2a SERMONS upon Serin. III 4. Let us examine often, and fee if we are partakers of his Spirit. Two Evidences there be of it, and they are both in the Text; life and liberty. Firti, life, for this fpirit is called the fpirit of life inChrifl fefur; by it we are enabled to live the life of faith and ho- linef , Gal. 2.20. Ilive by the faith of the fen of God. Doth it rule the main courfe of your lives? denying the pleafures atol profits and honours of the World, we mull live in Chri/i and to Chrifl; we mull not 'Fully Peek truth in the Gofpel, but life in theGafpel. Secondly,liberty,2 Cor.3. t7.Where the fpiritof the Lordir, there is liberty. There is more alacrity, readinefs and chearfulnef in obedience, Pfal. 119. 32. I will run the ways of thy commandments,when thou fhalt inlarge my, heart. 'Tis a liberty not to do what we lift, but what we ought, 'and that upon gracious and free motives, with a large heart, that can deny God.nothing, but is fweetly and ltrongly inclined to him. SERMON IIi. ROM. VIII. 2. Hath made me free from the Law ofSin and Death: E now cometothe fecond point. . 2 Dolt. That the new Covenantgiveth liberty to all that are under it, frem the flavery offin, and the condemning power of the law. Let me.explain this point: and here I (hall thew you, r. That liberty fuppofeth precedent bondage. 2. That our liberty mull anfwer the bondage. 3. (hall Phew you the manner of getting oar liberty. First, Liberty fappofeth preceding bondage ; for when Chrilt fpake of liberty, or making them free, the Jews quarrelled at it, John 8.33. We were never in bondage to any man: how fayefl thou then that ye (hall be made free I So much we gather from their cavil, That it is the full thought, or the ready fentiment and opinion of mankind, That to be made free, implieth a foregoing bondage ; now our Bondage conlfteth in a f every to Sin and Satan, and being under the condemning power of the law, or obligation to the croft, and eternal damnation. a. Thai man is under the (livery of fin, which the Law convinceth him of; that it is fo with us, the Scripture fheweth, Titus 3. 3. We werefometimes foolifh and defobedient, ferving divers Is andpleaferes. 1. There is the condition of natural men, they ferve. 2. The bafenefs of the Matter, lulls, and divers tuffs. 3. The bait or motive by Which they are drawn into this fervice, intimated in the word pleafures; for a little bruitilh fa- tisfaélion a man f ileth his Liberty, his Soul, his Religion, his God, and All. The word J',a verses is moft proper to our purpofe; for that noteth his flavery; carnal affeCtionsfo govern us, that we know not how to efcape and corne out of this thraldome ; we fuffer the Beds to ridethe Man : it were monftrous in the body, for the feet to be where the head (hould be ; or to have the limbs di(lorted ; to have the arms hang backward ; yet fuch a de ordination there is in the Soul, when Reafon and Confcience is put in vaffa- lage to fenfe and appetite. The natural order is this; Reafon and Confcience dire &s the Will, the Will moveth the affe &ions, the affe &ions move the bodily Spirits, and they the fenfes and members of the body; but natural corruption inverts all; pleafures affel the fenfes, the fenfes corrupt the phantafy, the phantafy moveth the bodily fpirits; the affeEtions by their violence and inclination, inilave the Will, and blind the Mind; and (o man is carried head-long to his own Deftruetion. This Slavery implieth three things. s. A willing frbjcelion, Rom.6.16. Know ye not 5hat to whom yeyieldyour felce:fervants to obey, his fervants ye are to whom you obey, whether of fn unto death, or of obedience unto righteoufneft?
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