SERM. XVIII, being the mark of a freeman, that the apoftle there makes it the mark of a flave. Baftards not fons, want the discipline and bleffing of the rod : To be free from affliction would be no be nefit to believers, who receive fo many benefits by it.

Sixthly, No believer is freed by Chrift from the ftroke of death, though they are all freed from the fling of death, Rom. viii. 10. The bodies of believers are under the fame law of mortality with other men, Heb. ix. 27. We must come to the grave as well as others; yea, we must come to it through the fame agonies, pangs, and dolours that other men do: The foot of death treads as heavy upon the bodies of the redeemed, as of other men. Believers, indeed, are diftinguifhed by mercy from others, but the distinguishing mercy lies not here. Thus you fee what believers are not freed from in this world: If you shall now fay, what advantage then hath a believer, or what profit is there in regeneration? I anfwer,

Secondly, That believers are freed from many great, and fad miferies, and evils, by Jefus Chrift, notwithstanding all that hath been faid. For,

First, All believers are freed from the vigour, and curfe of the law: The rigorous yoke of the law is broken off from their necks, and the fweet and eafy yoke of Jefus Chrift put on, Matth. xi. 28. The law required perfect working, under the pain of a curfe, Gal. iii. 10. accepted of no fhort endeavours; admitted no repentance; gave no ftrength: It is not so now, proportionable ftrength is given, Phil. iv. 13. Sincerity is reckon ed perfection, Job i. 1. Tranfgreffion brings not under condemnation, Rom. viii. 1. O bleffed freedom! when duty be comes delight, and failings hinder not acceptance! This is one part of the bleffed freedom of believers.

Secondly, All believers are freed from the guilt of fin; it may trouble, but it cannot condemn them, Rom. viii. 33. The hand-writing which was against us is cancelled by Christ, nailed to his cross, Colof. ii. 14. When the feal and hand-writing are torn off from the bond, the debtor is made free thereby: Believers are totally freed, Acts xiii. 39. " Juftified from all "things:" And finally freed, John v. 24. "They fhall never

come into condemnation." O bleffed freedom! How sweet is it to lie down in our beds, yea, in our graves, when guilt shall neither be our bed-fellow, nor grave-fellow!

Thirdly, Jefus Chrift frees all believers from the dominion, as well as the guilt of fin. "Sin fhall not have dominion over

for ye are not under the law, but under grace, Rom. "The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus

"hath made me free from the law of fin and death," Rom. viii. 2. Now who can estimate fuch a liberty as this? What slavery, what an intolerable drudgery is the fervice of divers lufts; from all which believers are freed by Chrift; not from the refidence, but from the reign of fin. It is with fin in believers as it was with thofe beafts mentioned Dan. vii. 12. They had their "dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a "feafon and time."

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Fourthly, Jefus Chrift fets all believers free from the power of Satan; in whofe right they were by nature, Col. i. 13. they are translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of Christ. Satan had the poffeffion of them, as a man of his own goods; but Chrift difpoffeffeth that ftrong man armed, alters the property, and recovers them out of his hand, Luke xi. 21, There are two ways by which Chrift frees believers out of Satan's power and poffeffion; namely,

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2. By power.

1. By price. First, By price. The blood of Chrift purchafeth believers out of the hands of justice, by satisfying the law for them, which being done, Satan's authority over them falls of course, as the power of a jailor over the prifoner doth, when he hath a legal discharge, Heb. ii. 14. "Forafmuch then as children are parta. "kers of flesh and blood; he alfo himself took part of the fame, "that through death he might deftroy him that had the power "of death, that is, the devil." The cruel tyrant beats, and burdens the poor captive no more after the ransom is once paid, and he thereby actually freed; and therefore Chrift delivers his. -Secondly, By power. Satan is exceeding unwilling to let go his prey: He is a strong and a malicious enemy: every rescue, and deliverance out of his hand, is a glorious effect of the Almighty power of Chrift, Acts xxvi. 18. 2 Cor. x. 5. How did our Lord Jefus Chrift grapple with Satan at his death, and triumphed over him, Col. ii. 15. O glorious falvation! bleffed liberty of the children of God!

Fifthly, Chrift frees believers from the poifonous fting and hurt of death: Kill us it can, but hurt us it cannot, I Cor xv. 55, 56. "O death! where is thy fting? O grave! where is thy

victory? The fting of death is fin, and the ftrength of fin is "the law: But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory "through our Lord Jefus Chrift." If there be not hurt, there should be no horror in death: It is guilt that arms death, both with its hurting and terrifying power. To die in our fins, John viii. 24. To have our bones full of the fins of our youth, which fball lie down with us in the duft, Job.xx. 11. To have death,

SERM. XVIII, like a dragon, pulling a poor guilty creature as a prey into its dreadful den, Pfal. xlix. 14. In this lies the danger and horror of death: But from death, as a curfe, and from the grave, as a prison, Chrift hath fet believers at liberty, by fubmitting to death in their room, by his victorious refurrection from the grave, as the first-born of the dead: death is difarmed of its hurting power: The death of believers is but a fleep in Jefus. Thirdly, The next thing to be briefly fpoken to, is the kind and nature of that freedom and liberty purchased, and procured by Chrift for believers.

Now liberty may be confidered two ways; viz.

As to civil freedom, or liberty, it belongs not to our prefent bufinefs Believers, as to their civil capacity, are not freed from the duties they owe to their fuperiors. Servants, though believers, are still to be subject to their masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, Eph. vi. 5. nor from obedience to lawful magiftrates, whom we are to obey in the Lord, Rom. xii. 1, 4. Religion diffolves not the bonds of civil relations: nor is it to be used as an occafion to the flesh, 1 Pet. ii. 16. It is not a carnal, but a fpiritual freedom Chrift hath purchased for us: And this fpiritual freedom is again to be confidered, either as, 2. Confummate.

I. Inchoate.

The liberty believers have at prefent is but a beginning liber. ty; they are freed but in part from their fpiritual enemies: but it is a growing liberty every day, and will be confummate, and complete at laft.

To conclude, Chriftian liberty is either,

1. Privative, or,

2. Pofitive.

The liberty believers are invefted with, is of both kinds: They are not only freed from many miferies, burdens and dangers, but alfo invested by Jefus Chrift with many royal privileges and in

valuable immunities.

Fourthly, And this brings us to the fourth and last thing: namely, the properties of this bleffed freedom which the faints enjoy by Jefus Chrift; and, if we confider it duly, it will be found to be,

First, A wonderful liberty, never enough to be admired. How could it be imagined that ever those who owed unto God more than ever they could pay by their own eternal sufferings; thole that were under the dreadful curfe, and condemnation of the law, in the power and poffeffion of Satan the strong man armed; thofe that were bound with fo many chains in their fpiritual prifon; their understanding bound with ignorance, their wills with

obftinacy, their hearts with impenetrable hardness, their affec tions with a thoufand bewitching vanities, that flight their state of flavery so much, as industriously to oppofe all inftruments and means of deliverance; for fuch perfons to be fet at liberty, notwithstanding all this, is the wonder of wonders, and will be defervedly marvellous in the eyes of believers for ever.

Secondly, The freedom, of believers is a peculiar freedom; a liberty which few obtain; the generality abiding ftill in bondage to Satan, who, from the multitude of his fubjects, is filed the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Believers in fcripture are often called a remnant, which is but a small part of the whole piece: The more caufe have the people of God to admire diftinguishing mercy. How many nobles and great ones of the world are but royal flaves to Satan, and their own lufts!

Thirdly, The liberty of believers is a liberty dearly purchased by the blood of Chrift. What that captain said, Acts xxii. 28. "With a great fum obtained I this freedom," may be much more faid of the believers freedom: It was not filver or gold; but the precious blood of Chrift that purchased it, 1 Pet. i. 18.

Fourthly, The freedom and liberty of believers is a growing and encreasing liberty; they get more and more out of the power of fin, and nearer ftill to their complete falvation every day, Rom. xiii. II. The body of fin dieth daily in them: they are faid to be crucified with Chrift: the ftrength of fin abates continually in them, after the manner of crucified perfons, who die a flow, but fure death: And look in what degree the power of fin abates, proportionably their spiritual liberty encreases upon them.

Fifthly, The freedom of believers is a comfortable freedom: the apostle comforts Chriflians of the lowest rank, poor fervants, with this confideration, 1 Cor. vii. 22. "He that is called in the "Lord, being a fervant, is the Lord's freeman," q. d. Let not the meanest of your outward condition, which is a state of fubjection and dependance, a ftate of poverty and contempt, at all trouble you: you are the Lord's freemen, of precious account in his eyes. O it is a comfortable liberty!

Sixthly, and Laftly, It is a perpetual and final freedom; they that are once freed by Chrift, have their manumiffion, and final discharge from that ftate of bondage they were in before: fin fhall never have dominion over them any more: it may tempt them, and trouble them, but fhall never more rule and govern them, Acts xxvi. 18. And thus you see what a glorious liberty the liberty of believers is.

The improvement whereof will be in the following inferences. Infer. 1. How rational is the Joy of Chriftians, above the joy VOL. II.

Ddd

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SERM. XVIIL of all others in the world? Shall not the captive rejoice in his recovered liberty? the very birds of the air (as one obferves) had rather be at liberty in the woods, though lean and hungry, than in a golden cage with the richest fare: every creature naturally prizes it; none more than believers, who have felt the burden and bondage of corruption: who in the days of their firft illumination and conviction have poured out many groans and tears for this mercy. What was faid of the captive people of God in Babylon, excellently fhadows forth the ftate of God's people under fpiritual bondage, with the way and manner of their deliverance from it, Zech. ix. 11. " By the blood of the covenant I "have fent forth thy prifoners out of the pit, wherein is no water." Believers are delivered by the blood of Christ, out of a worfe pit than that of Babylon; and look, as the tribes in their return from thence were overwhelmed with joy and aftonishment, Pfal. cxxvi. 1, 2." When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion, we were like them that dream: Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with finging.” They were overwhelmed with the fenfe of the mercy: So should it be with the people of God. It is faid, Luke xv. 24. when the prodigal fon (there made the emblem of a returning, converting finner) was returned again to his father's houfe, that there was heard mufic and dancing, mirth and feasting in that houfe. The angels in heaven rejoice when a foul is recovered out of the power of Satan: And fhall not the recovered foul, immediately concerned in the mercy, greatly rejoice? Yea, let them rejoice in the Lord, and let no earthly trouble or affliction ever have power to interrupt their joy, for a moment, after fuch a deliverance as this.

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Infer. 2. How unreasonable, and wholly inexcufable is the fin of apoftacy from Jefus Chrift? What is it but for a delivered captive to put his feet again into the fhackles; his hands into the manacles; his neck into the iron yoke, from which he hath been delivered? 'Tis faid, Mat. xii. 44, 45. "When the un"clean fpirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry "places, feeking reft and findeth none: Then he faith, I will return into mine house from whence I came out; and when "he is come, he findeth it empty, fwept, and garnished; then goeth he, and taketh with him feven other spirits more wicked "than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last ftate of that man is worse than the first." Even as a prifoner that hath escaped, and is again recovered, is loaded with double irons. Let the people of God be content to run any hazard, endure any difficulties in the way of religion, rather than return

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