with health; and in like manner of the other conditions of life.

. In do not think, that any man is really free in regard to his condition unless he have the liberty of choosing that kind of life, which seems the most advantageous to him. Solomon was free in this respect, when he had that pleasing dream, in which God presented all the blessings of this world to his view, and gave him his choice of all. A man, on the contrary, is a slave, when circumstances confine him in a condition contrary to his felicity, when, while he wishes to live, he is forced to die, when, while he lingers to die, death flees from him, and he is obliged to live.

My task now is almost finished, at least, as well as I can finish a plan so extensive in such narrow limits as are prescribed to me. My first points explains the two others, that follow. Having given clear ideas of liberty, it naturally follows, that liberty is incompatible with sin, and that a sinner is a real slave. A slave in regard to his understanding; a slave in regard to his will; a slave in regard to his conscience; a slave in regard to his conduct; a slave in regard to his condition. A small knowledge of christianity is sufficient now to prove, that Jesus Christ alone can terminate these various slaveries, he only can justify the proposition in the text, If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Is a sinner free in his understanding, hath he the liberty of suspending his judgment, he, whose senses always confine him to sensible objects, and always divert him from the study of truth? Is he fee whose understanding is continually solicited by an irregular will, and by a depraved conscience, to disguise the truth from them, to give them false notions of just and unjust, to present every object to

them in that piont of view, which is most proper to favor their irregularity and corruption? Can he be called free, who receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, because they appear foolishness to him? 1 Cor. ii. 14.

¿Is a sinner free in his will, and in his conscience, he, who, his understanding being seduced, by them, yields to whatever they require, judgeth in favor of the most frivolous decisions, and approves the most extravagant projects; can such a man be called free?

Is a sinner free in his conduct, he, who finds in an inflexibility of his organs, in an impetuosity of his humors, in an irregular flow of his spirits, obstacles sufficient to prevent him from following the decisions of his understanding, the resolutions of his will, the dictates of his conscience? Is he free in his conduct, who, like the fabulous, or perhaps the real Medea, groans under the arbitrary dominion of his senses, sees and approves of the best things, and follows the worst? Is the original of this portrait, drawn by the hand of an Apostle, free, I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity of the law of sin, which is in my members? Is he free in his conduct, whose eyes sparkle, whose face turns pale, whose mouth foams at the sight of a man, who perhaps may have offended him: but for whose offence the God of love demands a pardon? Is he free in his conduct, who, whenever he sees an object fatal to his innocence, not only loses a power of resistance, and a liberty of flying: but even ceases to think, has hardly courage to call in the aid of his own feeble virtue, forgets his resolutions, his prayers, and his own vows,

and plunges into disorders, at which his reason blushes, even while he immerses himself in them?

Oh how necessary to us is the religion of Jesus Christ how fit to rectify the irregularities of nature! how needful the succors of his holy Spirit to lead us into the genius of religion! If the Son make you free, ye shall indeed be free.

If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed in regard to your understanding, because Jesus Christ being the Angel of the divine presence, the wisdom, that conceives the counsels of God, and the word, that directs them, he perfectly. knows them, and, when he pleases, he reveals them to others. By that universal empire, which he hath acquired by his profound submission to the will of his Father, he will calm those senses, which. divert your understanding from the study of truth, and precipitate your judgment into error; he will direct thy will not to seduce it; and will forbid thine. erroneous conscience to impose its allusions upon it.

If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed in your will and conscience, becauseyour understanding, directed by a light divine, will re¦, gulate the maxims, that guide them, not by suggestions of concupiscence, but by invariable laws of right and wrong; it will present to them (to› use the language of scripture,) not bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, not good for evil, and evil for good, Isa. v. 20. but each object in its own true point of light.

If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed in your conduct, because by the irresistible. aid of his Spirit he will give you dominion over those senses, to which you have been a slave; be-: cause his Almighty Spirit will calm your humors, attemper your blood, moderate the impetuosity of your spirits, restore to your soul its primitive supe-.

riority, subject your constitution intirely to your reason, render reason by a supernatural power lord of the whole man, make you love to live by its dictates, and teach you to say, while you yield to its force, O Lord! thou hast allured me, and I was allured: thou art stronger than 1, and hast prevailed, Jer. xx. 7.

If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed in all your actions, and in all your faculties, because he will put on you an easy yoke, that will terminate your slavery, constitute your real freedom, render you a citizen of Jerusalem above, which is a free city, and mother of all the sons of freedom, Gal. iv. 26.

I said lastly, a sinner is a slave in regard to his condition. We observed, that a man was not free in regard to his condition, unless he could choose that kind of life, which seemed to him most suitable to his felicity. And, is not a sinner, think ye, a real slave in this sense? Indeed, if there remain in him any notion of true felicity, he ought to give himself very little concern, whether he spend his days in riches or poverty, in splendor or obscurity; for the duration of each is extremely short. These things, unless we be entirely blind, are very diminutive objects, even in a plan of sinful earthly pleasure. But to be obliged to die, when there are numberless reasons to fear death, and to be forced to live, when there are numberless reasons for lothing life, this is a state of the most frightful slavery, and this is absolutely the slavish state of a sin

ner.

The sinner is forced to die, in spite of numberless reasons to fear death; he is in this world as in a prison, the decorations of which may perhaps beguile him into an inattention to his real condition : but it is a prison, however, which he must quit, as

soon as the moment arrives, which the supreme legislator has appointed for his execution. And how can he free himself from this dreadful necessity? Fast bound by the gout, the gravel, the benumbing aches, and the numerous infirmities of old age, the bare names of which compose immense volumes, and all which drag him to death, how can he free himself from that law, which binds him over to suffer death? One art only can be invented to prevent his falling into despair in a state of imprisonment, the issue of which is so formidable, that is, to stun himself with noise, business, and pleasure, like those madmen, to whom human justice allows a few hours to prepare themselves to appear before divine justice, and who employ those few hours in drowning their reason in wine, lest they should tremble at the sight of the scaffold, on which their sentence is to be executed. This is the state of a sinner: but as soon as the noise, that stuns his ears, shall cease; as soon as business, which fills the whole capacity of his soul, shall be suspended; as soon as the charms of those pleasures, that enchant him, shall have spent their force; as soon as, having recovered reason and reflection, this thought presents itself to his mind, must instantly die . he groans under the weight of his chains, his countenance alters, his eyes are fixed with pain, the shaking of a leaf makes him tremble, he takes it for his executioner, thundering at the door of his cell, to call him out to appear before his judge. Is it freedom to live under these cruel apprehensions? Is he free, who, through fear of death is all his life time subject to bondage, Heb. ii. 15.

I must die

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The condition of a sinner is still more deplorable, inasmuch as not being at liberty to exist, as he chuses to exist, he hath not the liberty of being anni▾ VOL. IIL.

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