I

SERM.ing what is Right; a Freedom of hearkning to what Reafon dictates, and a Power of executing what the unprejudiced and improved Understanding judges to be fit; fit and reasonable, fit for Him who is a rational Perfon, fit for any

Other rational

Perfon in His place, to do. And this Liberty the Senfual perfon parts with; and fuffers himself to be captivated, against his Reafon, by the Law of Sin.

THE Licentious Sinner will ftill reply; He is not fenfible of any fuch Captivity, or any: Slavery he is under; He gives himfelf his full Liberty to do what he thinks fit; and greater Freedom than This how can he defire? But the Anfwer to This Fallacy is evident. For as a Man while he fleeps in his Prison, is not fenfible of his Confinement, and yet continues confined : Or a Madman imagines the Room he is fhut up in to be as fpacious as the World; and yet receives no inlargement Or an Idiot embraces and admires his Chain as the brightest Ornament, and yet it continues a Chain So the vitious Libertine, while his Eyes are blinded with Ignorance and Prejudice, his Understanding darkned with falfe Repre

fentations,

I.

fentations, and his Will bribed perpetu-SER M. ally with deceitful Allurements; while he loves the Dominion of Sin, and takes pleafure in the Practife of Unrighteousness, and filences the Voice of Reafon and Confcience; he fancies himself Mafter of the most unbounded Liberty, and yet at the fame time is really in bondage to the most unreasonable Service. The Scripture describes this State by a most elegant fimilitude, of mens being Dead in Trefpaffes and Sins, Eph. ii. 1, 5. by their being enclosed in the Snare of the Devil, and taken captive by him at his Will, 2. Tim. ii. 26. by their being brought into Captivity to the Law of Sin, Rom. vii. 23. By the History of Samfon, who, after many repeated infults, yet would not fee the Bondage he was in, till his Strength was departed from him: And by the defcription of a foolish young man led away with the inticements of a ftrange Woman, Prov. vii. 21. With her much fair Speech She caufed him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her firaitway, as an Ox goeth to the Slaughter, or as a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks; Till a dart firike through

I.

SER M. through his liver, as a Bird hafteth to the fnare, and knoweth not that it is for his Life.

BUT This, is not generally the Cafe of Sinners. More ufually, they not only are in Captivity to Sin, but feel alfo and know themselves to be fo;. and yet have not Courage to affert their Liberty. Their Reafon is over-ruled; and their Paffions govern them, even against their Judgment. Which, in a figurative sense, is exactly what Solomon literally complained of, Ecclef. x. 7. I have Jeen Servants upon Horfes, and Princes walking as Servants upon the Earth. When Reafon, which ought to govern, is thus dethroned; and the Fear of God, and all Sense of Religion laid aside ; the man is then under the Dominion of his Paffions, as of many disagreeing Masters to be served at once; and his Heart is like the troubled Sea, when it cannot rest, whose Waters caft up mire and dirt, If. lvii. 20. He is toffed to and fro with impotent and impatient Defires, torn in pieces with eager and impetuous Appetites, pusht on by unruly and exorbitant Affections, tormented with vain and difappointing Hopes, and as often with groundless or too wellgrounded

I.

grounded Fears; confumed with Envy, SER M. or fwelled with Pride; raging with Anger, or anxious after Revenge. This is the thraldom of man enflaved to Sin ; and Who fhall deliver him from the Body of this Death? The Scripture describes the miserable, state of fuch Perfons, by many elegant ways of Expreffion: Telling us, that they are Servants of Sin, Joh. viii. 34. Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, Rom. vi. 19. and Servants of Corruption, 2 Pet. ii. 19. that they cannot ceafe from Sin, 2 Pet. ii. 14. that Sin hath P.xix. 13. Dominion over them, and reigns in their cxix. 133. mortal Bodies, while they obey it in the Lufts thereof, Rom. vi. 14. 12.

That tho'

in their mind they approve the Law of God, yet they fee another law in their members warring against the law of their mind, and bringing them into captivity to the law of Sin; fo that they cannot do the things that they would, Rom. vii. 22. and Gal. v. 17. That when at any time to will is prefent with them, yet how to perform that which is good they find not; For the good that they would, they do not; but the evil which they would not, That they do, Rom. vii. 18. and ver. 15. That

m

SERM. which they do, they allow not; For what. I. they would, That do they not; but what they hate, That they do. All which, is comprized in One expreffive word in the verfe foregoing, ver. 14. they are fold under: Sin: That is, they have by long ill habits and corrupt practife, as it were given up themselves, parted with their Liberty, and yielded themselves abfolutely into the Snare of the Devil, to be taken captive by him at his Will. The Phrase. is twice applied in the Old Testament to Ahab, 1 Kings xii. 21, 25. that he did fell himself to work Wickedness in the Sight of the Lord. And twice, to the whole people of Ifrael; in the days of Hofea, 2. Kings xvii. 17. that they fold themfelves to do evil in the Sight of the Lord; and in the days of Antiochus, 1 Macc. i. 15. that they were fold to do mischief.

AND now if this be the Cafe of habitual Sinners; we may well afk concerning Liberty, in the words wherein Fob Job xxviii. put the Question concerning true Wif dom; Where then shall Liberty be found? and where is the place of True Freedom? And the Anfwer may be returned in the Job xxviii. Words of the fame excellent Author; Be

12.

28.

2

bold,