200 SERMON VIII. Verf. 2. For the Law of the Spirit of Life, in Chrift Fefus, hath made me free, &c. TH HAT whereabout the Thoughts, than you fear. We are under a Law of and Difcourfes of Men now run, Sin and Death, that hath the Dominion is Freedom and Liberty, or Rondage and and Sway in all Mens Affections and Slavery. All Men are afraid to lofe Converfations, and when the glorious their Liberties, and be made Servants to Liberty of the Sons of God is offered unStrangers: And indeed Liberty, whether to us in the Gofpel, when the Son hath National, or Perfonal, even in civil Re- come to make us free, we love our own fpects, is a great Mercy and Privilege; Chains, and will not fuffer them to be but, alas! Men know not, neither do loofed: Therefore it is that a Nation that they confider what is the Ground and hath defpifed fuch a gracious Offer of Reafon of fuch Changes, and from what Peace and Freedom in Jefus Chrift, is robFountain it flows, that a Nation of a long bed and fpoiled of Peace and Freedom. Time free from a foreign Yoke, fhould When this Law of the Spirit of Life in now be made to fubmit their Necks unto Chrift is published and proclaimed openly it. Many wonder that our Nation un unto Congregations, unto Judicatories, and conquered in the Days of Ignorance, and unto Perfons, yet few do regard it; the Darkness, should now be conquered in generality are in Bondage to a contrary the Days of the Gofpel; and there want Law of Sin, and this they ferve in the Lufts not many ungodly Spirits, that will rather thereof. Yea, (which most of all agimpute the Fault unto the Reformation of gravates and heightens the offence) even Religion, than take it to themselves. after we have all of us profeffed a SubThere are many fecret Heart-jealoulies jection to the Law of God, and to Jefus among us, that Chrift is a hard Mafter, Chrift, the King and Law-giver, we and cannot be served. But would you are in an extraordinary Way ingaged to know the true Original of our apparent the Lord, by many Oaths and Covenants and threatned Bondage? Come and fee, to be his People; we did consent that he come and confider fomething expreffed in should be our King, and that we should be thefe Words. All your Though's are ruled in our Proteffion and Practice by bufied about civil Liberty, but you do not, his Word and Will, as the fundamenconfider that you are in Bondage while tal Laws of this his Kingdom; we did you are free, and that to worse Mafters folemnly renounce all ftrange Lords, that had 201 mand of themselves. Look upon a Man given to Drunkenness, and what a Slave is he? Whither doth not his Luft drive him? Let him bind himself with Refo lutions, with Vows, yet he cannot be holden by them; Shame before Men, Lofs of Eftate, Decay of Health, temporal Pu nifhment, nay, eternal, all fet together, cannot keep him from fulfilling the Defires of that Luft, when he hath Opportunity. A Man given to Covetousness, how doth had tirannized over us; and did swear againft them, never to yeild willing Obedience unto them; namely, the Lufts of the World, Ignorance of God, Unbelief, and Difobedience. Now what became of all this Work, you may know, the generality of all Ranks have rebelled against that Lord, and Prince, and withdrawn from his Allegiance, and revolted unto the fame Lufts and Ways, these fame Courses against which we had both by our ProfefLion of Chriftianity, and folemn Oaths en-he ferve that Idol? How doth he forget gaged our felves; and fo Men have voluntarily and heartily fubjected themselves unto the Laws of Sin, and Defires of the Flesh. Hence is the Beginning of our Ruine; because we would not ferve our own God and Lord in our own Land, therefore are fo many led away captive to serve Strangers in another Land, therefore we are like to be Captives in our own Land; because we refused Homage to our God, and obeyed ftrange Lords within, therefore are we given up to the Luft of Strangers without. I would have you thinking, and that feriously, that there are worse Mafters you ferve, than these you moft hate, and that there is a worse Bondage, whereof you are infenfible, than that you fear moft, you fear Strangers, but your greatest Evil is within you; you might retire within, and behold worse Mafters, andmore pernicicus and mortal Enemies to your Well. being. This is the Cafe of all Men by Nature, and of all Men as far as in Nature; Sin ruling, commanding in them, and lording it over them, and they willingly following after the Commandment, and fo oppreffed and broken in Judgment. If you could but rightly look upon other Men, you might fee, that they who are Servants of diverfe Lufts, are not their own Men (fo to speak) they have not the Com himself to be a Man? Or to have a reafonable Soul within him, he is fo devoted to it; and thus it is with every Man by Nature: There may be many petty little Gods that he worships upon Occafion, but every unrenewed Man hath fome one Thing predominant in him, unto which he hath fworn Obedience and Devotion. The Man moft civilized, most abstract from the groffer outward Pollutions, yet certainly, his Heart within is but a Temple full of Idols, to the Love and Service of which he is devoted. There is some of the fundamental Laws of Satan's Kingdom, that rules in every natural Man, either the Luft of the Eyes, or the Luft of the Flefb, or the Pride of Life; every Man facrificeth to one of thefe, his Credit and Honour, or his Pleasure, or his Profit: Self, whatever Way refined and fubtilized in fome, yet at best it is but an Enemy to God; and without that Sphere of felf, cannot a Man act upon natural Principles, till a higher Spirit come in, which is here fpoken of. Oh! that you would take this for Bondage, to be under this woful Neceffity of fatisfying and fulfilling the Defires of your Flesh and Mind,Eph.ii.2. Many account it only Liberty and Freedom, therefore they look upon the Laws of the Spirit of Life,as Cords and Bonds, and confult to muft needs be fubject to a Law of Death; if you will not be perfwaded to quite the Service of Sin, then tell me, what think you of your Wages? The Wages of Sin is Death, that you may certainly expect; and can you look and long for fuch Wages? God hath joined thefe together, by a perpetual Ordinance, they come in the World together, Sin enter eaft them off, and cut them afunder; but confider, what a wretched Life you have with your imperious Lufts. The Truth is, Sin is for the most part its own Punishment; I am fure, you have more Labour and Toil in fulfilling the Lufts of Sin, then you might have in ferving God. Mens Lufts are never at quiet, they are continually putting you on Service, they are ftill driving and dragging Men head-ed, and Death by Sin, and they have long, hurrying them to and fro, and gone Hand in Hand together fince: And they cannot get reft; what is the Caufe think you to diffolve what God hath join of all the Difquiet, Disorder, Confufion, ed? Before you go further, and obey Trouble and Wars in the World? From Sin more, think, I pray you, what it can whence do Contentions arife? Come they give you, what doth it give you for the not bence, (faith James iv. 1.) even of prefent? but much Pain and Toyl, and the Lufts that War in our Members. It Vexation, in ftead of promifed Pleasure, is these that trouble the World, and thefe and Satisfaction. Sin doth with all Men, are the Troublers of Ifrael's Peace, these as the Devil doth with fome of his fworn take away both inward Peace, domeftick Vaffals, and Servants, they have a poor Peace, and national Peace: Thefe Lufts, wretched Life with him, they are wearied Covetoufnels, Ambition, Pride, Paffion, and troubled, to fatisfy all his unreasonable Self-love, and fuch like; do fet Nation and imperious Commands; he loadens against Nation, Men and Men, People them with bafe Service, and they are ftill and People by the Ears. These multiply kept in Expectation of fome great ReBufineffes beyond Neceffity; thefe mul-ward, but for the prefent, they have notiply Cares without Profit, and fo bring thing but Mifery and Trouble; and at forth Vexation and Torment. If a Man length, he becomes the Executioner, and had his Lufts fubdued, and his Affections perpetual Tormenter of them whom he compofed unto Moderation and Sobriety, made to ferve him; fuch a Mafter is Sin, O what a Multitude of noifom and hurt- and fuch Wages you may expect: Conful Cares fhould he then be freed from, fider then, what your Expectation is, bewhat a sweet Calmness should poffefs that fore you go on, or engage further, Death. Spirit. Will you be perfwaded of it, We are under a Law of bodily Death, Beloved in the Lord, that it were ealier therefore, we are mortal; our House is to ferve the Lord, than to ferve your like a ruinous Lodge, that props through, Lufts, that they coft you more Labour, and one Day or other it must fall. Sin Difquiet, Perplexity, and Sorrow, than hath brought in the Seeds of Corruption in the Lord's Service will; that fo you may Mens Nature, which diffolves it, else it weary of fuch Masters, and groan to be had been immortal: But, there is a worfe from under fuch a Law of Sin. Death after this, a living Death, in re-` fpect of which, fimple Death would be chofen rather; Men will rather live very miferably than die, Nature hath an Aver But, if that will not fuffice to perfwade you, then confider, in the next Room, if you will needs ferve a Law of Sip, you fation of it, Skin for Skin, and all for Life will à Man give: Death imports a Deftruction of Being, which every Thing maturally feeks to preferve. But O! what a dreadful Life is it, worse than Death, when Men will chofe Death rather than Life? O! how terrible will it be, to hear that Word, Hills and Mountains fall on us, and cover us. Men newly rifen, their Bodies and Souls meet again, after a long Separation, and this to be their mutual Entertainment one to another, the Body to wish it were still in the Duft, and the Soul to defire it might never be in the Body: Surely, if we had fo much Grace as to believe this, and tremble at it, before we be forced to act it, there were fome Hope; if we could perfwade our felves once of this, that the Ways of Sin, all of them, how pleasant, how profitable foever, whatsoever Gain they bring in, whatsoever Satisfaction they give, that they are nothing elfe, but the Ways of Death, and go down to the Chambers of Hell, that they will delude and deceive us, and fo in end deftroy us: If we might once believe this with our Heart, there were fome Hope that we would break off from them, and choose the untroden Paths of Godliness, which are Pleasantnefs and Peace. However, this is the Condition of all Men, once to be under Sin, and under a Sentence of Death for Sin: 'Tis the Unbelief of this, and a Conceit of Freedom, that fecurely and certainly destroys the World, by keeping Souls from Jefus Chrift, the Prince of Life. But there is a Delivery, and that is the Thing expreffed in the Words, there is Freedom from both attainable; and I think, the very hearing of fuch a Thing, that there is a Redemption from Sin and Mifery poffible, yea, and that fome are actually delivered from it: This might ftir up in our Hearts, fome holy Ambi tion, and earnest Desire after fuch a State; how might it awake our Hearts after it: But this is the Wofulness of a natural Condition, that a Soul under the Power of Sin, can neither help it self, nor rightly defire Help from another, because the Will is captive too; this makes it a very defperate and remedilefs Business to any humane Expectation, because such a Soul is well pleased with its own Fetters, and loves its own Prison, and fo can neither long for Freedom, nor welcome the Sox who is come to make free. But yet, there is a Freedom and Delivery, and if ye ask who are Partakers of it, the Text declares it to you, even these who are in Jefus Chrift, and walk according to the Spirit of Christ. These all, and these only, who finding themfelves dead in Sins and Trefpaffes, under the Power and Dominion of Sin, and likewise under the Sentence of Death and Condemnation, begin to lift up their Heads, upon the Hope of a Saviour, and to look unto their Redeemer, as poor Prisoners, whofe Eyes and Looks are ftrong Intreaties, and inftead of many Requests; such as give an intire Renounce unto their former Ways, and prevailing Lufts, and give up themfelves in Teftimony of their Senfe of his unspeakable Favour of Redemption, to be wholly his, and not their own. There are fome Souls who are free from the Domini. on of Sin, and from the Danger of Death, fome who were once led about with divers Lufts, as well as others, who walked after the Course of this World, and fulfilled the Defires of the, Flefb, and were Children of Wrath as well as others; but now they are quickned in Chrift Jefus, and have abandoned their former Way; they have another Rule, another Way, other Principles, their Study is now to please God, and grow in Holi- is to be obtained, an immortal and never nefs; the Ways they delighted in, in former Times, are now loathfome; they think that a filthy Puddle, which they drank greedily of; and now 'tis all, or their chiefeft Grief and Burden, that fo much of that old Man, muft be carried about with them, and fo this expreffeth many Groans from them with Paul, Woe is me, miferable Man, who fall deliver me? Such Souls are, in a manner (to fpeak fo) half redeemed, who being made fenfible of their Bondage, groan and pant for a Redeemer: The Day of their compleat Redemption is at Hand, all of you are Witneffes of this, that there are fome thus freed, but they are Signs and Wonders indeed to the World; their Kinfmen, their Acquaintance, their Friends and Neighbours wonder what is become of them, they think it ftrange they walk not, and run not into that fame Excess of riot with them. But whofoever thou art, that is escaped from under the Slavery of Sin, wonder at the World, that doth run fo madly on their own Destruction, think it strange that thou ran fo long with them, and that all will not run in these pleafant Ways with thee; think it ftrange, that thou runs fo flowly, when fo great a Prize fading Crown. If mortifying and cruci fying the Lufts of the Flesh, if dying to the World, and to thy felf, feem very hard and unpleasant to thee, if it be as the plucking out of thine Eye,and cutting off thine Hand; know then, that Corrupti on is much alive yet, and hath much Power in thee; but remember, that if thou can have but fo much Grace, and Refolution, as to kill and crucifie these Lufts, without foolish and hurtful Pity, if thou canst attain that Victory over thy felf, thou shall never be a Lofer, thou cannot repent it afterward: To die to our felves and the World, to kill Sin within: O! that makes way to a Life hid from the World, one Hour whereof is better than many Ages in finful Pleasure: Quicken. thy felf often with this Thought, that there is a true Life after fuch a Death, and that thou canst not pass into it, but by the Valley of the Death of thy Lufts; remember, that thou doft but kill thine Enemies, which embrace, that they may ftrangle thee; and then stir up your felf with this Confideration, the Life of Sin. will be thy Death: Better enter Heaven,. without thefe Lufts, than go to Hell with: them. SERMON IX. Verf. 2. For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Fefus Chrift, bath made me free, from the Law of Sin and Death. Nature, is, that Sinners have given up themfelves unto it, as if it were truly Liberty, that the Will and Affections of Men |