Nor do we mean to say that the Christian is emancipated from civil authority, and is not bound to "be subject to the powers that be," or that he cannot fill the place of a domestic servant, and discharge its duties. His relations and duties, as a member of civil or domestic society, are in no degree changed by his becoming a Christian.

Nor do we mean to say that the Christian may not be subjected to the most degrading servitude, being treated by a fellow-man as if he were as completely his property as his estate or his cattle. This has actually been the situation of a multitude of Christians. It is the situation of not a few at this moment; and oh, shame! the slaveholder, as well as the slave, bears the worthy name, Christian.

But we do mean to say, that the mind and conscience of the Christian are emancipated from human authority: that no human power has any right to dictate to him what he is to believe, and what he is to do in matters of religious and moral duty: and that, in the degree in which he is an enlightened Christian, he acts on the principle, that he ought to "call no man on earth master," but in the exercise of his own faculties, aided by the promised Spirit, to endeavor to ascertain what is the mind and will of the "One Master, who is in heaven," and having ascertained it, to “walk at liberty keeping his commandments." There is a natural tendency in man to usurp spiritual authority over man; and what seems strange, there is a natural tendency, too, to submit to this usurpation. By far the greater part of mankind have no better reason for their religious opinions, ordinances, and usages, than that they have "received them by tradition from their fathers." 1 What is taught and received, as religious truth and duty, is to them nothing more than "the commandments of men." The great body even of those who assume to themselves the honorable appellation, free-thinkers, are nothing less than what that appellation expresses. They are, almost universally, the blind followers of their blind, selfchosen guides; the veriest slaves of human authority, in one of its least creditable forms.

When a man becomes a Christian, in the recognition of the supreme and sole authority, in all matters of religious truth and duty, of God, and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent, there is necessarily implied the renunciation of all human authority. If the one Master be in heaven, there can be no master on earth. A Christian, acting worthy of the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free, believes no doctrine but what he is persuaded Christ has taught; observes no ordinance but what he believes Christ has appointed; performs nothing as a duty but what he is convinced Christ has enjoined. Helpers of his faith, he gratefully acknowledges in all who will assist him in obtaining wider, clearer, more impressive views of the mind and will of the supreme Teacher and Sovereign; such he counts his greatest benefactors but lords of his faith he will not recognize, even in the wisest and best of men. He feels that there is but one with whom he has to do, as authority, in religion; "one lawgiver, who can save and who can destroy ;" and that he must stand before His judgment-seat, and give an account of himself to HIM. The answer to the questions, What say the fathers? what say the reformers? what say the sym

1 1 Pet. i. 18. Matt. xv. 9

a James iv. 12.

bolical books?—the answer to any or all of these questions, does not determine his faith: it is the answer to the question, What saith the Lord? "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" which fixes his decision. This is the touchstone by which he examines all religious doctrines and institutions. "To the law, and to the testimony if men speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."2 To be the servants of men is unworthy of the condition and character of spiritual freemen, to which Christ by his Spirit, through the faith of the truth, hath raised all his people. Their judgments must not be guided, when they act like themselves they will not be guided, by the writings of Luther or Calvin, nor based on the decisions of councils, however venerable. They will honor their fellow-disciples, especially such of them as have obviously profited by the teaching of their common Master; but they will sit only at his feet, and take the law only from his mouth.

There is another aspect of the Christian's freedom, in reference to his fellow-men, that deserves to be cursorily noticed before leaving this part of our subject. Human approbation, in some form or other, is a leading object with the great body of mankind, and exercises a powerful influence over their conduct. They seek the praise, they fear the censure, and reproach, and revilings of men; and they fashion their conduct so as to secure the one and avoid the other. With the Christian, Divine approbation is the great object. He seeks "the honor which comes down from above, and, in doing this, he is set free from the enslaving influence of the hopes and fears which spring out of an exaggerated estimate of the value of the good opinion of men. With him, "it is a very small thing to be judged of man's judgment;" for he believes that "there is one that judgeth him, that is the Lord." 3

(3.)—Free in reference to the Power and Principles of Evil.

Let us now look at the third aspect of the Christian's condition as free. He is free in reference to the powers and principles of evil. By the powers of evil, I understand the devil, that crafty, and powerful, and active spiritual being, of whom we read so often in Scripture, and of whose personal existence I think no unprejudiced reader of the Sacred Volume can entertain a doubt; who introduced moral evil into our world in the beginning of the history of our race, and has been ceaselessly endeavoring, with but too much success, to uphold and extend its influence; and his subordinate agents, "the evil angels." By the principles of evil, I understand the various depraved propensities of our fallen nature, acted on by the present world, "things seen and temporal."

By these powers and principles all men are naturally enslaved. The evil spirit is "the god of this world;" he "worketh in the hearts of the children of disobedience;" he "leads them captive at his will." They "are of their father the devil, and the lusts of their father;" the things which he desires and delights in, "they will do," they choose 1 Cor. iv. 3.

Luke x. 26.

Isa. viii. 20.

to "do." Though to a great degree the unconscious, they are not the less the devoted, servants of the wicked one.

When a man becomes a Christian, he is delivered from the power of Satan. "The prey is taken from the mighty, and the captive of the terrible one is delivered." The Christian by no means ceases on his conversion to be the object of the malignant attempts of his great enemy, who, "like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour"—like a cunning serpent, lies in wait to dart into the soul the poison and pollution of sin. But he ceases to be his slave: his new state of favor with God, secures for him the protection of a power, compared with which diabolical power is weakness; and the guidance of a wisdom, compared with which diabolical craft is folly: so that he can "tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon he can trample under foot:" and the good Spirit, by the instrumentality of his word, furnishes him with principles which enable him to baffle all Satan's devices, and frustrate all his attempts to regain his lost dominion.

3

Men are by nature not only the slaves of Satan, but they are represented as "serving divers lusts and pleasures," as the "servants of sin :" " Whosoever committeth sin is the servant," the slave, "of sin." The apostle represents them as so "the servants, the slaves of sin," as to be "freemen so far as righteousness is concerned," that is, to be entirely uninfluenced by holy principle; to be wholly under the power of evil; "sin reigning over their mortal body," while they "obey it by means of the desires of the body," and "yield their members to it as the instruments of unrighteousness." Such were some, such were all, true Christians, previously to their conversion; but God be thanked, that they who were the servants of sin, have, by obeying from the heart the form of doctrine which has been delivered to them, been "made free from sin," freemen in reference to sin, and have become "the servants of righteousness;" no longer "yielding their members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity, but yielding their members servants to righteousness unto holiness.'

By the faith of the truth they are so identified with Christ, as that his death, resurrection, and new life are theirs. They are brought under their influence, both justifying and sanctifying; "so that as he died unto sin once, and being raised from the dead dieth no more, death having no more dominion over him, but liveth to God, they also reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord:" and the consequence is, they no longer "let sin reign in their mortal body, that they should obey it in the lusts thereof;" neither do they "yield their members to it as instruments of unrighteousness, but they yield themselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and their members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin no longer has dominion over them: for they are not under the law, but under grace." "Whoso is born of God doth not commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” The new nature is a holy nature, and, so far as a man possesses this nature, he does not, he cannot, sin. 2 Isa. xlix. 24. 1 Pet. v. 8. Rom. vi. 9-14. 1 John iii. 9.

1 12 Cor. iv. 4. 2 Tim. ii. 26. John viii. 44. 9 See note B.

1 John viii. 34. Rom. vi. 16-20,

And every man who possesses it at all, possesses it in such a degree as that he habitually hates and avoids sin. Not that any Christian in the present state is completely freed from the influence of depraved principle: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." While we are in the present state, "there is a law in our members which wars against the law of the mind;" but the Christian "consents to the law that it is good," "delights in the law of God after the inner man ;" and though, 'with the flesh," that is, so far as he is unrenewed, "he serves the law of sin," yet with the Spirit, that is, so far as he is renewed (and this constitutes his prevailing, abiding character), "he serves the law of God;" and though often, when he loses sight of the truth, which sanctifies as well as comforts, he is constrained to sigh out, "wretched man, who shall deliver me?" yet, habitually, he rejoices in the begun and advancing emancipation from the principles of evil, "thanking God through Jesus Christ," who hath delivered, who is delivering, and who will deliver: rejoicing that not only is "there no condemnation to him, being in Christ Jesus," but that the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has made him free from the law of sin and death."

§ 2.-Christians are the servants of God.

Having made these cursory remarks on the condition of Christians as free,-free in reference to God, free in reference to man, free in reference to the powers and principles of evil; let us now for a little, attend to the second view of their condition. While in one point of the view they are free, in another, they are "servants, servants of God." These are by no means inconsistent representations. So far from this, it is only by becoming the servants of God that men can cease to be the slaves of Satan and sin. The only true liberty of which a dependent being like man is capable, is the free use of his faculties in the service of God. Independence, strictly speaking, belongs only to God. Man in seeking it, instead of obtaining, lost liberty. Seeking to be supreme lord of himself, refusing to be the servant of the best of beings, he necessarily became a slave of the worst. It is the very condition of our being, as creatures, that we serve; we have not the liberty to choose whether we shall serve or not, all the liberty we have is to choose our master." 2

Men in their apostate state are not God's servants. They are " the children not of obedience," as Christians are; they are "the children of disobedience." In one sense, indeed, all men are God's servants. They are all bound to submit to his authority; they are all employed by him in the execution of his purposes. But Christians are God's servants in a sense peculiar to themselves. They are his peculiar property; they have been formed by him to the character of his servants; they have voluntarily devoted themselves to his service; they habitually employ themselves in his service. "All

They are his servants, for they are his peculiar property. that is in heaven and in the earth is his." Men may renounce God's authority, but they cannot despoil him of any part of what belongs

' 1 John i. 8. Rom. vii. 14; viii. 2.

2 Sanderson.

to him. But Christians are God's property in a peculiar sense. They are his "purchased possession." Justice had doomed them to death, and they were bought off, "not by corruptible things as silver and gold, but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ." 'Jesus gave himself for them, that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify them as a peculiar people."

As God purchased them to be his servants, so by the influence of his good Spirit he has qualified them for his service. Well may he say to each of them, "Remember, thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant;" and of them all as a body, "This people have I formed for myself; that they may show forth my praise." He has "shed his love abroad in their hearts;" he has "put his fear in their hearts." He has " He has "put his law in their inward parts, and written it in their hearts." He has "created them anew in Christ Jesus unto good works," and "transformed them, by the renewing of their minds :" and, under the influence 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 "with their souls, and with their bodies, which are God's," Him who has bought them. 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."

It concerns us all seriously to inquire, if the condition which has been described be ours. Are we experimentally acquainted with

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. cxvi. 12, 16. Isa. xxvi. 13. Rom. xii. 1. Luke i. 74, 75. 1 Cor. x. 31.

2 11 Cor. vi. 19, 20. John iv. 34.

iv. 17.

Col. iii. 17. 1 John