Christianity, the only true liberty. The multitude value liberty, as it seems to promise the removal of controul from the will and appetite-free scope to their irregular inclinations and impure affections-improvement of their condition, opportunities of voluptuousness, increase of wealth, or elevation to honour. The salutary restrictions of social law are very inconvenient, and often intolerable, to men of wordly desires and loose habits, particularly to the young, the ardent, and adventurous, even where the intention does not appear to them criminal. What chiefly engages their thoughts is not exercise and gratification for the intellectual, but indulgence for the carnal, part of our nature. It is the pursuit of this license to vicious enjoyment, which often makes men so clamorous and vehement to vindicate the cause of public freedom, to complain of rigour and oppression in the government, to revile the laws, and the authority by which they are enacted. But the liberty of man, as a rational and accountable agent, is the opportunity to exercise and improve his reason, till it acquire ascendency, and command over his animal propensities, Christianity the only true liberty. propensities, so that under the influence of religion directing and uniting both thought and sensation, in obedience to the will of his Creator, to use the words of St. Paul, he may yield his members the instruments of righteousness unto God. The liberty, therefore, which is grateful to the many, is of no value to the Christian. It is a mere permission to be immoral or irreligious in the countenance and protection of civil society; a liberty that gives scope to the most degrading passions, and opens a field of action to the most insidious and destructive vices. It is, in truth, the liberty, that puts us in the broadway to the worst of slavery. For, whosoever loves, and habitually practices vice; although he may imagine, or even feel himself in the exercise of liberty, and the unrestrained use of his faculties, complying with his own will in all his actions; is yet in a state of blind and despicable servitude, His reason, his judgement, his will are all in captivity and subserviency to the carnal mind. In the language of the apostle, he has yielded his members the instruments of unrighteousness to sin. He Christianity the only true liberty. He is seduced and withheld from obedience to his maker, incapable of discerning how far he has departed from the course marked out by reason, and religion. Although gratifying every wish of his heart, and every desire of his eyes, he is like the mad-man, who imagines himself surrounded by all the beauty and splendour of nature, while shut up in the gloomy and loathsome cell of misery, Thus he becomes dead in trespasses and sins, and goeth on ignorantly to destruction, as the ox is led to the slaughter. He This, however, is more the extreme case of the servant of sin. The sinner is commonly sensible of his unhappy subjection; but wants resolution and strength to recover his freedom, Yet manifest as his ignominy may be to him, self, it is often concealed from the world. is perhaps beheld in riches and grandeur, in a way of life always regarded with courtesy, and, in some particulars with approbation. His power, his property, his reputation and dignity are protected by the impartial law; and while he lives in apparent ease and pleasure, as all would like to live; possessing what all Christianity the only true liberty. desire to possess; how few will think that he is not free, or who shall dare to tell him that he is a slave? Dear, indeed, to us is the enjoyment of liberty. May it animate our hearts with its purest influence, and, except our religion, be the last blessing, which foreign hostilities, or domestic oppression, may wrest from us. Indeed, if our liberties be taken away, we shall not long retain the public exercise of our religion; and, if we lose our religion, our liberties will soon follow it. For whatever the infidel, the Deist, the querulous sectary or the modern innovator may tell us; the vanity, pride, selfishness and ambition, which would profane the temples, rob the altars, or trample upon the ordinances of God, will not pause, in the security of power, to abrogate the best institutions of man. He who dares to commit sacrilege, when it suits his purpose will establish tyranny. Let us not, then my brethren, while we are the happy possessors of liberty in our civil polity, mistake its moral value, or prevent its genuine benefits. Let us use it to its legiti mate Christianity the only true liberty. mate purposes; to draw forth and stimulate the powers of our minds, in the service of our maker and redeemer; to direct the ability, which God has given us, in subservience to his providence; not only to advance the welfare of our own country, but to promote the universal cause of religion and virtue, and of human happiness. If we conceive that liberty consists in filling a high station, in spending time idly, uselessly, or even in harmless recreation; we greviously deceive ourselves; and are entering upon the train of thought and temper of mind, that will gradually reduce us to abject and lasting bondage; that will render us unworthy subjects of a free government, dangerous associates of moral society, and lost members of the Christian church. For he must be an unworthy citizen of an industrious commonwealth, who contributes nothing to the general prosperity; he must be an unfit member of society, whose vicious example would seduce virtue or corrupt innocence; and he must be a reprobate follower of Christ, who disobeys the commands of his blessed master. |