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bold, the Fear of the Lord, that is Free- SER M. dom; and to depart from Evil, is True Liberty.

THE True Liberty of a Rational and Moral Agent, confifts in his being able to follow right Reason only, without Hindrance or Restraint. It confifts in a clear unbiaffed Judgment, and in a Power of acting conformably thereunto. Man therefore is then Free, when his Reason is not awed by base Fears, nor bribed by foolish and fantaftick Hopes; when it is not tumultuoufly hurried away by Lufts and Paffions, nor cheated and deluded by false · Appearances of present Good; but confiders impartially, and judges wifely, and acts effectually and with Resolution. This is the Liberty of a rational Agent; the Freedom of a Man, of a Chriftian, of an Angel. Not that in this prefent frail state, we can ever actually arrive at such a perfect Freedom; but that by ftudying and practifing the Truth, the Truth of Nature and the Truth of Religion, we may and ought continually more and more to affert and improve our Freedom, till at length we arrive at the glorious Liberty of the children of God.

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BUT

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BUT here the profane Libertine will afk, as before; Is it not a greater Liberty, for him to follow abfolutely his own Pleafure, then to be under the direction of the Laws of right Reason and Religion? I anfwer; It is by no means fo great a Liberty: For when a man follows true Reafon, his Will is directed by its natural. and proper Motive,, which is a right Understanding; But when he follows what he calls his own Pleafure, his Will is then directed by a falfe and unnatural, Motive; by Error and Prejudice, by Obftinacy and falfe Appearances of Things. Now 'tis very evident, that what Impotency or Bonds, are to the natural Liberty of the Body, that very fame thing is Ignorance or Paffon to the moral Liberty of the Mind. Wherefore as the Body is then free, when it is moved by the Natural Action of the Blood and Spirits, and not by the Convulfive. Motions and Violence of a Disease fo the Mind is then and then only Free, when its Choice is directed by the natural Motive of right Reason, and not by the violent impetus of a blind and headstrong Paffion.

THIS

THIS Argument may further be illuf-SER M. trated in the following manner. God I. Himself is a Being, as of all other Perfections, fo particularly of the most perfect and complete Liberty. Now His Liberty confifts in this, that being infinitely Knowing and infinitely Powerful, 'tis impoffible he should ever be influenced by any Violence, or by any Deceit; but his Will is always directed by abfolute Right and Reafon only: And This is what we vulgarly call, his being Neceffarily Just and Good. Not that Justice and Goodness are Neceffary in him by a physical, natural and immediate Neceffity, exclufive of Will and Choice, in the fame Sense as his Omniprefence or Eternity is Neceffary; (For then it would be no more proper to return him Thanks for the Exercife of his Juftice and Goodness, than for being Eternal or Omniprefent; Which is manifeftly abfurd.) But the meaning of his being Neceffarily Just and Good, is This only; that the Liberty by which he always chooses what is eternally and absolutely right and good, can never poffibly be infringed, no not in the least degree, by any Error or Paffion, by any Violence or by C 2

any

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SER M. any Deceit. The Liberty of Man, therefore, confifts proportionably in the very fame things; in his being free from all thofe falfe Biaffes and corrupt Inclinations, which would cause his Will to decline from the Direction of Right Reason. And where This Liberty is preserved by good men to any confiderable degree of Perfection, there the Holy Ghost is pleafed to exprefs itself in fuch manner even concerning Them alfo, as to affirm that they cannot fin, 1 Joh. iii. 9. Which expreffion is therefore fo far from implying their having no Liberty of Will at all, as fcme have vainly imagined; that on the contrary it fignifies their having their Liberty fo perfect, in Imitation of God, as (abating the unavoidable infirmities of human Nature) to be in no danger of being biaffed or feduced. This is what our Saviour promises in the Text, that if men will continue in his Word, then they shall Joh. viii. know the Truth, and the Truth fhall make them free. And it fufficiently makes good the general Doctrine I at first drew from the Words; namely, that the Religious Restraints laid upon men by the Gospel, are really and truly the greatest Liberty;

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and

and the Service of God, the moft perfect SER M.

Freedom.

THERE are fome other Senfes in Scripture, of the Words Liberty and Bondage; which for the fuller understanding of the Text, in which they are all directly or indirectly comprehended, deserve briefly to be mentioned in this Place.

And I, CHRISTIAN Liberty, in many places of Scripture, and principally in St Paul's epiftles, fignifies deliverance from the Obligation of the Ceremonial

I.

law; from that Yoke, which neither our A&ts xv. Fathers, nor we, as it is elfewhere expref-10. fed, were able to bear. Of This it is that he speaks, when he tells us that we have Rom. viii. not received the Spirit of Bondage again, 15. but the Spirit of Adoption; that, when we were children, we were in bondage under the Elements of the World, Gal. iv. 3. that the Lord is That Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty; 2 Cor. iii. 17. The expreffion is difficult, and has been much mifunderstood: But the meaning is, that the Gofpel is the Spirit and End of the Law; and where the Spirit, or thing fignified is fulfilled, there the type, or bare letter, is fuperfeded;

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The