fitting in Judgment upon the Actions of his Governours; of treating with Indignity those Stations and Characters which the Conftitution holds Sacred; of fowing the Seeds of Difcontent, and fomenting Rebellion against them: This furely is a Liberty, which no Man would wish to fee generally affumed though, if it is allowable to one, it must be allowable to all in the fame Circumftances: It is indeed a Liberty to defeat the very Ends of Government; and must foon reduce us to that State, from the Miseries of which it was one principal Design of Government to rescue and protect us.

From what has been fuggefted we may in fome Measure collect, how our Freedom ftands as we are Men; and this both in our Perfonal Capacity as we are Individuals, and in our Social Capacity as we are Subjects. But we are further concerned to enquire into the State of it in each refpect as we are Chriftians.

It has been juft hinted above, that our common Parents by affuming a Liberty to which they had no Title, loft that Liberty, of which they were in Poffeffion. And, in Fact, they thereby subjected, not only themfelves, but all their Pofterity, to the worst Kind of Dominion, that of Luft and Appe

tite, of Sin and Death. Here then with Joy and Gratitude we proclaim, that *We whom the Son bath made Free, are Free indeed. We are Free from the Rigour and Condemnation of the Law of Works; from the heavy Burden of Jewish Rites and Observances; from the Tyranny of our own Lufts; and from *that Fear of Death, both Temporal and Eternal, which must otherwise all our LifeTime have kept us in Bondage. From all these this Law of the Spirit of Life has vindicated Us into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of GOD. These are Immunities great and truly valuable; and of these we Chriftians may juftly glory. But ftill, if we would inherit the Privileges, we must pay the cheerful Obedience, of Sons. If we are made free from Sin, we are, by an additional Obligation, become Servants to GOD. Our Chriftian Profeffion is far from giving us an unbounded Liberty of Thinking or Acting. We must bring into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of CHRIST: And not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us and rofe again.

<a John VIII. 36.

d 2 Cor. X. 5,

d

Not but that, even in this Respect, Christianity eminently displays itself as being, what it is emphatically called, the perfect Law of Liberty. For, after all the late Boafts of the Sufficiency of our Understandings, the Rectitude of our Wills, and the Goodness of our Affections; Every one of us, who attends to what paffes within him, must feel, that his Understanding greatly needs Information, his Will Direction, and his Affections at once Restraint from Evil, and Incitement to Good. And, to a Creature in fuch a Situation, can it give any just Cause of Complaint, that his Creator (a Being of infinite Wisdom, Power, and Goodness) fhould call upon him for the Obedience of Faith to a Discovery of the most important Truths; the Readiness of his Will to accept a Proposal of the highest Good; the Compliance of his Affections with the most engaging Motives; and, in fhort, the Concurrence of all his Faculties with the benign Influences of the Spirit of Grace? The selffufficient Deift may call fuch a Proceeding an Infringement upon his Freedom of Thinking, of Choice, of Action. But the truly rational Chriftian will with humble Thankfulness embrace fuch an Infringement as only limits his

Freedom by enlightening his Understanding, and denies him no Liberty but that of Destroying himself.

Such is the State of Chriftian Liberty in our Perfonal Capacity. With regard to Civil Societies, Chriftianity, being intended for the Religion of all Nations, is (I conceive) in Civil Matters adapted to the Constitution of each, without attempting the Subverfion of any. It takes the Laws of each Community, to which it offers itself, as it finds them: And as it gives fuch as embrace it no Exemption from the juft Reftraints of Government, so neither does it deprive them of any Legal Privileges or Immunities of which they were antecedently poffeffed. But, though Christianity has not altered the Measures, it has however greatly enforced the Duty, of Obedience to the Higher Powers. It teaches us, that the Powers that be are ordained of GOD: It requires Subjection to them from every Soul, as to the Ordinance of GOD; and urges the Neceffity of it, not only upon Prudential Confiderations, but also for Confcience fake: It allows no Liberty of private Revenge; none of illegal or tumultuous Redress of Grievances none of defpifing Dominion

a

a Rom. XIII. 1—6.

or Speaking Evil of Dignities: It condemns, in very strong Terms, all Refifting of the Supreme Powers, or Taking the Sword against those who are regularly commiffioned by them: It has not, by minutely pointing out excepted Cafes, and fhewing Men how near they may approach to the Confines of Sin without falling into it, invited Human Nature, of itself more than fufficiently inclined, to Sedition and Rebellion: But, by requiring its Profeffors in general to study to be quiet, and its Teachers to put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers, It has at once beft provided for its own favourable Reception, and for the focial Happiness of Mankind.

b

a

I must not close this Head without confidering the State of our Liberty, as we are Members of that Society, which is most properly Chriftian; and how it is affected by our becoming Subjects of CHRIST's Spiritual Kingdom: A Kingdom, which, though not

OF this World, either with regard to its Origin or its Confummation, yet plainly appears intended by its Divine Founder to have a real Existence, as a Vifible Society, IN this World; and as fuch to have vifible Offices, Ordinances, and Administrations; and these

a Theff. IV. II, b Tit. III. 1. c Joh. XVIII. 36.

conducted