being the Servants of Righteousness, we fhall have our Fruit unto prefent Holiness, and the End everlasting Life, through Jefus Chrift.

SERMON

SERMON XI.

JOHN iii, 36.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye fhall be free indeed.

T

HE Offer of Freedom,

which our Bleffed Lord

made in a preceeding Verfe to those Jews who believ ed on him, implied Slavery on their Part, and a Power of conferring Freedom on his. This Offer was receiv'd with fome Indignation; they answered, We are Abraham's Seed, and were never in Bondage to any Man : How fayeft thou, Ye shall be made free?

But

But our Bleffed Lord makes good both those Circumftances whereon fuch his Offer was grounded; on the one hand they were Slaves, inasmuch as they were Sinners; for whosoever committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin: On the other hand, He was able to make them free, inafmuch as He was the Son, the Heir of all things, abiding in the Houfe for ever; to whom all Power was committed by the Father. And the Servant abideth not in the Houfe for ever; but the Son abideth ever: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Which Words are capable of two Interpretations, but both of them advance one and the fame Doctrine. A Servant abideth not in the Houfe for ever; i. e. However ye boaft yourselves to be the Seed of Abraham, and therefore in Covenant with God, yet as long as ye continue in your Sins, you are not to be esteem'd Part of his Family; you are in the State of Servants, who have no Inheritance, but may be caft out at Pleasure. But the Son abideth ever; i. e. thofe who are admitted into Sonship with God by Adoption, and

come

come up to the Terms of fuch Adoption; they are no longer the Servants of Sin, but the Children of God, and as fuch must be free, and partake of the Inheritance of Children; they are not removable at Pleafure, they abide in the Houfe for ever: If therefore the Son, i.e. if I, who am the eternal Son of God, who alone have Power to make you the Children of God by Adoption, do by Virtue of fuch Adoption make you free, ye fhall be free indeed. Or thus;

You are indeed the Seed of Abraham, and the Difciples of Mofes; but inasmuch as ye are the Servants of Sin, you are not free of God's Family: They, whofe Relation you boaft, were only Servants themselves, and confequently the Benefits of your Alliance with the one, and of the Miniftry of the other are not perpetual; A Servant abideth not in the Houfe for ever; But I, who am the Son of God, have Power over the Houfhold, the Exercife of my Miniftry is attended with the Fulness of Authority, the Bleffings of my Difpenfation are perpetual; the Son abideth in the Houfe for ever: If VOL. II.

P

the

the Son therefore shall make you free, ye Shall be free indeed.

So that in whatever Light we take the Words of the Text, the Doctrine of them is plainly this: The Condition of Man under the Gospel is that of Freedom; the Chriftian Religion does alone invest Mankind with true Liberty.

AND this is a Doctrine which will be receiv'd by many Persons with great Difficulty of Affent; the Gospel is esteem'd the laft State, which a Man, who defires Freedom, would have recourse to, and Christianity will be look'd upon as another Term for dire& Slavery. The Freethinkers are for bringing large and powerful Appeals against the Encroachments, which Articles of Faith make upon human Reason; and theLibertines are loudly and continually declaring the Tyranny of Gofpel-Precepts in thwarting those strong Affections and Inclinations, which Nature itself lays the Foundation of, and confequently which it is a Force and Violence upon our Nature to contradict: For can there be any thing of Freedom, fay they, in submitting our Judgment to

mere