Of Christian Liberty

After illumination, which is the perfection of the understanding, follows liberty, which is the perfection of the will. In treating of which, I shall,  

First, give an account of liberty in general

Secondly discourse of  the several parts of it.

Sec. 1.   What  liberty is. There have been several mistakes about this. Some then have placed Christian liberty in deliverance from the Mosaic yoke. But this is to make our liberty consist in freedom from a yoke to which we were never subject; and to make our glorious redemption from the tyranny of sin, and the misery that attends it, dwindle into an immunity from external rites and observances. Others have placed it 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 these opinions sufficiently confute them: Since it is notorious to every one, that disobedience and anarchy is as flat a contradiction to the peaceableness, as voluptuousness and luxury are to the purity of that wisdom which is from above.

In truth, Christian liberty is nothing else but subjection to reason enlightened by revelation.. Two things therefore are essential to it:   A clear and unbiased judgment and a power of acting conformable to it. This is a very short, but full account of liberty. Darkness and impotence constitute our slavery: Light and strength our freedom. Man is then free, when his reason is not awed by vile fears, or bribed by viler hopes, when it is not tumultuously hurried away by lusts and passions; nor cheated by the gilded appearances of sophisticated good; but it deliberates impartially, and commands effectually.  And because the great obstacle of this liberty is sin; 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, obscuring the light and enfeebling the authority of reason.  Hence it is that Christian liberty is as truly as commonly described by a dominion over the body the subduing our corrupt affections and deliverance from sin.

This notion may be sufficiently established upon that account of bondage which the apostle gives us, Rom vii. where he represents it as consisting in impotence or inability to do these things, which God commands and reason approves.  For to will is present  with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not, Verse 18.   Liberty therefore must on the contrary conflict in being able, not only to will, but to do good; in obeying these commandments, which we cannot but acknowledge to be holy and just and good. And this is the very notion which our Lord and Master gives us of it.  John viii.    For when the Jews bragged of their freedom, He let them know, that freedom could not consist with subjection to sin.  He  that committeth sin is the servant of sin, Verse 34. That if they would be free indeed, the son must make them so, Verse 36. i.e. they must by his spirit and doctrine be rescued from the servitude of lust and error and be let at liberty to work righteousness. If ye continue in  my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, Verses 31, 32.

Finally, not to multiply proofs of a truth that is scarce liable to be controverted, as the apostle describes the bondage of a sinner in Rom. vii. so does he the liberty of a saint in Rom. viii.  For there, Verse 2 he tells us thatthe law of the spirit of life has set the Christian free from the law of sin and death. And then he lets us know wherein this liberty consists; in walking, not after the flesh, but after the spirit; in the mortification of the body of sin, and restitution of the mind to its just empire and authority. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness, Verse 10. And all this is the same thing with his description of liberty, Chap. vi. where it is nothing else, but to be made free from sin, and become the servant of God.

Thus then we have a plain account of bondage and liberty. Yet for the clearer understanding of both, it will not be amiss to observe that they are each capable of different degrees; and both the one and the other may be more or less complete, according to the different progress of men in vice and virtue. Thus, in some men, not their will only, but their very reason is enslaved. Their understanding is so infatuated, their affections so captivated, that there is no conflict between the mind and body.   They commit sin without any reluctancy beforehand, or any remorse afterwards; their feared conscience  making no remonstrance, inflicting no wounds, nor denouncing any threats.  This is the last degree of vassalage: Such are said in scripture to be dead in trespasses and sins. 0thers there are, in whom their lust and appetite prevails indeed, but not without opposition: They reason rightly and, which is the natural result of this, have some desires of righteousness: But through the prevalence of the body, they are unable to act conformable to their reason: Their understanding has indeed light but not authority: It consents to the law of God; but it has no power, nor force to make it be obeyed: It produces some good inclinations, purposes and efforts but they prove weak and ineffectual ones. And as bondage, so liberty is of different degrees. For though liberty may in a measure subsist, where there is much opposition from the body; yet it is plain, that liberty is most complete, where the body is reduced to an entire submission and the spirit reigns with an uncontrolled and unlimited authority and this latter is that liberty which I speak of.

I know very well, it is taught by some, that there is no such state.  But this doctrine, if it be thoroughly considered has neither scripture, reason, nor experience to support it. For as to those places, Rom. vii. and Gal. v. urged in favor of an almost incessant and too frequently prevalent lusting of the flesh  against the spirit, it has been often answered and proved too that they are so far from belonging to the perfect, that they belong not to the regenerate. But on the contrary, those texts that represent the yoke of Christ easy, and his burden light; which affirm the commandments of Christ not to be grievous to such as are made perfect in  love; do all bear witness to that liberty which I content for.  Nor does reason favor my opinion less than scripture. For if the perfect man be a new creature; if he be transformed into a new nature; if his body be dead to sin and his spirit live to righteousness; in one word, if the world be as much crucified to him, as he to it; I cannot see why it should  not be easy for him to act consonant to his nature; why he should not with pleasure and readiness follow that spirit, and obey those affections which reign in him.

 Lastly, how degenerate forever ages past have been, or the present is, I dare not so far distrust the goodness of my cause, or the virtue of mankind, as not to refer myself willingly, in this point, to the decision of experience. I am well assured, that truth and justice, devotion and charity, honor and integrity, are to many so dear and delightful, that it is hard to determine, whether they are more strongly moved by a sense of duty, or the instigations of love and inclination. Nor is all this to be wondered at, if we again reflect on what I just now intimated, that the perfect man is a new creature, transformed daily from Glory to Glory:   That he is moved by new affections, raised and fortified by new principles: That he is animated by a divine energy, and sees all things by a truer and brighter light; through which the things of God appear lovely and beautiful, the things of the world deformed and worthless. Just as to him who views them through a microscope, the works of God appear exact and elegant; but those of man, coarse and bungling, and ugly.

The absolute liberty of the perfect man is then sufficiently proved and if I thought it were not, I could easily reinforce it with fresh recruits. For the glorious characters that are given us in scripture of the liberty of the children of God, and the blessed fruit of it, peace and joy in the  holy ghost would easily furnish me with invincible arguments.   Nor would the contrary opinion ever have been  able to have kept the field so long as it has done, had it not been favored by a weak and decayed piety; by the fondnesses of men for themselves, inspite of their sins and frailties and by many mistaken texts.

 I have now sufficiently stated the notion of true liberty. I proceed to the fruits of it,  which will serve for so many motives to its attainment.

 Sec. 2. The fruits of liberty may be reduced  under four heads.

1.  Sin  being a great evil, deliverance from it is great happiness

 2. A second fruit of this liberty is good works.

 3. The great and last fruit of it is eternal life.

These are all comprised by the apostle in Rom vi. 21, 22, 23. What fruit have ye then in those things, whereof  ye are now  ashamed For the end of these things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  And these are the great ends which the Gospel, that perfect law of liberty, aims at and for which it was preached to the world as appears from those words of our Lord  to St. Paul,  Acts xxvi 17, 18. Unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God  that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

 I will  here insist on these blessed effects of Christian liberty; not only because the design of the chapter demands it, but also to prevent the being obliged to any tedious repetition of them hereafter.

Sin is a great evil and therefore the deliverance from the dominion of it is a great good. To make this evident, we need but reflect a little on the nature and effects of sin. If we enquire into the nature of sin, we shall find that it is founded in the subversion of the dignity and defacing the beauty of human nature: And that it consists in the darkness of our understanding, the depravity of our affections and the impotence of the will. The understanding of a sinner is incapable of discerning the certainty and force of divine truths, the loveliness of virtue, the unspeakable pleasure which now flows from the great and precious promises of the Gospel, and the incomparably greater which will one day flow from the accomplishment of them. His affections, which, if fixed and bent on virtue, had been incentives, as they were designed by God, to noble and worthy actions, being biased and perverted, now hurry him on to lewd and wicked ones. And by these the mind, if at any time it chance to be awakened, is overpowered and oppressed.

It is true, all sinners are not equally stupid or obdurate.  But even in those in whom some sparks of  understanding and conscience remain unextinguished, how are the weak desires of virtue baffled by the much stronger passions which they have for the body and the world Do they not find themselves reduced to that wretched state of bondage wherein the good that they would do, that they do not; but the evil that they would not do, that is present with them It is plain then that sin is a disease in our nature: That it not only extinguishes the grace of the spirit and obliterates the image of God stamped on the soul in its creation but also diffuses I know not what venom through it, that makes it eagerly pursue its own misery. It is a disease that produces more intolerable effects in the soul, than any whatever can in the body. The predominancy of any noxious humor can breed no pain no disturbance, equal to that of a predominant passion: No scars or ruins which the worst disease leaves behind it, are half so loathsome as those of vice: Nay, that last change, which death itself produces, when it converts a beautiful body into dust and rottenness, is not half so contemptible or hateful as that of sin, when it transforms man into a beast or devil.

 Now if sin is so great an evil, hence it naturally follows that deliverance from it is a great good; so great, that if we estimate it by the evil there is in sin, health to the sick, liberty to the captive, day to the benighted, weary, and wandering traveler; a calm, a port to passengers in a storm; pardon to men adjudged to death, are but weak and imperfect images or resemblances of it. A disease will at worst terminate with the body, and  life and pain will have an end together: But the pain that sin causes will endure to all eternity for the worm dies not, and the fire will not be quenched. The error of the traveler will be corrected by the approaching day and his weariness refreshed at the next stage he comes to; but he then errs impenitently from the path of life, is lost  ever: When the day of grace is once set upon him, no light shall ever recall his wandering feet into the path of righteousness and peace; no ease no refreshment shall ever relieve his toil and mystery. Whilst the feet of the captive are loaded with fetters, his soul may enjoy its truest liberty and in the mist of dangers and dungeons, like Paul and Silas, he may sing songs of praise and triumph.

But the captivity of sin defiles, oppresses, and enslaves the mind and delivers up the miserable man to those intolerable and endless evils, which inexorable justice and almighty wrath inflicts upon ingratitude and obstinacy.    A storm can but wreck the body, a frail and worthless bark; the soul will escape safe to show the blessed shore, where the happy inhabitants enjoy an undisturbed, an everlasting calm:  But sin makes shipwreck of faith and a good conscience and he that perishes in it does but pass into a more  miserable state for on the wicked God will rain  snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest.  This shall be their portion for ever, Psalm xi. And, lastly, a pardon sends back a condemned criminal to life, that is, to sins and sufferings, to toils and troubles, which death, if death were the utmost  he had to fear, would have freed him from: But he that is once delivered from sin, is past from death to life, and from this Life of faith, of Love, of hope, shall soon pass to another of fruition and glory.                                                       

2.  A second fruit of liberty is good works.  Here I will shew two things:             

And that but briefly, that the works of righteousness contribute mightily to our happiness; and that immediately.

That deliverance from sin removes the great impediments of righteousness and throws off that weight which would  otherwise encumber and tire us in our race.

Outward holiness is no small pleasure, no small advantage, to him who is exercised therein.    When nature is renewed and restored, the works of righteousness are properly and truly the works of nature: And to do good to man, and offer up our praises and devotions to God is to gratify the strongest and most delightful inclinations we have. These indeed are at first stiffed and oppressed by original corruption, false principles and vicious customs: But when once they have broken through these, like seeds through the earthy coats they are imprisoned in, and are impregnated, warmed, and cherished by an heavenly influence, they naturally shoot up into good works. Virtue has a celestial tendency: From God it comes, and towards God it moves: And can it be otherwise than amiable and pleasant Virtue  is all beauty, all harmony and order; and therefore we may view and review, consider and reflect  upon it with delight. It secures us the favor of God and man; it makes our affairs naturally run smoothly and calmly on; and fills our minds with courage, cheerfulness, and good hopes. In one word, diversion and amusements give us a fanciful pleasure; an animal sensitive life, a short and mean one: Sin, a deceitful, false, and fatal one: Only virtue, a pure, a rational, a glorious, and lasting one.

2.   I am next to shew, that deliverance from sin removes the impediments of virtue. This will easily be made out, by examining what influence selfishness, sensuality and the love of this world which are the three great principles of wickedness, have upon the several parts of evangelic righteousness. The first part is that, which contains those duties that more immediately relate to ourselves. These are especially two, Sobriety and temperance. By Sobriety, I mean a serious and impartial examination of things; or such state of mind as qualifies us for it. By temperance, I mean the moderation of our affection and enjoyments, even in lawful and allowed instances. From these proceed vigilance,  industry, prudence, fortitude or patience and steadiness of mind in the prosecution of what is best. Without these it is in vain to expect, either devotion towards God or justice and charity toward man. Nay, nothing good or great can be accomplished without them: Since without them we have no ground to hope for, either the assistance of divine Grace, or the protection and concurrence of divine providence. Only the pure and chaste soul is a fit temple for the residence of the spirit and the providence of God watches over none or at least none have reason to expect it should but such as are themselves vigilant and industrious.

But now, how repugnant to, how inconsistent with those virtues, is that infatuation of mind, and that debauchery of affections, wherein sin consists How incapable either of sobriety or temperance do selfishness, sensuality, and the love of this world render us What a false estimate of things do they cause us to form How insatiable do they render us in our desire of such things, as have but empty appearances of good And how imperiously  do they precipitate us into these sins, which are the pollution and dishonor of our nature  On the contrary, let him but once come to believe, that his soul is himself, that he is a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, that heaven is his country and that to do good works is to lay up his treasure in it; let him, I say, but once believe this, and then, how sober, how temperate, how wise how vigilant, and industrious will he grow. A second part of holiness regards God as its immediate object, and consists in the fear and love of Him, in dependence and self resignation, in contemplation and devotion. As to this, it is plain, that whoever is under the dominion of  any sin, must be an enemy, or at least a stranger to it. The inside knows no God and the wicked will not, or dares not approach one. Their guilt or their aversion keeps them  from it. Selfishness, sensuality, and the love of the world, are inconsistent with the Love of the father, and all the several duties we owe Him.

They alienate the minds of men from Him, and set up other Gods in his room. But as soon as a man discerns that he has set his heart upon false goods; as soon as he finds himself cheated and deceived in all his expectations by the world, and is convinced that God  is his proper and his sovereign good; he will certainly make the Worship of God a great part, at least, of the business and employment of life. With this he will begin, and with this he will end the day: Nor will he rest here; his soul will be ever and a non mounting towards heaven, and there will be scarce any action, any event, that will not excite him to praise and adore God, or engage him in some wise reflections on his attributes.

The third part of holiness regards our neighbor and consists in the exercise of truth, justice, and charity. And no where is the ill influence of selfishness, sensuality, and the love of the world, more notorious than here: For the rendering us impatient and insatiable in our desires, violent in the prosecution of them, extravagant and excessive in our enjoyments and things of this world being few and finite and unable to satisfy such inordinate appetites; we stand in one another’s light, in one another's way to profit and pleasures, or too often at least to do so, and this must unavoidably produce a thousand miserable consequences. Accordingly, we daily feel that these passions, are the parents of envy and emulation, avarice,  ambition, strife and contention,  hypocrisy and corruption lewdness, luxury and prodigality; but are utter enemies to honor, truth and integrity; to generosity and charity. To obviate therefore the mischievous effects of these vicious principles religion implants in the world others of a benign and beneficent nature;  opposing against the love of the world, hope; against selfishness, charity and against sensuality and faith.

3.  The last fruit of Christian liberty, is Heaven which will consist of all the blessings of all the enjoyments that human nature when raised to an equality with angels, is capable of beauties and glories, joys and pleasures, will as it were like a fruitful and ripe harvest here, grow up there in all the utmost plenty and perfection that omnipotence itself will ever produce. Heaven is the masterpiece of God, the accomplishment and consummation of all his wonderful designs, the last and most endearing expression of boundless love. And hence it is that the holy spirit scripture describes it by the most taking things upon earth; and yet we cannot but think that this image, though drawn by a divine pencil, must  fall infinitely short of it: For what temporal things can yield colors or metaphors strong enough to paint heaven to the life One thing there is indeed, which seems to point us to a just and adequate notion of Heaven; it seems to excite us to attempt conceptions of what we cannot grasp, we cannot comprehend; and the laboring mind the more it discovers, concludes still the more behind; and that is, the beatific vision. This is that  which, as divines generally teach, constitutes heaven, and scripture seems to teach so too.

  We, who love and adore God here, shall, when we enter into his presence, admire and love Him infinitely more. For God being infinitely amiable, the more we contemplate, the more clearly we discern his divine perfections and beauties, the more must our souls be inflamed with a passion for Him:  And God  will make us the most gracious returns of our love, and express his affections for us, in such condescensions, in such communications of Himself,  as will transport us to the utmost degree that created beings are capable of. Will not God, that sheds abroad his love in our hearts by his spirit here, fully satisfy it hereafter Will not God who fills us here with the Joy of his spirit, by I know not what inconceivable ways, communicate Himself in a more ravishing and ecstatic Manner to us, when we behold Him as He is, and live for ever encircled in the arms of his love and glory Doubtless then, the beatific Vision will be the supreme pleasure of Heaven; yet I do not think that this is to exclude those of an inferior nature. God will be there, not only all, but in     all. We shall see Him as He is; and we shall see Him reflected, in Angels, and all the Inhabitants of Heaven; nay, in all the various treasures that happy place: But in far more bright and love characters than in his works here below.

This is a state that answers all ends. Temporal good, nay a state accumulated with all temporal goods, has still something defective, something empty in it that which is crooked cannot be  made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. And therefore the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; but all things are full of labor;   man cannot utter it.   And if this were not the state of temporal things yet that one thought of Solomon that he must leave them, makes good the charge of vanity and vexation: And the contrary is that which completes Heaven; namely, that it is eternal.

 I will close this chapter here; with a brief exhortation to labor after deliverance from sin. How many and powerful motives have we to it Would we free ourselves from the evils of this life Let us dam up the source of them, which is sin. Would we perfect and accomplish our natures with excellent qualities It is righteousness wherein consists the image of God, and participation of the divine nature: It is the cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and the perfecting holiness in the fear of God that must transform us from Glory to Glory. Would we be masters of the most glorious fortunes It is righteousness that will make us heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: It is conquest of our sins and the abounding in good works that will make us rich towards God and lay up for us a good foundation for the life to come. Are we ambitious of honor

Let us free ourselves from the servitude of sin. It is virtue only, that is truly honorable and nothing surely can entitle us to so noble a relation for this allies us to God. For, as our savior speaks, they only are the children of Abraham, who do the works of Abraham; the children of God, who do the works of God. These are they, who are born again; not of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man; but of God. These are they, who are incorporated into the body of Christ; and being ruled and animated by his spirit, are entitled to all the blessed effects of his merit and intercession. These are they, in a word, who have overcome, and will, one day, sit down with Christ in his throne; even as He also overcame, and is sat down with his Father in his throne, Rev. iii. 21. Good God, how absurd and perverse our desires and Projects are!  We complain of the evils of the world and yet we hug the causes of them and cherish those vices, whose fatal wombs are ever big with numerous and intolerable plagues. We fear death, and would get rid of this fear; not by disarming, but sharpening its sting; not by subduing, but forgetting it. We love wealth and treasure; but it is that which is temporal, not  eternal. We receive honor one of another; but we seek not that which comes from God only. But it is in Christian liberty that makes us truly great, and truly glorious: For this alone renders us serviceable to others, and easy to ourselves; benefactors to the world and delightsome at home: It is Christian, liberty makes us truly prosperous, truly fortunate; because it makes us truly happy, filling us with joy and peace, and making us abound in Hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.