ws never done in any before nor never shall be in any for the time to come What is said there in Joel 1. 2 3. of a great Judgment which the Lord threatens I may say of this great Redemption Hear this ye old men Hath this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers c. And what God speaks to the Children of Israel about their Freedom out of Egypt I may well apply to this Freedom Deut. 4. 32. For ask now of the days that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon earth and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Consider Three things here and you will see that this is an incomparable Freedom 1. The other greatest deliverances that you read of which God gave to his people they were but the types and shadows and forerunners of this Freedom Particularly see it in that deliverance out of Egypt you that are acquainted with the story of it know what a great deliverance that was 'T is seldom spoken of in the Scripture but there is a glance upon the greatness and famousness of it 'T was so great that they were charged never to forget it Deut. 8. 14. And to that end the Lord appointed that they should begin their reckoning of the Months of the Year with that Month in which this deliverance came Exod 12. 1 2. And on the 4th day of that Month in the Evening of it which was the very day on which the Lord brought them out of their Bondage they were to keep the Passover every year throughout their Generations for a Memorial of it ver 6. 14. compared And it was such a great deliverance that Moses and all the children of Israel sung together unto the Lord in solemn praises and thanksgivings for it admiring the riches of his mercy towards them in it as you may see in Exod. 15. 1 c. And it was so great that it put the wicked Nations of the Earth into a trembling to hear of it ver 14 15 16. And again it was so great a deliverance that the Lord made use of it as the great and strong tie to bind them to himself in the strictest obedience And therefore when he gave them the Ten Commandments he set this engaging Preface before them I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage And then he gives them the Moral Law and in them to us by whom the aforesaid Preface is now to be understood spiritually of his bringing us out of the spiritual Egypt and the spiritual Bondage And therefore we are to be obedient unto him But now beloved tho this deliverance was such a great and glorious work as you must needs say it was to bring a matter of Six hundred thousand Men besides Women and Children with all their Herds and Flocks out of the Iron Furnace in Egypt where they had been strangers and slaves for Four hundred and Thirty years together and that with such a mighty hand and stretched-out arm as brought destruction to their enemies and redemption to his chosen people yet I say this was but a type of this Freedom by Christ This and all else that Moses did as Gods instrument among them was but to hold forth better things that were afterwards to be done by Christ See Heb. 3. 5. The like might be said of their deliverance out of their Seventy years Captivity in Babylon but I would only instance further in one great Freedom that was among the Jews by the appointment of God himself and that was That every 50th year which was called the year of Jubilee of which you read Levit. 25. there was to be a general Release and Liberty was to be proclaimed throughout all the Land so that they who had sold or mortgaged their land or possessions were then every one to return to them again and every Hebrew Servant was then to have his Freedom So that this year was a great and a famous year amongst them and 't was welcomed with a great deal of joy insomuch that it was called by them the Acceptable year Why this also was to point out this Freedom by Christ you shall find it alluded to in Isa 61. 1 2. where the same expressions are used by Christ in his setting forth his Redemption as were spoken of that year of Jubilee He saith he was sent to proclaim liberty to the Captives and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So that other Deliverances and other Freedoms were but to usher in this They were but the Harbingers of this great salvation and in the reading of them you must have your thoughts upon this not only to read them as stories that did but concern that people but as shadowing out the great Gospel-redemption 2. Again 't is an incomparable Freedom thus In that no misery is like that misery which this Freedom brings us from If ever there were a Wretch indeed he is one that lies in that condition out of which Christ was sent to deliver us 't is such a condition that if one were truly sensible of it he would not be in it one day for the whole World I mean our natural condition which is such a miserable state that if God bears everlasting love to any person to be sure he brings him out of it and if he intends everlasting wrath to any then he leaves them in it 3. Again In that no mercy is like to that mercy which this Freedom brings us to as they shall have misery enough and enough that continue in the Bondage so they shall have mercy enough and enough that partake of this Freedom they shall have mercy in abundance they shall be monuments of mercy for ever and therefore God gives them this Freedom by his Son that he may convey to them such riches of Grace and Mercy as that all the common goodness which is bestowed upon the whole World in general is as nothing in respect of that mercy which one single redeemed person hath and shall have bestowed upon him But what this mercy is we shall hear particularly when we come to speak of the Priviledges of this Freedom Property 2d This Freedom is an unconceivable Freedom that is 't is an unknown thing Here take notice 1. What I do not mean by this 2. What I do mean by it I do not mean by this as if the Saints knew nothing of it Oh! yes blessed be God they do see 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redemed with corruptible things c. but with the precious blood of Christ So Colos 1. 26 27. The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest unto his Saints Mark those words 't is now made manifest to his Saints and God
Ages that are past That Christ can revive a drooping Soul and chear up a fainting Spirit now as well as ever he could 4. Take notice of the exceeding riches of the grace of God that upon such a thing as the Fall he should bring in Freedom by Christ Oh! what an astonishing Consideration is this that God should take occasion to manifest his highest Mercy where he might have taken occasion to have manifested his hottest Justice What could have been expected in all likelihood when our first Parents and we in them had thus by sin spoiled all God's Workmanship and defaced his blessed Image to which we were conformed in our Creation but that he should have left us to all the misery that his broken Law could expose us to And lo no sooner had man undone himself but he brings in a promise of Redemption by Christ Who would ever have thought that Mercy would have come in at that door Behold Sirs at what strange doors God can bring Mercy in when the Condition looks like a hopeless lost undone condition God can let in Mercy there If it be great affliction nay if it be great transgression God can let Mercy in for all that Hos 13. 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help There Mercy comes in but at what a strange door ' t is And therefore whatever be thy case or whatever be thy guilt don't say Well to be sure Mercy can never come in here 'T is true we must look for Mercies coming in the appointed ways of finding it and we must not expect it at any strange door Don't tempt the Lord and presume upon hopes of Grace in ways of sin Rom. 6. 1. What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound I only note this from it That when God will 't is wonderfull to see what strange occasions he takes to shew himself gracious To the Second thing what is intimated to us by this That Freedom comes by Christ 1. It intimates the horrible nature of sin in that no less than God's own Son must be the Redeemer from it You know sometimes the greatness of a Disease is seen in the greatness of the Physician that comes to the Patient If one ailes but some small or ordinary matter why then one will hope to do well again either without any Physician at all or else that an ordinary Physician will serve the turn But when there comes some famous eminent Doctor one that all the Countrey hath been laid for to inquire out a man that is so skilful and able in his Profession that there is not such another to be heard of why then People will be ready to say Certainly the person that this Physician goes to is taken with a very dangerous Disease and his condition is no ordinary Distemper because there is such an extraordinary Physician sent for So here that the Son of God must be sent into the World to recover it that there must be a Physician from Heaven to do this Work Oh! it speaks what a grievous condition sin brings us into Sin is the worst of evils one bad better be any thing for Affliction than be a Sinner yea the greatest suffering is not comparable to the least sin And therefore you that will not believe that sin hath any such great harm in it you must needs think you are deceived if you do but consider what a Physician this makes work for See Psal 41. 4. If thou hadst committed but one little sin in all thy life yet 't is of such dangerous consequence that thou wilt certainly die of it if this Doctor Jesus do not come to cure thee 2. That spiritual Freedom is an unspeakable Mercy you may see 't is in that it comes by Christ by so great a hand Do you think that the Son of God should come down from Heaven to bestow it upon us if it were not some transcendent good thing There are many excellent Mercies that are given to men and yet there 's no coming from Heaven to give them the Gifts come from Heaven but the Giver doth not Jam. 1. 15. but this is such a Gift and such a Mercy that the Giver must come from Heaven to give it Joh. 16. 28. Oh Sirs what high thoughts should we have then of this Freedom Surely there 's abundance of worth in it as I shall shew upon the last Branch of the Doctrine in that it comes to us by such a Messenger as Christ himself You that have a part in this you may say as Paul doth 2 Cor. 9. 15. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift 3. That Christ hath a ruining design upon the Kingdom of the Devil If Freedom comes by him then that must not stand This Freedom by Christ is God's device and contrivance to batter down the Devil's walls to turn his Subtilty into Foolishness and his Power into Weakness and to bring away his Subjects from him in spight of his heart even as many as the Lord will have to be saved 'T is true the devil will keep multitudes of Souls in his slavery but there is not one of them that God hath chosen but shall be sure to be brought out from his Iron Fornace The Devil may keep those that are to be his own for ever but he shall not always keep any that belong to God though he hath some of them yet in his Dominion yet they shall be delivered as Pharaoh had the Children of Israel for a while in captivity but at last he must part with them whether he would or no and there remained not one of them left behind Though they don't come all out in the self same day as they did out of Egypt Exod. 12. 41. yet now one is converted and then another is converted till it shall come to that at length that the Devil hath not one left that was a chosen Vessel to God 4. It intimates that as Christ undertook the Work of our Redemption so he did not fail of accomplishing that which he went about Freedom comes by him he did not only attempt or indeavour to bring it but he effected it Men many times they set upon great things but then when they have begun them they cannot carry them through the burden and charge and care of it is beyond their power and it is one of the greatest follies of some that they will be medling with those things that are too high for them Now this was a very high Undertaking that Christ went about to procure Freedom for such a vast number of Souls as were to be brought to Glory for tho 't is true they that shall be saved are but few in comparison to those that shall perish yet considered apart and by themselves they are a wonderful great Company Rev. 7. 9. Well but now as high an Undertaking as this was 't was not too high for Christ he began it and he finished it See Joh.
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
is so useful that the greatest in Grace can't say they have no need of him 1 Cor. 12. 21. and mark what 't is said of Onesinus Phil. vers 10. Whom I have begotten in my bonds that is Christ hath now given him his Freedom by using me as an instrument for his conversion Well what then Why vers 11. Which in time past was to thee unprofitable but now profitable to thee and to me Now he becomes a profitable man 7. It is good again to knit our hearts in love to all the people of God Oh! how dear will the Saints be to us when we see that we are delivered from the power of darkness and that God hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son When we can say to them Now blessed be the Lord I am one of you I am a partaker of your Grace and have obtained like precious Faith with you that Blood which hath washed you hath washed me that righteousness of Christ which covers your unrighteousness covers mine also For if one finds it so one may to the Glory of God tell them so as Paul did to the Galatians chap. 2. 20. That Christ had loved him and given himself for him This now will so joyn our affections to the Saints at least it will be the way to it that our Souls will as it were cleave to their Souls 't will not only joyn hand to hand but Soul to Soul That 's a notable place Acts 4. 32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul c. When once they were got into this Freedom together which is included in the word believed Oh what a love here was to one another This is an uniting Freedom not only to Christ as you have heard but to all his members 8. It good is to strengthen our Faith in the greatest straits For by this Freedom a Child of God may reason thus Why he that brought me out of that dreadful misery of my sinful condition that did so great a work as that and gave me so great a deliverance as that can bring me out of this I cannot come into such a woful condition again as that was let befall me what will for affliction or trouble 't is not like my spiritual Bondage that I was in while out of Christ and yet through infinite mercy I am freed from it and did God remember me there and shall he not remember me here David when he prays for deliverance out of his present distresses thinks of this that God hath redeemed him so you may fetch a mighty support from your redemption by Christ for your weak Faith when great Tryals are upon you what do you think that God will let you perish in them and he hath redeemed you why which is more to deliver thee out of the hand of the Devil and out of the hand of Gods Justice and from the Wrath to come or to deliver thee out of some light Afflictions in this World 9. It is good to make you rich Oh! how do many desire to be rich Now this is the way to make you 1. Really rich not to seem to be rich and yet be poor as some do but rich indeed So rich that you shall have treasures In the house of the rightousness is much treasure 't is because he hath this Freedom indeed this Freedom is his treasure as 't is said Prov. 13. 8. The ransom of a mans life are his riches 't is true here 2. Inwarldly rich rich towards God in Grace and things of a spiritual nature Obj. But I would fain have something if please God of this World too Ans Why this Freedom is the way to that too Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4. 8. Obj. But they who have this Freedoms are generally the poorer sort 1 Cor. 1. 27. Not many mighty not many noble are called Ans 1. They are not all so then as you see there 2. God doth that for them tho they be poor which is equivalent to great riches even in this World For 1. He supplies them many times by special Providence God stirs up the hearts of others to do them good There were poor Saints at Jerusalem that had not of their own but the Lord provided for them by putting it into the hearts of others that were able to make a Collection for them Rom. 15. 26. So Paul tho he had not of his own yet the Philippians sent once and again to his necessity cap. 4. 16. and that supplied him so in his present wants that he looked upon himself as a rich man vers 18. 2. What is wanting in abundance God makes up in contentment vers 11 12. of that chap. and this is equivalent to a great Estate nay there be many that have great Estates and yet are not contented Now pray who is the rich man he that hath but a little and yet is contented or he that hath a great deal and yet is discontented 3. God gives his blessing with that little they have and the blessing of the Lord maketh rich Prov. 10. 22. 't is not so much what a man hath as what God blesses to him A great Estate without that will prove cankered and wormeaten and with that less by far will do the business 3. This Freedom is good to make you eternally rich there be many that are very rich in this World and yet will be miserably poor in the World to come because they never had this Freedom by Christ Indeed people use to say when a man hath a great Estate that he is made yea but for how long 't is but at most for this life If he be not in Christ there 's that a coming that will unmake him again but he that is so is made for ever Prov. 8. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures Substance and Treasures there 's their riches yea but then saith he I 'll cause them to inherit it too i. e. I will make them for ever 10. This Freedom is of excellent use to keep Christians humble it greatly becomes the people of God to have low thoughts of themselves of all Christians the humble Christian is the most lovely Christian If I see a man tho I hope and believe he hath grace yet if he be not humble methinks he is not half so beautiful in his walking Whatever good thing one hath in him besides yet to have the heart to be lifted up 't is even like the dropping of a great blot of Ink upon fair writing How fair would the story of good Hezekiahs Life and Reign have been of whom you read so many excellent things all along the 2 Chron. cap. 29. and 30. and 31. and 32. had it not been for that one great blot which you meet with in vers 25. of chap. 32. Beloved the Grace of Humility is the Glory of ones Graces