of his good Spirit, he has induced them gladly and gratefully to enter into his service, to assume his easy yoke, to take up his light burden. He has made them see and feel the irresistible force of his infinite excellence and kindness, as a motive to obedience. He has manifested to them "the great love wherewith he has loved them," and "blessed them with all heavenly and spiritual blessings;" so that they have been constrained to say, "What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits? Truly, O Lord, we are thy servants; we are thy servants; thou hast loosed our bonds." "Other lords have had dominion over us; henceforth we will make mention only of thy name."1

Finally, they are his servants, for they habitually employ themselves in his service. Christians, knowing that "they are not their own, but bought with a price," glorify Him who has bought them "with their souls, and with their bodies, which are God's." Influenced by his mercies, they present themselves to him as "living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, which is their rational worship." Delivered by him from their former tyrants, "they serve him without fear, in righteousness and holiness, all the days of their life." They acknowledge that it is their duty, they know that it is their prevailing desire, to be entirely conformed to the will of their Lord: "Whether they eat, or drink, or whatsoever they do, they" would "do all to his glory." "Whatsoever they do in word or in deed, they would do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Their desire is, "to be in the world as Jehovah's elect servant was in the world, always about their Master's, their Father's, business; finding it their meat to do his will, and finish his work."2

It concerns us all seriously to inquire, if the condition which has been described be ours. Are we experimentally acquainted with this liberty of the children of God; are we

1 Isa. xliv. 21; xliii. 21. Rom. v. 5. Jer. xxxii. 40; xxxi. 33. Eph. ii. 10. Rom. xii. 2. Eph. i. 2, 11, 4. Psal. exvi. 12, 16. Isa. xxvi. 13. 21 Cor. vi. 19, 20. Rom. xii. 1. Luke i. 74, 75. 1 Cor. x. 31. 1 John iv. 17. John iv. 34.

Col. iii. 17.

the servants of God? The question should not be a difficult one to answer. On this subject, I believe, there may be presumptuous confidence. Where there is not only no evidence for, but very much evidence against a favourable answer, there are men "who speak great swelling words of vanity" about their Christian liberty, while their whole character and conduct proclaim them "servants of corruption." The only permanent satisfactory evidence that we are God's freemen is, habitual gratitude for our emancipation, showing itself by our "serving him without fear, in righteousness and holiness," "walking before him in love." The only permanent satisfactory evidence that we are God's servants is, our doing his work.

Owing to a variety of causes, there may be hesitation and doubt, where there is such evidence as ought to lay the foundation of humble confidence. But there is something wrong here also. Doubt on such a subject is, in no case, a good symptom, and it is obviously equally a matter of duty and prudence to seek certainty on a point so vitally connected with our highest interests. If we are indeed "free,” and "the servants of God," why, by remaining in doubt about it, deprive ourselves of the abundant consolation, the good hope, the varied and powerful motives to holiness, which a clear satisfactory persuasion of this truth would naturally produce? And if we are not "free," if we are not the servants of God, and if, continuing in this condition, our final perdition is absolutely certain, is it not at least equally important that we should be distinctly aware of it? We may, though now slaves, yet be emancipated; we may, though now the servants of sin, yet become the servants of God.

One cause why many men remain at ease in a state of unconversion is, the ill-founded hope that they have been converted, or, at any rate, the absence of a thorough conviction that they are yet unconverted. Let us honestly turn to account, for the purposes of self-inquiry, the plain truths brought forward in this discourse, and we must arrive at a conclusion respecting our true spiritual condition.

And should that conclusion prove an unfavourable one, as I am afraid would be the case with some now present, O, let them continue no longer in a state so degrading and dangerous! Brethren, you need not remain slaves. The ransom has been paid; the Deliverer stands ready to unloose your fetters; and if you remain unemancipated, it is because you will not avail yourselves either of the atoning sacrifice, or the quickening Spirit of the Saviour. Think what the wages of your degrading servitude will be: "Death, the second death, everlasting destruction." "If ye live after the flesh, ye must die;" "if ye sow to the flesh, ye shall of the flesh reap corruption." Consider, too, if ye perish, ye perish not unwarned; ye have been told, most distinctly told, what must be the end of these things: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but shall cry ye for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit."1 "Choose now whom ye will serve." There is surely no room for hesitation here; slavery and freedom: the slavery of Satan, the liberty of the children of God; the burning lake and the bottomless pit, and fulness of joy, rivers of pleasure, for evermore: these are the alternatives. There is no time for delay. "To-day if ye will hearken to his voice;" to-morrow you may be beyond its reach.

Should the conclusion prove a favourable one, as I trust it will in some, in many instances, O, how strong the obligations to distinguishing grace; how loud the calls to grateful acknowledgment; how powerful the motives to progressive holiness! "The more we attain unto the faculty of serving him cheerfully and diligently, the more still will we find of this spiritual liberty, and have the more joy in it. Oh! that we could live as his servants, employing all our industry to do him service in the condition and place

Isa. lxv. 13-15.

wherein he hath set us, whatsoever that is; and as faithful servants, more careful of his affairs than of our own, accounting it our main business to seek the advancement of his glory: Happy is the servant whom the Master, when he cometh, shall find so doing.'

II. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.

2

I proceed now to the consideration of the view that is given us of the Christian's duty. His duty is generally to act conformably with his condition; to behave himself at once like a freeman and a servant, while he guards against the abuse of the liberty wherewith he has been made free. He is to act " as free," yet taking care not to make his (6 liberty a cloak of maliciousness ;" and he is to act as the "servant of God;" he is to use his freedom; he is not to abuse it; and he is to exemplify his condition as the servant of God. Let us attend to these three general views of the Christian's duty in succession.

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§ 1. The Christian's duty to use his freedom; to act as free." First, then, Christians are to act as free. Their conduct is to correspond with their condition as freemen, not slaves. The whole frame of their temper and behaviour is to correspond to that liberty which is well called Christian liberty, being purchased by the blood of Christ, that "blood of the covenant" by which "the prisoners of hope" are "sent forth out of the pit wherein is no water," revealed to us in the gospel of Christ, that "royal law," that "law of liberty,” and conveyed to us, bestowed on us, by that "free Spirit" of Christ, who, wherever he comes, brings liberty along with him. The best way of bringing out the truth on this sub

Leighton.

2 Christianorum libertas est serva libertas, quia liberati sunt, ut Deo serviant; et libera servitus quia non coacté sed sponte Deo et Magistratui obediunt.GERHARD.

3 Zech. ix. 11. James i. 25, 11, 8. Psal. li. 12.

ject, in a way in which it can easily be turned to practical purposes, will, I believe, be shortly to attend to the Christian's duty as to the maintenance and use of his freedom in the three aspects in which we have already contemplated it; freedom in reference to God; freedom in reference to man; freedom in reference to the powers and principles of evil.

(1.) "As free" in reference to God.

The Christian is to act "as free" in reference to God. When I say the Christian is to act as free, I refer to the actings, not only, nor principally, of the outer man, but of "the inner man" of the mind and heart. What is fundamental here is the maintenance of a firm faith of that Christian truth, that truth as it is in Jesus, by which the Christian was freed both from the condition and dispositions of a slave, brought into the state and formed to the character of a freeman; and the cherishing of that humble, yet confident assurance, that he is in a state of favour with God, which naturally grows out of this faith, and its necessary effects on the character and conduct.

Many professors of Christianity seem to labour under a serious mistake on this subject. Uncertainty, doubt, perplexity, fear, seem to be the elementary principles of their religion; they seem to think the better of themselves that they have no "confidence towards God," no settled satisfaction respecting their highest interest; they appear to consider anxiety and alarm as the best proofs of spiritual life, the best motives to spiritual activity; and that the securest way of getting to heaven, is by no means to anticipate as certain, or even very probable, the getting there at last, but to be "all their lifetime subject to bondage through fear of death," and what is to follow it. They seem to think that it would be presumption in any man to entertain that "good hope through grace" which the Apostles cherished, and which they call on all Christians to cherish. This may have, as the Apostle expresses it, "a show of humility;" but