former yeares? Then the trials were more cloſe, Religion being more abſtracted from other conſiderations; now more groſſe being complicated with other reſpects; then few would appeare for Religion, though now many ſtand up to aſſert it; then it was under contempt, now it honours them, who honour it. We reade while iudgements accompanied the Arke of God, while they who had it were ſmitten with Emrods, every one thought it a burthen, and were deſirous to turne it off; they ſent it from Gath, to Ekron, from Ekron to Askalon, and he was the happy man that could rid his hands of it; But afterwards when it came into the houſe of Obed-Edom, and they ſaw that God bleſſed him and his whole houſe for the Arks ſake, then every one could looke upon it as worthy entertainment. While Religion and the truths of God are dangerous and undoing to them who own them, every one is ſhie to receive them, and as ready to reiect them; But when once the wayes of God come to be thriving, enriching and ennobling wayes, and that religion comes to be of common reception, and reputation, then every one is ready to give entertainment to it; It is ſomething for a man to owne the Arke when none will own it; indeed many will own a proſpering truth, a bleſſing Arke; but he is an Obed-Edom indeed, that will own a perſecuted, a toſſed, baniſhed Arke.
My Lord, you are this Obed-Edom, who have owned the Arke, when few would owne it, that have eſteemed it a bleſſing, when have apprehended it a curſe, that have looked upon it as your greateſt honour when others have eyed it as their diſgrace, that have ſided with religion not when you might live on it, but when it was to live on you, and upon the beſt of your intereſts and emjoyments. None that knows your Honour, but knows this, that in the worſt of times, when Religion was under moſt contempt, and it ſeemed crime enough to be godly, when your Honour was not onelyonly a carefull practiſer, but a zealous promoter of the wayes of God, a faithfull contender for puritie of doctrine and worſhip, a ſhelter to the godly, a refuge to the oppreſſed, a fence to religion, and counted godlineſſe great gaine, when there was (if we looke downward) no gaine to be made of godlineſſe. And for the publique they are ſtrangers in our Iſrael, that doe not know your conſtant and unwearied labours and layings out for it: And before ever the publique was thought upon in publique, even as one, reſolved to run that hazzard, either to live in the publique, or to die for the publique. And how God hath carried on your ſpirit, and made you ſerviceable in theſe times of common calamity, not Epiſtles, but Chronicles, without ſufſpition of partialitie ſhall report to future generations, when all clouds of miſtake ſhall vaniſh, and nothing but impartiall truth ſhall be revealed.
To you my honoured Lord, as to one who hath been ſo zealous an Aſſertor of liberties, this ſmall Treatiſe of Chriſtian Libertie flyes for protection, not that it feares injury, if innocency may ſecure it, but deſires Patronage of them who are worthy: It contains chiefly ſome friendly debates of ſome opinions, which have been maintained againſt the Law, wherein I have ſo endeavoured to hold up the Law, as not to intrench upon the liberties of Grace, and ſo to eſtabliſh grace, as not to make void the Law, nor to diſcharge beleevers of any dutie they owe to God or man. And this diſcourſe though weak, yet ſuch as it is, I make bold to preſent to your Honour with your vertuous and noble Lady, and ſhould onelyonly convey it into your boſomes by prayer, did not my native Countrey and place to which your Honour is related, Mancheſter.ingage me to adde a few words. A place it is which above many others God hath honoured both in ſtrengthening them to doe their duty, and preſerving them in it, making them not onelyonly a Rock againſt their enemies, but a refuge for their friends, the releevers of many places in danger, and the recoverers of many loſt; It is my earneſt requeſt to your Honour as bearing relation to them, that while they are in conflict, they may be eyed and relieved; And when it ſhall pleaſe God the ſtorme is over, your Honour would looke upon that place, in helping to adde to the honour of your name upon it, ſome further name of honour to it; And the God of all grace and mercy be ſtill a tower of protection to them, and a ſtarre of direction to you, that you may know how to walke in wiſdome under all the changes of his providence to you, and make your Honour yet further inſtrumentall, to advance his cauſe, and promote his glory, and when you have ſerved him in your generation here, take you to his glory hereafter; which is the earneſt and heartie prayer of him,
Whoſe all is but to ſerve you in Chriſt, SAMUEL BOLTON.