CHRISTIAN LIBERTY Laid forth in a

SERMON

Preacht to his late MAJESTY at

WHITE-HALL

In the time of the Parliament holden anno 1628.

By JOS. B. of EXON.

Gal. 5. I.

Stand faft therefore in the Liberty wherewith Chrift hath made you free.

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Sif my tongue and your ears could not eafily be difwonted from our late Parliamentary language ;you have here in this text Liberty, Prerogative,the maintenance of both; Liberty of Subjects that are freed; Prerogative of the King of glory that hath freed them; maintenance of that liberty, which the power of that great prerogative hath atchieved; Chriftian liberty, Chrifts liberation, our perfiftence; Stand faft in the Liberty wherewith Chrift hath made you free.

Liberty is a fweet word; the thing it felf is much sweeter; and mens apprehenfions make it yet fweeter then it is! Certainly if liberty and life were competitors,it is a great question whether would carry it, fure I am, if there be a life without it, yet it is not vital ;

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Man

Man restrained is like a wild bird fhut up in a cage; that offers at every of the grates to get out, and growes fullen when it can finde no evafion; and till ftark famine urge it will not fo much as feed for anger to be confined. Neither is the word more fweet then large; There are as many liberties as restraints; and as many reftraints as there are limitations of fuperiour commands; and there are fo many limits of commands as there are either duties to be done, or fentences to be undergone: There is a liberty of the parts, and a liberty of the man :

There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue,which being once glibbed with intoxicating liquor runs wilde through Heaven and carth, and fpares neither him that is God above; nor those which are called Gods on Earth; the Slanderer answer'd Pirrhus well; I confefs L faid thus, O King; and had faid more if more Wine had been given me; treafon is but a Tavern-dialect; Any thing paffes well under the Rofe; it is not the man but the liquor, not the liquor but the exceffe that is guilty of this liberty.

There is an audacious and factious liberty of this loofe filme ; which not only ill-tutor'd Schollers take to themselves under the name of Libertas prophetandi, peftering both Preffes and Pulpits with their bold and brainfick fancies; but unletter'd Trades-men, and tatling Goffips too; whith whom deep queftions of Divinity, and cenfures of their Teachers are grown into common table-talk; and peremptory decifions of Theological problemes is as ordinary almoft, as backbiting their neighbours..

There is a profane liberty of Atheous fwaggerers which fay, dif rumpamus Vincula; let us break their bonds: Not religion only, but even reafon and Lumanity feem fetters to thefe fpirits; who like the Demoniack in the Gofpel, having broken all their chains finde no freedom but among the noyfom graves of hatefull corruptions. There is a difloyal liberty of thofe rebellious fpirits, which despise government; and hold it a fervitude to live within the range of wholefume lawes, there is no freedom with thefe unquiet difpofitions, but in the bold cenfures of authority, in the feditious calumniations of fuperiours, and in their own utopical prefcriptions. Every thing is good to thefe men fave the present, and nothing fave their own though all these are not fo much liberties, as licentioufnefs. Befides thefe, there are civil liberties of Perfons, Towns, In

corporati

corporations, Countries, Kings, Kingdomes; good reason these fhould be mutually ftood upon; Religion was never an enemy to the due orders, and rights of policy; Gods book is the true Magna charts that enacts both King and People their own: He that hath let bounds to the wide Ocean, hath ftinted the freeft liberty; but these liberties are not for the pulpit ; It is the Christian liberty wherewith we have to do; that alone hath fcope enough both for our present fpeech and perpetual maintenance.

This Chriftian liberty ftands either in immunity from evill, or enlargement to good; The immunitie is from that which is evill in it felf, or that which is evill to us: In it felf, Sin, Satan: Sin, whether in the fault, or in the punishment; the punishment, whether inward, or outward: Inward, the flavery of an accufing confcience;. Outward, the wrath of God, Death, Damnation. Evill to us, whether burdenfome traditions, or the law; the Law, whether Moral, or Ceremoniall; Moral, whether the obligations, or the curfe: Enlargement to good; whether in refpect of the creature, which is our free ufe of it, or whether in refpect to God; in our voluntary service of him; in our free acceffe to him: Acceffe whether to his throne of grace, or our throne of glory. I have laid before you a compendious tablet of our Chriftian liberty; leffe then which is bondage; more then which is loofeneffe. Such abundant scope there is in this allowed freedom, that what heart foever would yet rove further, makes it felf unworthy of pitty in loofing it felf. Do we think the Angels are pent up in their Heavens, or can with to walk beyond thofe glorious bounds? Can they hold it are-ftraint, that they can but will good; like to our liquorous first parents that longed to know evil? Oh the fweet and happy liberty of the fons of God? All the world befides them are very flaves, and lye obnoxious to the bolts, fetters, fcourges of a fpiritual cruelty; It is hard to beat this into a carnall heart; no fmall part of our fervitude lyes in the captivation of our understanding; fuch, as that we cannot fee our felves captive. This is a strange difference of mifprifon; the Chriftian is free, and cannot think himself fo; the the worldling thinks himself free, and is not fo.. What talk we to thefe Jovialifts? It is liberty (with them) for a man to speak what he thinks, to take what he likes, to do what he lifts; without reftriction, without controlment : Call ye this freedom, that a man must

fpeak

fpeak and live by rule; to have a guard upon his lips and his eyes; no paffage for a vain word or look, much lefs for a leud; to have his beft pleatures ftinted, his worse abandoned;to be tasked with an unpleafing good,and chid when he fails.Tufh, tell not me; To let the heart loose to an unlimited jollity,to revell heartily, to feast without fear, to drink without measure, to fwear without check, to admit of no bound of luxury,but our own ftrength;to fhut out all thoughts of fcrupulous aufterity, to entertain no gueft of inward motion, but what may footh up our lawlefnefs. This is liberty; who goes leffe is a flave to his own fevere thoughts. Get thee behind me Satan, for thou favoureft not the things of God: If this be freedom, to have our full fcope of wickedness, Oh happy Divels, Oh miferable Saints of God. Thofe though fettered up in chains of everlafting darkness can do no other but fin; these in all the elbow-room of the Empyreal heaven cannot do one evill act; yea the God of Saints and Angels, the Author of all liberty should be leaft free, who out of the bleffed neceffity of his moft pure nature is not capable of the leaft poffibility of evill. Learn, O vain men, that there is nothing but impotence, nothing but gieves and manicles in the freeft fins; fome captive may have a longer chain then his fellowes; yea fome offender may have the liberty of the Tower, yet he is a prifoner ftill. Some Goal may be wider then fome Palace: what of that? If Hell were more fpacious then the feat of the bleffed, this doth not make it no place of torment. Go whether thou wilt, thou refolved finner, thou carrieft thy chain with thee; it fhall ftick as close to thee as thy foul; neither can it ever be fhaken off, till thou have put off thy self by a fpiritual regeneration, then only thou art free.

It is a divine word, that in our Liturgie, Whofe fervice is perfect freedom; St. Paul faith as much, Rom. 6. 18. 20. Being freed from fin ye are made fervi juftitiæ, the fervants of righteoufnelle: What is liberty but freedom from bondage, and behold our freedom from the bondage of fin tyes us to a fure liberty, that is our free obedience to God: Both the Orator and the Philofopher define liberty by Poteftas vivendi ut velis, but withall, you know he addes, quis vivit ut vult, nifi qui recta fequitur. See how free the good man is; he doth what he will, for he wills what God wills, and what God would have him will; in what ever he doth therefore he is a free man; neither hath any man free-will to good but he: Be ambitious of this happy condition, O all ye noble and generous fpirits,and do not

think ye live till ye have attained to this true liberty.. The liberty wherewith Chriit hath made us free; So from the liberty, we defcend to the perogative. Chrifts liberation.

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Here is the glorious prerogative of the Son of God, to be the deliverer or redeemer of his people; They could not free themselves the Angels of heaven might pitty,could not redeem them; yea alas, who could,or who did redeem thofe of their rank,which of lightsome celeftiall spirits, are become foul Devils? Only Chrift could free us, whose ransome was infinite; only Chrift did free us, whofe love is infinite; and how hath he wrought our liberty? By force, by purchase, By force in that he hath conquer'd him, whofe captives we were; by purchase, in that he hath pay'd the full price of our ranfom, to that fupream hand whereto we were forfeited: I have heard Lawers fay, there are in civill Corporations three wayes of freedom; by Birth, by Service, by Redemption; By Birth, as St. Paul was free of Rome; by Service, as Apprentises upon expiration of their years; by Redemption, as the the Centurion, with agreat fum purchafed I this freedom. Two of these are barred from all utter poffibility in our fpiritual freedom; for by Birth we are the fons of wrath; by fervice we are naturally the vaffals of Satan; It is only the precious redemption of the Son of God that hath freed us.

Whereas freedom then hath respect to bondage, there are feven Egyptian Masters from whofe flavery Chrift hath freed us. Sin, an accufing Confcience, danger of Gods wrath, tyranny of Satan, the curfe of the Law, Mofaicall Ceremenies, humane Ordinances; fee our fervitude to, and our freedom from all these by the powerfull liberation of Chrift.

1. It was a true word of that Pythagorean, Quot vitia, tot domini, fin is an hard master: A master? Yea a tyrant; let not fin reign in your mortall bodies, Rom. 6 14. and fo the finner is not only fervus corruptitia, a drudge of corruptions 2 Pet.2. 19.but a very flave fold under fin, Rom. 7. 14.

So neceffitated to evill by his own inward corruption that he cannot but grind in this Mill, he cannot but row in this Gally: For, as poffe peccare is the condition of the greateft Saint upon carth,and Non poffe peccare is the condition of the leaft Saint above, fo non poffe non peccare is the condition of the leaft finful unregenerate; as the prifoner may fhift his feet but not his feteers; or as the fnail cannot

but