§. 1. What liberty is. There have been feveral mistakes about this matter: but these have been fo abfurd or extravagant, fo defigning or fenfual, that they need not, I think, a ferious refutation. However, 'tis neceffary in a word or two to remove this rubbish and lumber out of my way, that I may build up and establish the truth more eafily and regularly. Some then have placed Chriftian liberty in deliverance from the Mofaic yoke. But this is to make our liberty confift in freedom from a yoke to which we were never subject; and to make our glorious Redemption, from the tyranny of fin and the mifery that attends it, dwindle into an immunity from external rites and obfervances. true, the Mofaic inftitution, as far as it confifted in outward obfervances and typical rites, is now diffolved; the Meffias being come, who was the fubftance of those fhadows; and the beauty of holiness being unfolded and difplayed, without any veil upon her face. But what is this to ecclefiaftical authority? or to thofe ecclefiaftical inftitutions, which are no part of the Mofaic yoke? from the abrogation indeed, or abolition of ritual and typical religion, one may infer, first, That Chrifianity must be a rational worship, a moral fpiritual fervice. And therefore, fecondly, That human inftitutions, when they en 'Tis Joyn joyn any thing as a neceffary and effential part of religion, which God has not made fo, or when they impofe fuch rites, as, thro' the number or nature of them, cherish fuperftition, obfcure the gospel, weaken its force, or prove burthenfome to us, are to be rejected and not complied with. Thus much is plain, and nothing farther. There have been others, who have run into more intolerable errors. For fome have placed Chriftian liberty in exemption from the laws of man: and others, advancing higher, in exemption even from the moral and immutable laws of God. But the folly and wickedness of thefe opinions fufficiently confute them: fince 'tis notorious to every one, that difobedience and anarchy is as flat a contradiction to the peaceableness, as voluptuousness and luxury is to the purity of that wisdom which is from above. But how abfurd and wicked foever these notions are, yet do we find them greedily embraced and industriously propagated at this day; and behold, with amazement, the baffled and defpicable Gnofticks, Prif cilianifts, Libertines, and I know not what other spawn of hell, reviving in deifts and atheifts. Thefe indeed do not advance their errors under a pretence of Chriftian liberty; but, which is more ingenuous, and lefs fcandalous of the two, in open defiance and confessed oppofition to Chriftianity. They tell tell us, that we impofe upon the world falfe and fantasticks notions of virtue and liberty: that religion does enflave man, not fet him free; awing the mind by groundless and fuperftitious principles, and restraining and infringing our true and natural liberty: which, if we will believe them, confifts in giving nature its full fwing; letting loofe the reins to the most headftrong lufts, and the wildest and the moft corrupt imaginations. But to this 'tis eafy to answer, that while these men attempt to establish their errors, and fortify their minds in them, by arguments of fome fort or other, as they do; 'tis plain, that they fuppofe and acknowledge with us, that they ought to be ruled and governed by reafon and if this be true, then, by undeniable confequence, true liberty must confift, not in doing what we lift, but what we ought; not in following our luft or fancy, but our reafon; not in being exempt from law, but in being a law to our felves. And then I appeal to all the world, whether the difcipline of virtue, or libertinifm; whether the fchools of Epicurus, or Chrift, be the way to true li berty. I appeal to the experience of mankind, whether fpiritual or fenfual pleasure; whether the love of God and virtue, or the love of the world and body, be the more like to qualify and difpofe us to obey the the dictates of fober and folid reafon. But the truth is, here is no need of arguments; the lives and fortunes of atheists and deifts proclaim aloud what a glorious kind of liberty they are like to blefs the world with, 2 Pet. ii. 19. Whilst they promife liberty, they themselves are the fervants of corruption. And this corruption draws on their ruin. The dishonourable and miferable courfes, in which these poor wretches are plunged, and in which, generally, they perish before their time, are fuch an open contradiction to reafon, that no man doubts but that they have abandoned its conduct, that they have given themselves up to that of luft and humour; and that they earnestly endeavour to force or betray their reafon into a compliance to fcreen themselves from the reproach and disturbance of their own minds, and from the fhame and contempt of the world. I have dwelt long enough on this argument. 'Tis now time to pafs on, and refolve what Chriftian liberty really is. This is in a manner evident from what has been fuggefted already. For if reafon be the governing faculty in man, then the liberty of man muft confift in his fubjection to reafon and fo Chriftian liberty will be nothing else but fubjection to reafon enlightened by revelation. Two things therefore are effential to true liberty: A P clear clear and unbyaffed judgment; and a power and capacity of acting comformable to it. This is a very short, but full account of liberty. Darkness and impotence constitute our favery: light and firength our freedom. Man is then free, when his reafon is not awed by vile fears, or bribed by viler hopes: when it is not tumultuously transported and hurried away by lufts and paffions; nor cheated and deluded by the gilded appearances of fophifticated good; but it deliberates impartially, and commands effectually. And because the great obftacle of this liberty is fin; because natural and contracted corruption are the fetters in which we are bound; because the law in the body wars against the law in the mind, obfcuring the light, and enfeebling the authority of reafon; hence it is, that Chriftian liberty is as truly as commonly described by a dominion over the body, by the fubduing our corrupt affections, and by deliverance from fin. This notion of liberty may be fufficiently established upon that account of fervitude or bondage which the apostle gives us, Rom. vii. where he reprefents it as confifting in impotence or inability to do thofe things, which God commands, and reafon approves: For to will is prefent with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not, ver. 18. Liberty therefore must on the contrary confift in being able, |