one, and pleasure the other. He therefore is free; because he thinks rightly, acts wisely, and enjoys fully, without either disappointment or repentance. He cannot be disappointed; for God hath so constituted the nature of things, and, by his providence, so directs the current of events, as to give success to the endeavours of such a man. The world itself was made, and is governed, for men like this. Again, as he cannot be disappointed of the happy ends he pursues, he hath no room for regret or repentance. God is the guardian of his liberty, and a sponsor for his happiness.

And who now, on the other hand, is the slave? It is not he who is imprisoned or in chains; nor he who is sold. by one master to another, for a sum of money; for such restraints and hardships lie only on the body, and cannot last. Nor is he a slave who is taught to think justly, and act regularly, by the laws of God and man; nay, and hindered by both from so thinking and acting as to hurt himself. But he is a slave, who by ignorance, or prejudice, or passion, is tied down to a wrong way of thinking, and in consequence of that, to such a foolish or wicked way of acting, as tends only to his own misery or destruction. This man is not only a slave, but a blind brute, fit only to be led or driven by one who sees the way. What is liberty,' says Cicero ? 'It is the power of living as we please. Who, therefore, lives as he pleases, but he that follows that which is right? It happens to the wise man only to do nothing unwillingly, nothing with grief or compulsion. Who can deny that all the trivial, all the covetous, all the wicked and dissolute part of mankind are slaves? Shall I esteem him free whom a woman governs and gives laws to; whom she orders, commands, forbids, as she pleases? Who can decline nothing she imposes; who dare refuse nothing she asks? She demands, and he must give; she calls, and he must come; she turns him out, and he must be gone; she threatens, and he must tremble. Now I think we ought to call this man not only a slave, but the very worst of slaves, although ever so highly dignified in point of family and fortune.' He who will not take this doctrine from our Saviour, may perhaps pay it some respect, when he sees it issue from the pen of a philosopher. But what does his own experience tell him? Does it not speak the same language? Hath he not himself

sometimes groaned under this very species of slavery? Or if free from this, hath no other tyrant used him as scurvily? Perhaps when the bottle calls him, he cannot hinder his hand from raising that liquor to his mouth, which he knows will degrade him to the condition of a brute. Or perhaps his imperious money, although he hath purchased it with his conscience and his soul, will not suffer the covetous wretch to touch it, when he is perishing for want of food and raiment. With what assurance can one, subject to these or the like passions, call himself a free man, when his whole conduct, with an infinite train of sufferings are prescribed to him by an internal tyrant, that employs its absolute power over him to no other end, but to make him despicable and miserable.

But there are a sort of men who cannot be persuaded, that any thing from within themselves can possibly enslave them; whereas the truth is, if they can guard against slavery from this quarter, we may venture to ensure their liberty against all attacks from without. God hath bestowed this happy, this glorious, privilege on man, that nothing, but himself, can enslave him; that nothing outward can bring him into subjection, who is master of his own passions and desires. Whosoever is his own,' as Seneca expresses it, 'cannot possibly be the property of another.' It is owing to a gross mistake on this head, that a libertine jealousy about freedom is always carried outward. It suspects reports, authorities, injunctions; but it is in no pain about its own prejudices or passions. The civil libertine is apprehensive only of the magistrate; the theological, of revelation. Against these they watch; the one with his polemical, the other with his political, eye, turned always outward, while self-inspection is wholly neglected, as if there were nothing within that could possibly endanger their liberty. Hence it is, that we see so many of those abject slaves, I just now described, disputing and fighting for freedom with a zeal utterly preposterous in every one, but him who is already free within. If we look a little deeper into these men, we shall find, that, notwithstanding all their pretences, they only contend for slavery against liberty. The laws of God and of civil society would correct their vices, and give them liberty; but they are enslaved to their vices, and therefore

struggle only for the glorious privilege of continuing slaves to those vices. Their present principles have granted them a charter to be wicked. Religion and government would revoke or annul this grant; and consequently every thing they prescribe must be regarded as an encroachment on liberty, if it hath ever so remote a tendency to this end. Thus it appears, that Atheism and anarchy, although they all do not know it, constitute the very essence of that liberty they contend for.

Having thus seen, that such men only are truly free, whom nothing hinders to think and act for their own good; let us now examine whether Christianity, truly such, is not better fitted, than any thing else, to promote and preserve this liberty.

In order to arrive at satisfaction, in this inquiry, it will be necessary to lay aside our vanity and self-conceit, that we may the more clearly see how miserably our minds are enslaved, both by nature and corruption, and an habitual indulgence of our passions, to a wrong bias of thinking, and a still more depraved disposition in acting. Having by this method found, as we certainly shall, that we are the slaves of such prejudices and passions, as tend only to undo us; we are then to consider, what the force of that engine must be, which is able to break and throw off a yoke, tied on us both by nature and habit. This duly considered, we shall quickly perceive, that nothing, but the power of God, working by the spirit of true religion, is equal to so arduous an undertaking. Convinced of this, it will then be our business. candidly to examine, whether Christianity, as set forth in the Scriptures, is not the only religion, that can prove itself the gift of God; whether its institutions, its sanctions, and its internal aids of grace, do not bespeak the presence and power of God; and whether, therefore, it is not through this alone, that we can reasonably hope for his assistance, in order to the recovery of true liberty. The time will not permit me at present to shew, how, in every step of this inquiry, if fairly made, the conclusion must always result in favour of Christianity. All I can do, on this occasion, is to press for the inquiry, in full assurance, that, once it is made, it must terminate in a clear conviction of the doctrine I would urge under this head. Let a man who finds, with Socrates and

Plato, the necessity of divine assistance, bring his reason alone to this examination, and he will be so far from meeting with any thing at the entrance, which may seem to require too easy assent, or afterward too great submissions, that we may venture to assure him, he will find every thing calculated to satisfy his judgment, while he inquires, and every thing, once he hath embraced this religion, wisely adapted to the great end of promoting his liberty. He will find, in short, that true Christianity, and true freedom, are but one and the same thing. His Christian faith will bring him under no other governor but God, whom, if we believe Seneca, and a greater than Seneca, right reason, it is liberty to obey. It will give him no other law, than such as he would enact for himself, if he consulted with reason and nature.. It will set eternal happiness and misery before him; and, if neither the love of the former, nor the terror of the latter, can fix his choice, it will promote his liberty of election by the power of the Holy Spirit, balancing the depravity of his sinful inclinations. And even when all this fails, and he transgresses, it will offer him the benefit of an atonement and pardon, on a sincere repentance. These, and other the like important notices, or gracious overtures, will dilate and enlarge his heart, will rectify and exalt his understanding, and teach him to look up from the wretched vanities that have misled the one, and the detestable pleasures that have enslaved the other, to infinitely greater and better things above. His fears, having taken this upward turn, will be such as true wisdom approves of. His love, and other affections, will acquire a purity and grandeur, suitable to the infinite dignity of the objects they aspire to. Thus, instead of being the despicable slave of a degenerate nature, miserably imposed on and insulted by every contemptible trifle, he will find himself, not only delivered from servitude, but ennobled, and exalted into a rank of beings superior to that his nature, even when innocent, could have placed him in.. To conclude; he will find himself that happy man, of whom St. Ambrose, with equal propriety and beauty, observes, that, Place him in what circumstances of worldly servitude you will, he is always free; for he it is who is not captivated by lust, who is not bound with the chains of avarice, who is not imprisoned under the dread of accusation, who is not ruffled with things

present, nor terrified with things to come.' Philosophy, I own, may speculate in this strain, as well as religion; but let such, as are acquainted with both, judge, whether of the two hath the better grounds whereon to found the prospect of practice. We do not (saith one of the fathers, speaking of his fellow-christians) talk great things, but live them.' This most sensible expression states the real difference, on a fair comparison, between the exemplification of Christian and philosophical principles, when tried in practice. The spirit of the first is a substantial and powerful morality, which rises on the mind, in size and strength, the more it is considered; whereas that of the latter lies in a pretty turn of words, and a certain pomp of expression, which evaporates into nothing, on a close inquiry into its foundation : the philosophical morality being unenforced by proper authority and motives.

That I may not seem to have spoken without authority, give me leave now to remind you, that the imperfect sketch, both of our natural slavery, and Christian liberty, here laidbefore you, is drawn from the holy Scriptures themselves. The Scripture, saith St. Paul, hath concluded all under sin.' It represents us all as sold under sin, before baptism; as the servants, or slaves, of sin. And, as sin is the transgression of God's law, it tells us, we are liable to death, the wages, or punishment, of sin. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' In this deplorable condition did the gospel find us, when Christ was sent to proclaim liberty to the captives, to preach the perfect law of liberty.' whereby we are to be reformed and set free from the yoke of sin itself; and to offer up his life a sacrifice for sin,' whereby we are exempted from death, the punishment of sin, and entitled to eternal life, as the free subjects and children of God.' We, being thus delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God,' are exhorted to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,' as the most exalted privilege of our new birth-right.

What then? Shall we sin, because we are redeemed both from the rigour and curse of the law? God forbid. We are so far from being called to a liberty of sinning, that we are