that every one of us
may, as it were, put on his neighbour, and so behave towards him as if
he were himself in his place. They flowed and do flow from Christ to us;
He put us on, and acted for us as if He Himself were what we are.
From us they flow to those who have need of them; so that my faith
and righteousness ought to be laid down before God as a covering and
intercession for the sins of my neighbour, which I am to take on myself,
and so labour and endure servitude in them, as if they were my own; for
thus has Christ done for us. This is true love and the genuine truth
of Christian life. But only there is it true and genuine where there
is true and genuine faith. Hence the Apostle attributes to charity this
quality: that she seeketh not her own.

We conclude therefore that a Christian man does not live in himself, but
in Christ and in his neighbour, or else is no Christian: in Christ by
faith; in his neighbour by love. By faith he is carried upwards
above himself to God, and by love he sinks back below himself to his
neighbour, still always-abiding in God and His love, as Christ says,
"Verily I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John i.
51).

Thus much concerning liberty, which, as you see, is a true and spiritual
liberty, making our hearts free from all sins, laws, and commandments,
as Paul says, "The law is not made for a righteous man" (1 Tim. i. 9),
and one which surpasses all other external liberties, as far as heaven
is above earth. May Christ make us to understand and preserve this
liberty. Amen.

Finally, for the sake of those to whom nothing can be stated so well but
that they misunderstand and distort it, we must add a word, in case they
can understand even that. There are very many persons who, when they
hear of this liberty of faith, straightway turn it into an occasion of
licence. They think that everything is now lawful for them, and do not
choose to show themselves free men and Christians in any other way than
by their contempt and reprehension of ceremonies, of traditions, of
human laws; as if they were Christians merely because they refuse
to fast on stated days, or eat flesh when others fast, or omit the
customary prayers; scoffing at the precepts of men, but utterly passing
over all the rest that belongs to the Christian religion. On the other
hand, they are most pertinaciously resisted by those who strive afte