Westminster Confession of Faith

The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the Gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, and condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law;³⁸⁸ and, in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin;³⁸⁹ from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grace, and everlasting damnation;³⁹⁰ as also, in their free access to God,³⁹¹ and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind.³⁹² All which were common also to believers under the law.³⁹³ 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;³⁹⁴ and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace,³⁹⁵ and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.³⁹⁶

God alone is Lord of the conscience,³⁹⁷ and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in any thing contrary to His Word; or beside it, if matters of faith or worship.³⁹⁸ So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience,³⁹⁹ is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.⁴⁰⁰

They who, upon pretence 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.⁴⁰¹

And because the powers 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 pretence 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.⁴⁰² 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,⁴⁰³ and by the power of the civil magistrate.⁴⁰⁴