Dominion of Sin, and make us free in all SERM. our thoughts and Actions? i. e. Will VIII. it remove every thing, that can hinder us from thinking, and doing right? For this I have fhewn to be the Nature of true Liberty. If fo, we have nothing more to do but to feek it out and embrace it: But who ever met with this inestimable Jewel in any earthly Treasure? We have often heard of Liberty indeed, and great things have of late been said of it. A particular Set of Men, who have thrown off the Ties of Religion and Nature, and fet themselves loose from their Dependance upon God and the World about them; how, under Pretence of doing Honour to Reason, have fap'd the Foundation of it, and instead of rooting out, and deftroying all Faith, which, if they know their own Principles, is what they are concern'd to do, have fet up a monftrous and unnatural Credulity in the room of it; who have discarded Sense, and the Paffions, and rob'd Human Nature of the kindeft Impreffions ftamp'd upon it by the Divine Being; these have indeed talk'd

of

SERM. of being free, i. e. free to do what is VIII. right in their own Eyes; to do right or

wrong, just as it happens; free from all Laws and Obligations whatfoever. Now, if they could make it out, that they are then indeed free, when they do whatever they please, whatever Fancy, or Caprice leads them to; that when they dispense with the Obligations which the Wisdom of God and Man has laid upon them, they become then fo free, as to be fubject to no other Laws, or Obligations, there might be fome Plaufibility in it: But if, on the contrary, when they thus do what is right in their own Eyes, they are not therefore free, but tied down and enflav'd to fome wrong Principle within ; If when they shake off all Religious Obligations, they are at thefame time bound fafter with the ftrong Cords of Obstinacy, and Perverseness; If theydefpife and depreciate the Common-Senfe and Reason of all Men, and yet at the fame time idolize, and deify their own, and Liberty is nothing else in fact but Licentiousness; then they, that pretend thus to promise

Liberty,

Liberty, promise more than they can per- SERM. form. Let us now see whether this be NIII. not the Cafe.

And here, the firft Step, that is taken in order to procure Liberty from the fide of Infidelity, is that which most effectually drives Men from it; and that is, to shake off all Reveal'd Religion: For to fet out upon this Principle is to fet out upon a Principle of Slavery; it is to fet out with a full Refolution not to give the Faculties within us their proper Scope, but to hinder the free Exercife of them by fubjecting all to one, or by making one or two to govern the reft as for example, the making the Reafon, which is but a fingle thing, and that too rather the Result of all the rest, than a leading Princi-ple, predominant over every thing else. For if the Faculties had the Power to exercise themselves as they ought, Revelation must have a Weight with us in Proportion to its Truth; i. e. if we believe, and hope, and fear, &c. freely, Revelation must carry a Weight with it in Pro

転

portion to the Reason there is in it for fo doing;

Y

SER M. doing; but if we allow either of thefe too VIII. great a Weight, it will of course bear

down the rest in exact Proportion;

and tho' a Man may do this, yet Obftinacy, and not Liberty, must be the Principle by wich he does it.

But after all, let us examine a little more particularly how the throwing off Revelation fets a Manat Liberty. Does he by leav ing this go over to fome better Scheme? This is pretended, and in order to make it out, it is faid, that Reafon alone is a fuffi cient Guide, and in following that we folłow Nature, and confequently Christianity, being by the Suppofition unneceffary, becomes an Incumbrance, and muft be taken off in order to be free, and at liberty. If by Reason was meant right Reason, this might be true enough, if we could but tell how to come at it: But this is not the Meaning of it, nor do they mean the Reafon of Mankind, but only an infinitely fmall Pittance of it, the Reason of an Indi dual, which comes as fhort of right Reafon, as finite does of infinite; and not only fo, but is alfo as much below the

Reafon

Reafon of Mankind, as a Part is less than SERM. VIII. the Whole. Now befides the Abfurdity of crowding the whole of Reafon into a Part, that is not capable of containing it, this is to fet up Mankind independant upon one another, every one an abfolute Lord for himself, contrary to the Nature of his Condition and Make.

4

Befides, if this were the Cafe, that every one's own Reason were to be his Religion, there muft then be as many Religions as there are Men in the World, or rather no Religon at all; for every one having by the Suppofition as much a Right to a System of his own, as every other, there would never be a Public Manifestation of any, because it would want a proper Authority to fupport it; which in this Cafe could not be had, no one being of Importance enough to be a Center of Unity to the reft; and fo every one would move round his own Axis without any Dependance upon, or Relation to any other, and would never unite in any regular Syftem, but perpetually move on Y 2

in