are none of his and therefore sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and let him be your fear and let him be your dread 'T is meet that you should stand in awe of him with a holy filial fear But as for the Devil you are no longer his Priviledg 2. This Freedom brings the pardon of sin which is such a Priviledg that David could not tell how to think of it or mention it without wondring at the blessedness of the man that hath it Psal 32. 12. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile or as 't is in the Hebrew Oh the blessedness of the man c. You would count it a great Priviledg to have a man to forgive you a great debt when you can say I owed such a person such a great sum of mony 't was as due a debt as ever any was in the World and tho I was not able to pay him yet he might have had the Law against me he might have cast me into Prison and there have kept me all the days of my life but out of his meer goodness he forgave me all and he hath not only told me that he will never trouble me for it but hath given me in the Bond too Why then what a great Priviledg must it be to have God to forgive us the great debt of our sins for him to say Well I know and you know too in some measure what a grievous man or woman you have been what abundance of dishonour and provocation I have had with you Oh the wicked Nature that you have Oh the wicked Life that you have led Oh the wicked thoughts that you have thought c. Now how might I make the fire of mine indignation burn against you What a wretch would you be if I should deal with you according to your deserts But here I do in my infinite mercy pass all by Instead of giving you punishment I give you a pardon Why this is the Priviledg of this Freedom by Christ Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace And from hence it follows that now being pardoned God doth not upbraid his people with their sins buthe forgets them in that sense tho he cannot but remember them by way of knowledg so as to understand that they have been committed yet he forgets them as to laying them to their charge In that respect he will hear nothing against them not what the Devil says by his Accusations not what the Law saith in regard of its Threatnings and Condemnation The whole course of the Laws proceeding this way is utterly and eternally stopt Rom. 8. 1. Gal. 3. 13. And being pardoned they are justiffed in the sight of God Rom. 3. 24. tho they will it may be condemn themselves an hundred and a thousand times after this and confess and bewail their sins and loathe themselves in their own eyes and acknowledg that the Lord might justly cast them into the deepest torments as 't is fit they should yet in and through Christ God doth not look upon them so as they look upon themselves And again being pardoned God is reconciled to them his heart is towards them But yet there must be something more still than the pardon of sin to make a child of God count himself a happy man Yea you 'l say that 's strange I should think my self happy enough if my sins were but forgiven me I no question of it But tho a child of God count this an unspeakable mercy Psal 51. 1. yet if there were not something else joyned with it a great part of his happiness would be wanting and that is the subduing of sin Which therefore is the next Priviledg 3. This Freedom brings down the Dominion of sin Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you You that are in your sins I know unless God come and work upon you you would look upon it as no Priviledg at all to have your Lusts curbed No you would look upon your selves as undone if you should not have your swinge in them they are so dear to you This is a sign the Redeemer hath not been with you But 't is otherwise in those that are Christs As he hath broken the Yoke of their Souls so he makes a Yoke for their Corruption Matth. 11. 29. Sin must reign no more Before Pride reigned and Passion reigned or Uncleanness or Worldliness and such like Now the Crown must be taken off from them they must sit no longer upon the Throne of the Heart giving out their Commands and the poor creature fulfilling of them tho it be to his own destruction But every Lust must be mortified and every vile Affection discountenanced and nothing pleaded for or yeilded to that proceeds from the Law of Sin and of Death And this now the people of God count a Priviledg indeed Oh! that they are brought into a state wherein their sins shall not nor can have their head Oh how they bless God for this Freedom upon this account that it is an inlet to mortification for so you read it is in Tit. 2. 11 12. So that no child of God is under the Dominion of any sin Gal. 5. 24. He that is so is in Bondage still Rom. 6. 16. 2 Pet. 2. 19. And yet still there is something more about sin than all this to make him look upon his Priviledges so far as they do concern that to be compleat he cannot count himself a happy man indeed neither with the pardon of his sins or that sin doth not reign in him tho he is glad of this at his very heart but this same loathsome thing sin is in him still what shall he do for that Rom. 7. 24. Therefore this is another Priviledge that this Freedom will produce Priviledg 4. The very being of sin in them shall ere long be done quite away Col. 1. 22. Eph. 5. 26 27. 'T is not thus yet tho the Saints have put on the new man yet they have not perfectly put off the old there are excellent things in them but 't is with a blemish they have something to blemish them as well as something to beautifie them As you know 't is with a Traveller as long as he is in his journey especially if he be to go against wind and weather he is apt to dash his Cloaths if he were but at home there he would beneat and clean and you should not see one spot upon him from head to foot but while he is a travelling he gets these spots and he cannot tell how to help it So here tho while the people of God are in their passage 't is not all so well in them and with them as God would have it nor as themselves would have it but shortly when they come home their
pains and the everlasting prison and the everlasting undoing Well then you must look out for this Freedom by Christ for otherwise these things will certainly come upon you Joh. 3. 36. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And therefore that man or woman that refuses Christ is not only no friend to Christ but such are no friends to themselves they have not the ttue self-love in them they don't love their own Souls 'T is said of the Prodigal when he began to repent he came to himself Luk. 15. 17. He was gone from himself the true self before but when he returned then indeed he came to look out after self-preservation Well now to proceed upon this Third Branch more throughly That it is every ones duty to look after a part in this Freedom I will 1. give you an observable thing about it 2. Shew you the reasons and grounds why every one is to do this 3. Make application To the 1. There is one thing that is very observable about this in the Scripture which I would commend unto you and that is That Christ in the offers of his Grace doth not only speak in a general way to all in common as if he should say Here 't is amongst you but in many places he comes to offer it in a particular kind of Language as if he had to deal with persons severally and apart one from another and were singling of them out one by one to teach us that every particular person must own it as his great duty to look after Christ and the Benefits that come by Christ for himself See Joh. 4. 10. Mark how particularly Christ speaks here Jesus answered and said unto her i. e. the woman of Samaria If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water So Rev. 3. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see So vers 20. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me q. d. There must not be one of you but must each for himself be labouring for a share in these things Now for the reasons of this I desire that you would seriously mind these four following 1. Every one should labour to have a share in the Freedom because every one hath had share in the Bondage as the Apostle saith in Rom. 5. 12. Death passed upon all men in that all have sinned There 's none of us can say concerning this Freedom as Paul did concerning his being a partaker of the Roman Freedom Act. 22. 28. But I saith he was free-born They that have this Freedom are said in Scripture to be made free they are not born free but made so Rom. 6. 18. So in the Text If the Son shall make you free Now suppose Beloved that there were a company of People in the World that had been all of them in great distress or that they had been all taken by the Turks and put to miserable slavery that never any poor Creatures had a harder condition than they and suppose that it had been one of you that were of this number that had a fellowship with them in their bitter Bondage And that some merciful Prince that knew of the lamentable case that these wretches were in should be willing by the paying of a great Ransom to redeem them and he layes down that which is demanded by him that held them in slavery and so sets this Company at liberty at which Oh how their hearts rejoice Only there is one amongst them that won't accept of this favour though his Captivity was as great as others and he was as fair for deliverance as the rest he that set the other free would have done it for him too if he would not have been willful but for his part he would not have his liberty he would lye and perish in his thraldom Why what a fool and mad-man would he be counted that would have his part in all the affliction which that Company hath indured but would have none of their Redeemers kindness Now Sirs you may go travel over all the World and not find such an instance as this for the Bondage of the Body but we need not go far to find many such instances for this Bondage of the Soul Oh how many be there that have been partakers of the Curse that don't look after the Blessing that have been Satans slaves but won't be the Lords free-men that had rather be strangers and foreigners still than to be fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Reas 2. Because no man must rest in the general offers of Grace without a particular application of all to himself The general offers of Grace are like the hearing of some excellent Medicine that is good for them that are under some dangerous Disease now 't is not the hearing of this that will cure but he that would have good by it must get it for himself and take it and make use of it You know tbo there be never so good a Plaister upon the Table for the healing of a Wound it may be the Salve of which 't is made is the best in the World for such a purpose yet that won't help at all if it be not applyed and laid on So now if you do not look after a particular share in this Freedom to bring it home to your own Souls you do but rest in the general notions of Grace This is but the Plaister upon the Table as it were 't is too far off to do you any good thou hast nothing for thy self all this while You know there 's a great deal of difference betwixt a mans saying This is a brave House and This House is mine So there is a precious Christ and precious Freedom and precious Promises yea but are they thine Art thou one of them that can say they are given to us 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises Mark he doth not say barely these exceeding great and precious Promises are given but given to us So that you don't come nigh enough to Christ and the Benefits by Christ if you don't get them for your selves 'T is the great sin of Men and Women that they sit down in things at large about Christ they know and say and read that Christ came into the World to save sinners and to seek and to save that which was lost Ay 't is most true yet what are you the better for all this unless this Salvation be yours And how can it be yours without your labouring to make
manifest signs and tokens of a person in slavery what 's the meaning that thou art so in love with sin and under the power and dominion of these and these Lusts that thou art so given to such and such wicked Ways and so contrary to all that is good That thou hast such an unclean Heart and such a disobedient Life such a dark Mind such vile Affections such a rebellious Will Why doth not this speak that thou art an Enemy to God and a Child of Wrath Would or could any Man or Woman live such a carnal vain Conversation as thine is if they were not in an unregenerate condition Therefore you read Joh. 16. 9. that it is the Spirit that reproves the world of sin Again It is the Spirit that humbles the soul that is to be saved that abases and laves it low in the sight of its own sin and misery that makes sin grievous and odious to it and that brings the Soul under a sense of that wrath that belongs to the workers of iniquity So that it shall cry out Oh what have I done Oh what have I deserved what a dangerous case am I in Here 's this and that sin forbidden by God and yet committed by me and thereupon the Law threatens thus and thus Oh how shall I escape Here 's this and that Duty commanded by God and yet neglected by me and thereupon the Law threatens thus and thus again Oh what shall become of me Hence that sorrow and heaviness that is in such a Soul now is called the spirit of heaviness Isa 61. 3. to note that this heaviness comes from the Spirit 't is he that sets the Soul a mourning thus Again It is the Spirit that discovers to the Soul that is to be saved where its remedy is for all this that acquaints it with the Gospel and Salvation by Christ and what things God hath freely given to his People in and by his Son 1 Cor. 2. 12. That shews it Tho thou art such a great sinner yet there is a great Saviour one that is a Physician appointed to cure such Diseases as thine are one that 's a Surety appointed to pay such Debts as thine are 'T is said here that the Spirit makes those who shall be saved to know such things as these are what God hath done for the raising and recovering of poor sinners in a way of free Grace what a glorious Contrivance he hath found out by Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel to shew mercy to them and indeed that 's a knowing that is worth the having to know these things so as the Spirit makes them known to the People of God There be many that have a kind of Knowledge of these things by bare reading of them and hearing of them and by common Illumination of the Spirit but this knowing here is another manner of thing Again It is the Spirit that doth help and inable the Soul to look out for this Christ to use all the means and to go all the ways that may be to come to this Christ and to get an interest in him that works in it faith to lay hold upon him and that makes the Soul able to take him Eph. 3. 16 17. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Mark 't is the Spirit that by his might doth strengthen the inner man that Christ may dwell in the heart by faith Take notice by the way what a deal of Power there must go out from this Spirit to make a Soul believe with the true saving Faith They that have the false Faith they can believe with ease there needs not an Almighty Arm to be stretched out to work their Faith they give it themselves and have had it all their days they find no difficulty either in the getting of it or in the keeping of it But the true Faith comes into the hearts of Saints by no less a strength than that which God by his Spirit puts forth See Eph. 1. 19 20. Again It is the Spirit that seals and witnesses to the Soul the Assurance that this Freedom doth belong to it and that proves to the Soul that it is so by such Evidences as it gives out of the Word Eph. 1. 13. This is he that carries as I may say God's Privy Seal and when and to whom he pleases he gives it but he gives it to none but them that are sanctified The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant And this is an unspeakable mercy to have the Spirits Seal set to our Graces to have ones repentance sealed for a true Repentance and ones faith sealed for a true Faith and ones comfort sealed for true Comfort and ones interest in Christ sealed up We must make our state of Grace sure by Signs but the Spirit can make it sure by Seal Again It is the Spirit that ingages and stirs up the Soul to such a walking as is sit for one that is brought into a state of Freedom therefore 1 Pet. 1. 2. the People of God are said to have the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience And Oh! how much are they beholding unto this Spirit for many heavenly Notions that he gives in to them and for fresh quicknings when they find abundance of deadness and formality in their Duties hath seised upon them This Spirit is often calling upon the Saints to pray more fervently to hear more profitably to walk more closely to bring forth more fruit to God who hath done so much for them It often minds them of their Mercies that they may be more stirred up to Duties and of the hope of their Calling that so they may walk more worthy of it Again It is the Spirit that preserves and keeps them in the state of Freedom that they shall not lose it again and that makes them to persevere to the end in a holy life that so they may come at last to the full injoyment of all that their dear Redeemer hath purchased and prepared for them This Spirit is that Power of God by which they are said through Faith to be kept unto Salvation See Ezek. 36. 27. Thus you see that both the Father and the Holy Ghost have a hand in this Freedom But yet according to the second thing that was said in answer to the Question our Freedom in other respects comes from Christ personally and peculiarly so as that in some sense he is and must be look'd upon as more immediatly our Redeemer for he did that in his Person which the other Persons did not They did not take our nature and come in the likeness of sinful flesh but the Son did Rom. 8. 3. and therefore 't was not they but he that was made under the Law and that yielded perfect obedience to it neither did they but he died
that accursed death upon the Cross for our sins and 't was he and not they that rose again the third day and that afterwards ascended into Heaven and 't is he and not they that is the Mediator betwixt God and man 1 Tim. 2. 5. and divers such things must be appropriated to the Person of Christ 'T was he that was put into the Offices of a Prophet Priest and King and these things are everywhere in the Scripture kept so distinct from the other Persons as that Christ is the Doer and Executor of them So that our Freedom comes by him as I have already shewed upon this Fourth Branch of the Doctrine in a more eminent way than by the Father or the Holy Ghost tho they have all of them as I have said in some respects a very great hand in it And from that I would now desire you to take three Considerations All the three Persons are concerned in the Freedom that comes by Christ why then consider 1. That there was not a word spoken in Heaven against the recovering of poor Sinners out of their lost condition not a word against shewing Mercy to them You know there be many great things upon Earth that come to a Proposition but then they meet with an Opposition and such an Opposition that the thing propounded is dash'd all to pieces But it was not so in Heaven there every one was for it the Father was for it the Son was for it and the Holy Ghost was for it and yet every one might have been against it And Oh how much might have been said to have spoiled all there was enough might have been alledged to have turned all their hearts against us but every one was willing that the business of our Redemption should go forward all went on our side You may therefore be fully assured that tho there was none but the second Person that did visibly appear in the Work of our Redemption yet that they are all well-wishers to it Here 's no place left for doubting whether their hearts be as inclinable towards your Salvation as Christ did express by word of mouth that his heart was in the days of his Flesh for they do all by mutual consent unite together in this Design of doing your Souls good and the voice of one is the voice of all And when Christ did invite and call poor Sinners to come unto him and declared so much readiness to receive and imbrace all that were weary and heavy laden you must know that he did not only do this to show his own kindness and good-will to the Children of Men but also to shew what kindness and good will the other Persons had in their hearts towards them too And if you look into 1 Joh. 5. 7. you shall find them all joined together in this matter of Salvation by Christ compared with ver 11. What an ingagement then is it to us to accept of this Salvation when we have as I may say three such great Suitors seeking to us the Father sending his Son and the Son coming from the Father and now Christ by his Spirit knocking at the door of our Hearts for an entrance Oh that as they are all willing that we should be saved we were all willing to close with this Salvation 2. Since they all have a hand in it then in our labouring to get the benefit of Christ's Redemption we must look to all the three Persons 't is not only Christ in particular that we must have an eye to but also to the Father and to the Holy Ghost And we must look to them all two ways 1. In the way of Prayer 2. In the way of Thanksgiving As for Prayer why we must pray to the Father that he would draw us to his Son as Christ saith Joh. 6. 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him We must pray to the Son that he would have mercy upon us and heal us and that he would help our Unbelief as you read they did in the Gospel when he was here in his bodily Presence We must pray to the Holy Ghost to inlighten our Minds in the saving understanding of Christ and the Gospel to sanctifie us and make us obedient to the word of Grace and effectually to apply to us the Redemption that comes by Christ and all the benefits of it But here we must take heed that when we do thus express our selves as sometimes we may in such kind of Petitions as are directed more particularly to one Person we don't think that the other Persons are at that time excluded And then we must look to all the three Persons in a way of Thanksgiving For if every one hath a hand in our Redemption then we are beholding to every one of them and so we may not only make an Acknowledgment of it to the whole Godhead jointly but also to each of the Persons particularly and so you shall see the People of God have sometimes done As for Thanksgiving to the Father see Eph. 1. 3. and for Thanksgiving to the Son Rev. 1. 5 6. And tho we have not as I remember any Scripture in which the Holy Ghost is given thanks to in this particular way of naming of him yet you must know that in those places in which Praise is rendred unto God he is there to be understood Well then as I said we should be admiring and praising every one of them for this Work and saying Oh blessed be the Father that sent his only begotten Son out of his Bosom to be a Saviour to Mankind And Oh blessed be Jesus Christ the Son of God who laid down his Life to be a Ransom for us And Oh blessed be the Holy Ghost which hath given to any of our Souls the application comfort and sealing up of this Redemption Blessed be that one God in three Persons for ever and ever Amen 3. If there be such a Three that join together to further the Saints Salvation then another Three that join together to hinder their Salvation shall not be able to do it There is a Three that would fain keep every Child of God out of Heaven the World the Flesh and the Devil and 't is true they are three great and mighty Enemies howbeit they attain not to the first Three 1 Chron. 11. 21. Oh! you that fear God when you think what Three there are against you and thereupon are ready to be disheartned why think what Three there are for you and then be comforted What are the Three below to the Three above The Saints do too little mind what great Friends and Helps are ingaged on their side It daunted all the Children of Israel to see that great Goliath coming against them because they looked no higher than themselves but little David went forth with Courage and Resolution to meet him because he knew that he had God on his side 1 Sam. 17. 45. Thou comest to me with