c24Ì SERMON IL The Gofpel a Law of Liberty. James ii. 12. So fpeak ye andfo do, as they that flail be judged by the law of liberty. S E R M. L L men who have a juft fenfe of the II. dignity and privileges of the human na- ` ture, confider liberty as an ineftimable endowment which God has vouchfafed unto us, to be by all means preferv'd inviolable, to be zealoully afferted and earneftly contended for. The greateft part of the creatures which we fee have no (hare in it; the whole fyftem of inanimate things is neceffarily fubject to the direction of almighty power, and is moved by the fovereign will of the Creator. The lower Species of animals have a kind of Freedom, but in a very narrow fphere, being active and determining themfelves only according to their Inftinäs for the purpofes of a very limited and Ihort -liv'd exiftence. But, the author of na- ture having diflinguiíhed man with much higher
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