Several Works

who can give rest for the anguish of the wounds but he? we cannot heal ourselves; if the very marrow of our bones were distilled into continual tears, and all our moisture, it would not make a balm to cure a wound of sin, nor a cordial to support in one swooning fit; there are many considerations wherefore we cannot do it; and therefore the Lord in pity and bowels toward us, sent us his Son to be our Physician, because we poor sick creatures need the Physician, which we should not, if we could heal ourselves; our wound is incurable, and refuseth to be healed by us.

First, alas, We know not our diseases, our distempers; you know a disease is half cured, if curable, when it is known in the cause; if a Physician mistake the disease, and mis-applications according to his mistake, quite contrary to the disease, this is the ruin of the Patient; such Physicians are of no value, and such should we all be, and are; For we cannot know our sins, nor the plague of the heart; who knows his errors? if we discover one lust, that it breaks out in such a manner, that it cannot be hid, yet there is ten for one that we never saw; and how can we then heal them? now the Lord Jesus seeth our hearts through and through, and knoweth all the malig 〈…〉 y and poisonous humors that lie there, and therefore knoweth how to purge them out; we know them not.

Secondly, We have no desire to have them healed at all; we 〈…〉 w not what healing means, being not sensible naturally of our distempers, and sores that are upon us: no man desires that he knoweth not. We think we are in health and strength of soul, in as good a condition as any, need nothing, and yet are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked, just like a poor man, the strength of his disease works him off his senses, (as we say) he thinkeeh he is well as ever in his life, when alas he is drawi • g nigh the chambers of death, his disease is so much the more dangerous. Brethren, sin 〈…〉 s our heads with such fumes of pride and self-confidence, and carnal reasonings, that we are ready to conclude all is well with us, and I doubt many of us whom this concerneth, will put it away from us upon this very account; We are whole, need not the Physician, so we have no desire to be healed; the tender of a plaster by another to a man that thinketh he hath no wounds, it is ridiculous, they are more ready to mock at it, then receive it; so far are Sinners from providing an healing for themselves, because they are not sensible of their need of it, they desire it not. Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways, we are well enough without it; yea more, we have no desire to be healed, because we are in love with our diseases; not as a man that hath an issue, he knoweth doth him good, would not have it stopped; but we have many bloody issues of sin, and because of the pleasure, and delight, or pro • t, or humor, or some things, we please ourselves with them, for we are loath to part with them. Augustine himself was loath to be healed so soon of his lust, not yet Lord, not yet, said his heart, when he prayed for healing; the disease hath seized upon the will itself, so that it is pleased and taken with the sickness, the ill savor of our wounds, the stench of them is sweet to us, while we have a stinking nostril, and therefore no marvel if we can never heal ourselves; there is need of this Lord Jesus to come with healing under his wings.

Thirdly, We do reject healing and the Physician; When he would have healed us, we would not be healed; therefore much less can we do it ourselves. I would have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, &c. Brethren, how often hath the Lord Jesus called upon us all, and have we not many of us as often refused? Hath he not stretched out his hands all the day long? all the day of Grace, which hath continued long with us, and we have been a rebellious, a disobedient people, we would none of his counsel; either it is too mean, as Naaman said when he was bid to go and wash in Jordan seven times and he should be cleansed, What, are not Abana and Phar • ar, Rivers of Damascus, better then all the waters of Israel? so proud dust and ashes, the Lord opens a fountain for sin and uncleanness, proclaimeth to every poor sinner, whoever will let him come, let his disease be what it will, bathe in this Fountain, he shall be healed: what saith the proud sinner, are there not waters of our own, will not our own repentance do it? we are very backward, through the pride of heart, to receive even gratis, as that proud Papist said, He would not have heaven gratis; this Pope is in all our bellies; therefore the Apostle calls it a submission they would not submit to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ; So we look upon the blood of Jesus Christ as an unholy, a contemptible thing, will not trust wholly to this grace; or else if not too mean, yet the way that God goeth to work with a sinner to heal him, it is too severe, a bitter potion they must take down: what, must we so much bewail ourselves, must we search and try our ways, rake in our wounds? this we cannot endure, this will cost us much smart and anguish, as it did David, and Peter, and Ephraim; poor foolish creatures! we had rather die of our wounds, then to have them searched, far from that temper of David we are Search me, and try me; though some of us, I hope, have been so exercised in the work of searching and mortification, that we can many times say with the Psalmist, Lord search us, but alas, many of us it is otherwise with, we come not to the light lest our deeds should be discovered, it would shame us; you know Ahab could not endure to hear of his sins, he hated M • caiah, and that cursed principle is in all our hearts; we would be humored and daubed, and have the hurt of our souls healed slightly, because we cannot digest the severity and sharpness of the medicines; we are afraid of the wrings and gripes, the Prayers, the Fastings it will cost us, and therefore we are enemies to it.

4. If we were never such friends to it, if we would never so fain be healed, it is not in our power, it is above the sphere of our activity; if the stripes had been laid upon us, which were laid upon Christ when he was whipped with Scorpions; alas, every blow would have cut us in sunder, and given us our portion in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone forever. You see brethren, that they fetched blood at every blow of our blessed Savior, who was equal with his Father, having an infinite Power and Spirit to uphold him; and yet, O how he ran down with blood, dropping upon the ground! when the world was to be drowned and overwhelmed, all the veins of the earth were, as I may say, opened; so now the Lord Jesus, when his Spirit was overwhelmed and amazed, as I may say and the Lord in a manner would now swallow him up, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? all the voins, the channels of his body were opened: O how the blows did even almost fetch away the soul of our Savior! witness that Out-cry: what had become of poor man i • this had been laid upon him? Beside, who can pardon our sins? is there any but God that can pardon sins? and is not this a great part of healing? who can speak peace but he? He will speak peace to his people, he can do it with one word of his mouth; he createth the fruit of the lips, peace, peace; assuredly he createth it peace: who can subdue a lust? all the maceration of the body, that the frame of Nature will bear, will not do it; as it is said of Jerome, though his hair did even stand upright with fasting and lying upon the ground, yet all would not do to subdue concupilcence; he should have taken God's way, and then his help would have come in; no, no, I will subdue their iniquities, they are too stiff-hearted for any but the Lord Jesus; none could break the heart of sin but he, by being broken himself for our iniquities; nor can any do it to death, though wounded, and bleeding, and the heart be broken, but he himself; it is above the creatures power: therefore we see what poor helpless creature we are there is need of the Sun of rightcousness to arise with healing; all our influences upon our own hearts will not heal the least distemper.

The third Use shall be then, to show us the great necessity that we all of us have of Jesus Christ; The whole need not the Physician, but they that are sick, but the sick need it: now alas, what is the world but a great Hospital full of diseased creatures? here lies one sick of the Stone, another of the Palsy, a third of a Dropsy, some Lunatick, out of their senses, some of the Gangrene of Error, which is dangerous for in a few hours it creepeth to the heart: men sleight the Physician while they are in health, but once sick and wounded, then how welcome is he! what need had the poor Traveler, that fell among thieves, that left him wounded and half dead, of the Samaritan, that came and poured in wine and oil; alas, what had become of him if God had not so ordered it for him? when a poor Israelite was wounded with the fiery Serpent, though he might not so much heed the Brazen Serpent before, yet now he seeth his necessity o • looking to him, that he might be healed, his neces •• y would promp him to it▪ if the poor blind man do but hear of Christ passing, O how sensible he is of his necessity and crieth out to him Jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me; but here is the misery of it, the diseases and sicknesses of the soul are stupefying they seize upon the vitals and spirits in such a violent manner, that if not at first yet after a little while they are past feeling. and therefore our great work is to bring poor creatures to a • sense of their condition, until then they will not accept of the glad tidings of life and salvation by Jesus Christ; how ever this argues our necessity of Christ to be so much the greater; thou feelest not that thy hearti stony and hard, and therefore thinkest that when the sad condition of such a sinner is displayed, it belongs not to thee at all▪ alas, thou art so much the harder; tell such stony creatures they have need of the blood of Jesus Christ to dissolve this Adamant, he being the • oat slain for us as well as the Lamb; for the Passover might be either a Goat or a Lamb, and the Lord Jesus is our Passover; thou thinkest this concerneth thee not: alas, poor sinner, thou hast so much the more need of the blood of Jesus Christ. How doth a tender-hearted Physician pity his patient that he seeth desperately sick, and yet so stupefied as that he will not be persuaded of his condition; and O that we could look upon you, and speak to you sinners with such hearts! when we tell you of the plague of the heart, a most deadly disease; you know when the infection getteth to the heart, in that disease, there is scarce any remedy for it: so it is with sinners: and yet alas, how hard is it to persuade them of this! they are in as good condition as any, they have no more plague sore upon them then another: dear friends remember it, the plague is in all our families, these diseases are in all our families, and in many of our own souls; and whether we see, it or see it not, there it is, and our necessity of Christ is so much the greater, by how much the less sensible we are of it; he that saith he seeth, when he is blind, had the most need of a care of all others; he had first need of a cure of his e 〈…〉 or, his misjudging of his condition, and then a cure of his disease, what sad moan would Parents make if they had all their children lying of the sickness, what out-cries would there be as in Egypt when one in a house was dead? and yet alas poor sinners see not that their children are born leprous, all over leprous, filthy, and yet they see it not: O brethren, what need there is of Christ to come to all our houses, for Salvation to come to all our families, to heal and cure our souls, our children our servants that are all desperately sic of some disease or another!

Fourthly, • hen such as to this day have never been healed, the Sun of Righteousness hath never arisen with healing in his wings, there is no healing to be had from under the wings of Christ: know men will be apt, either to play the Empericks upon themselves, or else to go to some Mountebank or another; but alas, they are Physicians of no value, healing is not in them, the poor creature may spend all upon such Physicians, and yet be never the near when he hath done▪ the poor woman in the Gospel, since her bloody issue continued so long it argued she never came to Christ all this while, if she had, she had been healed long ago: thy sores run as violently as ever, and that continually polluting all thy ways truly • his is an argument that • hrist hath not arisen upon thee for when he ariseth upon a s • ul, he doth it with healing in his wings; brethren. it may be you have lain at the waters a great while, but you have never been put into them; you ma • have lived where Christ hath been preached, but it is the Spirit that is the main thing that carrieth the healing virtue from the Lord Jesus, and until he come and breathe in the Ordinances, they are nothing, brethren what shall I say to you, is it not the condition of the most of us? are not our lusts as strong and lively as ever they were? are we not as blind wretches groping at noon day, some of us, as ever we were? are not our hearts as hard as ever? yea, harder, for the stone increaseth and groweth day by day; are we not as licentious, as loose, as proud as ever? why should this be, ifyou had anything to do with Christ? it is a sign that such a sinner hath never touched Christ to this day; for no sooner did the woman touch him, but virtue came from him; the least touch of faith doth it: O what a faithless generation are we then! O how many of us are in this condition! what a sad thing is it that we should thus throng upon Christ, and so few touch him? but one poor woman in a whole throng come and steal a touch of Christ, O if she might but touch him, she should be healed; and so haply now in a Congregation, there cometh in one poor trembling sinner, with his affections stirred, his desires are up, O if I may but touch him, I shall be well; when for the most part that is not our error. Now dear friends, what have you been doing all this while, have you eat and drank in the presence of Christ? have you heard his Word and Gospel wherein he is lifted up, as the healing Serpent, so many years, and yet not healed? have you so often received the Lord his Supper, the outward part of it, and yet are not healed? what, have you been praying, and reading, and coming to hear, until you have one foot in the grave, and yet not healed? what have you been doing all this while, that you have never got a sight of Christ, a touch of him to this day, that you might be healed? Ah, sure you have spent your time, your money upon the Physicians that cannot heal you, you have gone to the Disciples instead of Christ, you have expected healing from the Ordinances themselves, and expected it haply from us in whom healing is not; as they looked upon the Apostles, Why look ye upon us, as if we had done this by our own power? O no, it is Jesus Christ alone can heal, and therefore if you are not yet healed, he did never arise upon you to this day: It may be sinners will be ready to say, what if Jesus Christ hath never risen upon us, is that such a great matter? Indeed I doubt we make a light matter of it; but I will tell you what a great matter it is, you are yet in your sins, and it is a very great hazard but you may die in your sins; if he never rise upon thee, thou shalt undoubtedly die in them; and is this nothing? O but you will say, God is merciful, it is his nature to be merciful, he triumpheth in exalting that perfection, and making it glorious: It is true, brethren, but it is in Christ, all light and healing is from the Father, but he hath filled the Son now with enlightening and healing influence, so that they who will have it, must have it from the Son, he hath all power committed to him, all the medecines are his now, and the power of applying them is so, that he heals whom he pleaseth; therefore dream not of it, you that are wicked transgressors, that have not your sins healed, that God will be merciful to any but in Christ; O but we may have our sins healed though it be not yet; It is true, thou mayest be healed, and this is somewhat: but consider what a cold comfort this would be to a man that had the plague seised upon him in a violent manner why, faith he, it may be healled, and yet alas, be never looks after the Physician, nor •• e Physician after him, but groweth worse, and worse, and yet he may be healed: It is true, if the Lord do not cut thee off before, thou mayest be healed; or if God swear not in his wrath thou shalt never enter into his rest; or say to thee, thou shalt never be healed: O these secret things belong not to us; the Father hath put them in his own power, and we presume upon our courses of sinning, as if we knew them, were privy to them, and knew certainly that we should have a day of grace, an hour of mercy; this is desperate, if thou die in this condition, with all thy running sores upon thee, from head to foot, no sound part, but loathsome wretches; what, do you think the Lord Jesus will put such into his bosom? Well consider this for the fourth Application of the Doctrine: Such as are not healed of their lusts, they have never had Jesus Christ arising upon them as yet, they never knew Christ to this day; let our knowledge be what it will, our parts be what it will, our seeming following Christ be what it will, and thronging upon him never so much, we never yet touched him, he never yet shined upon our souls; O how many such poor▪ Christless souls hear this Word this day!

5. Then, let us labor to raise our spirits in admiration of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ, given to poor sinners, to provide a healing for us; that when we had fallen from the height of mercy, or rather grace and goodness, and so had all to be broken and bruised ourselves, broken our b • nes, that he should provide a healing for us, when we could never think of such a mercy; what were we more to him then Angels? if he had let us all lie under our broken bones, under the wounds we had made in ourselves, and diseases we had contracted, who could have had anything to say against him for it? this the Apostle maketh an argument of his love, and it is doubtless a heightening of it, to consider how free it is, that their wounds should not be cured, and ours healed, when both alike curable to him? and considering that they might have been much more serviceable to him, then we being creatures of a more glorious, active nature then we are; yet he took not hold of the nature of Angels.

But consider we first the infinite disproportion between the Physician and the Patients: were it not wonderful condescension for a K 〈…〉 o come off his Throne, to buckle himself about the business 〈…〉 eal a worm that hath been trodden upon? O it pitieth him to see them bleeding, and therefore he maketh it his business to cure them; brethren, you would think this strange, but this is the case; yea, this is but a shadow, Jacob is but a worm, and that the Lord of Lord's, the King of Kings should descend from his Throne, from heaven, disrobe himself, as I may say, put on rags, and all to have to do with the wounds and diseases of poor sinful dust and ashes, worms and no me 〈…〉 Brethren, my tongue is not able to express it; we would thin 〈…〉 a great matter, such of us as live in the highest honor, wear soft raiment, are delicate in all things, to take up a poor creature in the streets, that is full of sores, cast out to the loathing of his person, to search the wounds, have to do with those loathsome sores; O what love were this! it may be we could be content in pity to give money for others to do it, but to do it with our own hands, there is the trial▪ and yet this creature is of our own kind: but what are we to the Lord, or to his Christ? who would do this for a Dog, for a Viper, a Serpent, a Toad, if wounded, if sick and diseased? can we conceive what tenderness it must be above what we have; it may be we would not kill or destroy such a creature, but if otherwise hurt, would we heal them? O herein is the love of God to poor sinners! high above our thoughts, as heaven is high above the earth: alas, we are more ready to tread upon Serpents and Dogs, we would cast them out, put them away from us, it is but a dog. Ah, dear friends, what are we that are strangers from the Covenant of Promise, as we are all, until he entereth into a Covenant with us? we are as dogs, as he speaks to the Syraphinitian woman, all such unclean creatures; yea, we are a generation of Vipers, as full of venom of sin as a Toad is full of poison, and that is our nature as soon as we are born; yet alas, the Lord Jesus would not have such as we to perish but rather then it should be so, he himself would become our Physician: O here is rich grace!

Secondly, In that the Lord Jesus like a Son of righteousness indeed, doth not stay until the poor sinner, the patient do send for him, do come to him, but he is the first in the motion; you know Physicians of eminency and worth, do not use to go up and down to bespeak their patients, to proclaim it up and down who hath any work for them; no, they are too hi 〈…〉 that: if any will have to do with them, let them find the 〈…〉 out, let them wait upon them; Mountebanks use to do so, they must hang out a bush, else it will not be known that they profess they can do anything; pardon the comparison, for our Savior compareth his coming to the coming of a Thief; and if a Mountebank be no better; yet the comparison is tolerable by that of our Savior himself, I say, he will rather come to sinners then that they shall misc 〈…〉 ; he came to seek and to save that which was lost: for alas, the lost creature never will seek him, but wander, and loseth itself more and more, therefore we are compared to wandering sheep, we all like sheep have gone astray, yea, the very Saints themselves when once they have been found, yet will lose themselves again, as David, I have gone astray like a lost sheep, seek thy servant; else we should never find the way to Christ again; dogs and such kind of creatures, if lost, will find the way home, again, but a sheep will not; so when we are utterly lost, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is come unto you. saith our Savior; O repent and turn, for the Gospel, and the grace of the Gospel is come to you; the Kingdom of heaven goeth a begging, as I may say, cometh and knocketh at this door, and that door; at this family and that, to see if they will give entertainment to Jesus Christ, whether they will be healed, this day is Salvation come to thine house, saith the Lord to Zacchaeus; it came to him before he came to Christ; though he did indeed run a little for curiosity sake before Christ, to see his person, yea, our Savior inviteth himsel • to him, he invited himself to come to his house; so, did not the Lord Jesus come to seek Paul, and where did he find him but in blood, up to the ears, even the blood of the Saints? may we not set to our seals to the truth of this? That he is found of such as never sought him; may we not say truly, that alas, our own souls, and our own families were poor, dark, ignorant, hard-hearted creatures, that never thought of Jesus Christ, until he first came and brought healing to us the Son doth not stay until he be called up, but he riseth of his own accord upon the world; Brethren, the Lord Jesus this day, though by the mouth of a Babe, and uncircumcised creature in heart and lips, doth invite you, all is ready, and then he calls, this is a part of the message I have from Christ this day, and it is a sweet one, to invite every poor wounded Sinner, ev 〈…〉 poor diseased creature to come to Jesus Christ for healing; and O that I could bespeak you, as he himself would bespeak you, were he upon earth, with such a melting heart and sense of your condition. O why will ye die? is the expostulation of the Lord Jesus; why will you die of your wounds, of your plague-sores? here is balm for you, here is healing for you, if you will but accept of it; O do not slight it, do not run away from the Physician; Hath the Lord Jesus been at all this pains to procure▪ a medicine, and shall we cast it away, and slight it?

Thirdly, Here is the riches of the Grace of God toward poor Sinners, that though we cannot tell our Physician what we ail, yet he knoweth our diseases, and from him it is that we are convinced of our condition in this respect; Physicians are not able to see into the inward parts, into the veins, the arteries, the liver, the heart, but they judge according to outward symptoms, or according to the Patients relation of his disease, and how often do they miscarry and mistake? but here is such a Physician, he so heals, as that he knoweth all our diseases, he needs not feel our pulse to see how they beat, he can tell where there is a poor burdened soul, or a sin-guilty soul, knoweth all the guilt, and ta • es notice of it first, and from his own notice of it, takes occasion to heal it. I have seen his ways, though he was walking on in the stubbornness of his heart, though he were smitten, he saw not his own ways, how froward they were, nor his own heart, how hard it was; but saith the Lord, I have seen his ways▪ and I will heal him; Alas, how long might Paul have been before he had known his disease, except the Lord Jesus had opened it to him, come and convinced him of it: and so in the case of David and Peter.

Fourthly, Yet further consider the riches of Grace, Sinners, herein to you, herein held forth in that, notwithstanding all our unkind dealing with him, yet he giveth not over the work; would not an able Physician take it ill, that his Patient should go away from him, and run to a cheating Mountebank, and prefer him before him? were not this enough to lose a Physician? Alas, do we not all do so? He stretched ont his hands all the day long to a gainsaying and rebellious people; one runs to one thing, another to another; The Prodigal to his husks, rather then to his Father; and the poor woman to her Physician of no 〈…〉 lue, rather then to Christ; if Sinners can make a shift to lick over their sores with a good tongue, a smooth tongue, crying peace, peace, where there is no peace; a sad condition, when Conscience is quieted upon mistaken grounds; if they can quiet it with a little duty, they are well; if they can skin over their wounds, they are well enough; they will stick anywhere, rather then come to Jesus Christ; and yet for all this, he is ready to heal them. O, how do Persons beside themselves abuse their Physician? many times fly in their face, and so do Sinners; now the Lord Jesus cometh with his cordials in one hand, his purgatives in the other hand, ready to purge, to cleanse, to heal us, and we fly in his face, use him most unkindly; and yet for all this, he is not overcome, giveth us not over, until he hath healed us of this, and all the rest of the distempers of our souls. O how do you think the Lord Jesus can endure to be kicked in the very bowels, to have his blood trampled underfoot by poor Sinners, that he cometh to heal! and yet he doth endure it, and for all this healeth them. Is not all this unkindness? what can move him to give us over? surely many of us are able to say it, that if his bowels had not been unsearchable, we have so often grieved him, and kicked against him, even since he had to do with our souls in a way of healing mercy, that we had been undone forever. Oh here is unsearchable mercy, we wound him, and grieve him, and yet he heals us: we slightly esteem of him, of his blood, of his mercy, of his love, even while he is pouring it out upon us, and he so dearly loveth us, that his blood is not too dear for us, no nor his Spirit, nor his bowels, nor anything; O here is rich Grace indeed to poor froward-hearted Sinners!

5. Herein the riches of Grace doth appear to poor Sinners, that it is not the multitude, nor the depth, nor the loathsomeness of our wounds, or deadliness of our diseases, that discourageth him, to make him turn his back upon the work, and let us alone. O saith the Physician, when he cometh to such a Patient, he hath the plague, it is seized upon his heart, upon his vitals, it is past my ski 〈…〉 , it is but labor in vain, if the spots appear, there is no hope, no healing; but now the Lord Jesus, he never m • dleth with a Sinner, but he hath the plague in his very heart, not only the sores running upon their tongues, and upon their hands, but in their very hearts, and all the blood, and spirits poisoned, and yet he is not discouraged, he takes it in hand: truly some of us, if we consider how deeply rooted our • nsts were in our very hearts, it is matter of admiration, that ever we were healed; and though for the present there are, it may be, grudgings of the old disease, whereby we are a grief to him, and a grief to ourselves, yet that the plague is cured at the heart, or curing rather; alas, do you think the Lord Jesus did not know what a weary hand he should have with us before he began with us? he knew what ulcerations would be continually breaking out that must be lanced and searched, and yet never turned his back upon his work upon this account; when the Surgeon meeteth with a poor creature, that is full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores, that have never been opened, nor mollified, but a long time have festered and rotted; O, saith he, I am not able to endure to have to do with such a Patient, the very stench of his wounds and • ores is such, I am not able to bear it; Brethren, this is nothing to sin, the most loathsome running sores are nothing to the rottenness of sin: O, it is the superfluity of naughtiness, it is the very scum of scums, the very excrement of the Devil: now how can we think that Jesus Christ should endure the stench of our loathsome souls, full of running sores? and yet he doth it, when he cometh to heal us, he never yet gave over any that he undertook to heal, because of the greatness, the multitude, the loathsomeness of his diseases; I know poor misgiving hearts will be ready to sit down and mourn, as poor creatures without hope, when they consider how many their sores are, their diseases are. O what loathsome running sores, bloody issues! and they are loathsome to ourselves, that see little or nothing of them, and that have a stinking nostril, their minds whereby they conceive of things, are impure themselves, and so cannot apprehend them as so loathsome; but the Lord Jesus that seeth them to the bottom, knoweth the venom of them, the loathsomeness of them to the full. O sure they are much more to him, sure he will never have to do with such a rotten soul as mine, saith one; such a rotten heart, such a wretch, so besotted with the world, as I have been, so unclean a wretch as I have been; this is a mistake, the riches of Grace in Jesus Christ would never be so made manifest, the exceeding abundance of Grace, if he had not to do with such sinners as thou art in thine own apprehension; with a Paul, a Manasseh, a Magdalene, with the chief of Sinners; O say not your cases are desperate, there is no healing for your wounds; nothing maketh a Sinners case desperate, but his own despairing, his final unbelief, his despair of the mercy of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ in this great undertaking of poor Sinners.

Sixthly, O what tenderness is manifested in the manner of the cure! and it must needs be so, when bowels themselves are the constitution of the Physician; where love itself, and compassion it • elf setteth the Physician awork. Brethren, can you imagine when a Father is a Physician, and hath a poor diseased child, or wounded, crieth out for healing; can you imagine with what an heart he goeth about it? if it would do the cure, he could be content to endure all the lancings, take down all bitter potions; O every groan and out-cry of his Patient goes to his heart, he is so tender; by these affections the Lord is pleased darkly to shadow out to us his heart toward us; Even as a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord Jesus pitieth them that fear him; that are wonnded in any kind, either in their peace, or in their holiness. But this will appear, if we consider but a few particulars.

First, In that he himself hath taken the bitterest part of the physic; O the wormwood and the gall! they went into his bowels; the Lord Jesus doth not delight to cure by lancings, by searings, and canterizings; no: but he took down himself the purge that set him upon such a sweat as you know; alas, it would have drunk up every drop of our blood, and moisture, and marrow, that we should never have seen through it; this he takes himself, himself is lanced you know by the Soldiers, and from thence came water and blood, the ingredients of the healing medicine for poor Sinners forever, being rightly tempered: like a tender Mother, if the child be sick, it must be purged; she herself takes the purge, endures the wrings of it in its working, that the effect may be sucked by the child who lies at the breast; this is but a resemblance of this rich Grace in Jesus Christ. Brethren, we see, if men were our Physicians, what they would prescribe us, their purgations, and pilgrims, whippings, macerating our flesh, until they bleed and die; but the Lord Jesus doth not so; if either the Physician or the Patient must die in this case, rather then the poor, diseased, wounded Patient shall die, the Physit 〈…〉 himself dieth, that we might live, that his blood might be our cordial, his flesh, our diet, and his blood our diet-drink, that continually by little and little might heal us; O what manner of love is this! Brethren, who would do so? let a Father but examine his heart and see, could he do so for his child? though a Mother may take down much bitterness for her child, yet would she be content to open a vein, to bleed to death, to redeem its life when ready to perish? I know David in his passion said, Would God I had died for thee; but if Absalom had been alive, and in cold bood he had been put to it, I question, though his affections were strong to his Son, but they would have been as strong to himself; Self is a man's nearest friend; but now the Lord Jesus you see, did it for his poor sinful people, yea for strangers, for enemies: Brethren, consider of it, If any of us were Physicians, here is a poor wounded creature lies in the way, as the poor man in the Gospel, fell among thieves, left wounded and half-dead, which of us now could find in our hearts to open our own veins, and be emptied of all our blood and li • e, that such a poor wretch might be supplied? now this the Lord Jesus doth for such Sinners as we are; Brethren, if there must be pouncing and pricking, he endures it: lancing, he endures it; contusion, he endures it; For he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquites, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and through his stripes we are healed: his stripes are not the bodily buffetings, his crown of thorns, and such things were nothing in comparison: no, it is the lashing of his spirit, the wounding of his soul, the travel of his soul, the agonies, wrestlings with his Fathers displeasure to an agony, when God laid on him so heavily, that he was ready to faint and sink, and his soul almost fetched at every blow. O dear Savior, that ever the cure of such sinful dust and ashes should cost thee so dear, and we so little prize it! But,

2. That which he prescribes to us, though there be some bitterness in it, yet no more then must needs; it may be a sprinkling from the top of the cup of trembling, which may put us into a fear and trembling, so much as he seeth needful to embitter sin to us: it is true, if love were perfect here below, while graces are imperfect, and our ingenuity perfect; the looking upon a crucified Christ for us, would be the greatest imbittering of sin to us in the world; but we are very dull an 〈…〉 ow of heart, and therefore a little taste we must ourselves, that we may gather from thence what the Lord Jesus endured for us: we that never felt what a wounded Spirit meant, and what the clouding of the face of God from us meant, though we may hear of the sufferings of Christ, we are not able to be sensible of them, and so not to prize that love as strong as death; but when a poor creature hath had a drop or two of scalding wrath fall upon his conscience, a lash or two, though gently, upon his spirit, that maketh him roar in the disquietness of his • oul: O thinketh he then, if a drop or two be so full of terror and amazement, what then was the whole Cup? what was the dregs? how should I have born that, if my blessed Savior had not taken it off for me? That which did so parch him who was the Green Tree, that he said he thirsted, surely would have consumed the dry: If he were as a Bottle dried in the smoke, it would have consumed us to ashes: If it made Him sweat in such a manner, it would have altogether dissolved our frame, that we should have perished forever: O if a little wrath, when God hideth his face be such a Hell in many souls, What a Hell then had Jesus Christ in his soul, when wrath was poured out to the utmost? for he was not spared a jot. And then to make us out of love with sin, wherein doth lie the very heart of the core and of the cure, surely such are the bowels of God in Christ, that as he delighteth not in the death of a sinner, so neither doth he delight in bringing the creature to life, through so much bitterness and grief, if any other means would so effectually work us out of love with sin as this; for the Wise God surely would take the most effectual course; it is all needful, else he would never do it.

Why, but you will say, that hatred of sin is never kindly, except the love to Jesus Christ be the ground of it? ye that love the Lord hate evil; this takes the ingenuous spirit off from Omissions and Commissions.

It is true, but yet consider brethren, wherefore do we love Him, but because he loved us? when his love is revealed and manifested, this warmeth, melteth the heart, indeareth the soul to him; until the Lord Jesus be pleased to open and unfold his bowels of love to a sinner, he will never love him; now whereby should we estimate the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners, but by the unsearchably rich 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 he paid for them? O the price of every drop of that blessed blood that run trickling down to the earth, especially if it be considered by what means it was squeezed out of him, this setteth a rate upon his love; it is not love in word, but in deed and in truth; if nothing else will be a price to redeem them but his blood, it shall go; he is not dear of it to the last drop; yea not to part with it by opening a vein, but to have it extract out of the veins by the pores of his body: O by the unspeakable weight of wrath upon his Spirit! Now how can we judge of this, except we have had a little taste of it ourselves? when we are put into a little sweat in our own wrestlings with the displeasure of God, O then we see what our Savior endured for us: If a man would set the highest estimate upon love among men, this should be the rate of it; would they willingly have the face of God in Christ hidden from them for a year or two for the dearest friend they have in the world? you that have felt what this lashing of your Spirit is, that your breath was even gone at every blow, and you were ready to perish, and you had fainted except you had believed some secret undiscerned support. Tell me, would you redeem the life, yea the souls of your dearest friends that you had in this world by lying under a wounded Spirit, having a Hell kindled in your souls that should burn all your days? I cannot tell, I know dear Friends will do much one for another: O saith one, I could lay my hands under their feet to do them good: O I could redeem their lives with my own, Would God I had died for thee! and haply because he saw he was in such a sad condition for his soul; but David, wouldst thou have been content to roar all thy days in the disquietness of thy soul, to have his waves and billows to go over thee, not to wade in the shallows, but to be in the depths, to be overwhelmed with the displeasure of the Lord, and that for Absalom? if so, it is much, but it is nothing to this of Christ; therefore this is the truest estimate we can take of his love, and surely the higher our thoughts are, and deeper of the love of Christ, and the larger, the greater will be our hatred of sin, our loathing of sin, which when it is wrought, the cure is wrought; what, shall I play with the knife that hath pierced the heart of my Savior? Shall I harbor that in my bosom that was the sting of my blessed Savior, the poison whereof-drank up his Spirits? surely no.

And then Secondly, This will heighten our love to him, and we shall be loath to grieve him when we love him: O he hath endured enough already for me, he ha • h been wounded, yea so wounded, as to be all over gore for my-sins, and so much, as to be but all one wound, and shall I grieve him more? I am persuaded that the experiences of all our hearts that ever tasted of his love, will subscribe to this, that this is the great reason of our so often grieving of Jesus Christ, because we have so little impression upon our hearts of his love to us, and consequently so little love to him; either we never had a strong impression, or else by degrees it doth wear out, and should be renewed by a serious contemplation of these things which we neglect, and that is the reason; else we should be very tender and fearful of grieving him after the manner we do daily.

But then Thirdly, our own smart under the sense of his displeasure will do something: do you think that the remembrance of the wormwood and gall will not do something, make sinners afraid to meddle with sin, and all little enough too? so the Father, when the child walks frowardly, takes him up, I will make you remember my fingers a good while, saith he; so the Lord deals with his people, but this is nothing to what the Lord Jesus endured for us; he had the brunt; he broke the waves of the displeasure of his Father, who is the rock of our salvation; though we that are lifted up upon that rock, may be under water sometimes by those waves, yet the force of them is broken upon Jesus Christ, else they would dash us to pieces, having not co-assistance enough to break them. If ever Peter were solicited to deny Jesus Christ again, do you think that the remembrance of this, O how dear it cost me, was not an awe upon him? and so for David; after those doleful complaints from him, while under the sense of his fathers displeasure; do you think he was not more afraid of stolen waters, though sweet, and bread eaten in secret, though pleasant, after God had kept him awhile, shut him up, as I may say, in the Chambers of death, made him walk there awhile, to make him know what he had done in sinning away the light of his countenance?

But Thirdly, That which he himself prescribeth, even the bitterest of it, it is no more then he enables the creature to bear; if he do lance our wounds, and put us to some grief, withal he giveth a Cordial that stays us from sinking; it is true, a right hand cannot be cut off, nor a right foot, a man cannot be dismembered, but there will be some anguish and trouble; nor a lust mortified, but it will cost us some heart-aking, but then he quickly stanches the bleeding, keepeth the heart from sinking, fainting, he will not suffer us to be tried above what we are able, but maketh a way to escape; he doth not leave us altogether without his presence when we are in the dark, though we see him not; I say, if it were not for this, I know the lot of Judas and Cain would fall upon every such sinner, nor will he keep it a jot longer upon us then he will lengthen out our patience. But what is all this Brethren to what our blessed Savior hath taken down for us? If darkness be so sad to us, who never had but a glimpse of the light of his countenance, what was it that the Lord Jesus felt then, that had it in that fullness the creature was capable of, and proportionably greater, by how much the more iniquity was laid to his charge? So that in a word, it is our blessed Savior that was wounded, and we healed; all that is done to us is but as a scratch with a pin to those wounds of his; he felt all those wrings and pangs, and we have the effects of the working of the Physic; is not this unsearchable riches of Grace, that we should be healed after such a manner as this!

Seventhly, He doth all this most freely, expecteth no reward, as Physicians you know do: the poor woman in the Gospel spent all that she had upon the Physicians, but when she came to Christ, he asked her nothing, only willingness to accept of deliverance, to believe his power, his willingness to save, and this is nothing to a reward; yea, and it is he himself that giveth the willingness to be healed; he went up and down throughout the Synagogues and the villages, healing all their diseases; was it not the freest gift that ever was given, to give himself, his life, his blood a ransom for poor sinners? alas, he knew we had nothing to give him, and yet he cometh nevertheless freely; for all he aimeth at is, that his grace may have the glory, and be made glorious, and the poorsinner may be saved; and therefore whether they have anything or nothing, it is all one; yea, if there be anything that the creature looks upon, as his money, the Lord Jesus is so far from taking it as a reward, that there is nothing hinders him more then this; it is one of the great diseases indeed of the soul, this holy self, that Jesus Christ cometh to heal; poor sinners are full of sores, wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores, full of corruption, everyone hath his bloody issue: now our duties, or holiness, which sinners sometimes so much stand upon, the Apostle thought them gain once; they are but as the filthy clouts upon our sores, that are • ull of the runnings of our sores, as menstruous clothes, defiled with our bloody issues: we think to plaster our wounds with them, to salve our consciences with a few duties, but alas they come off like filthy clouts from running sores, and are these a reward for the Lord Jesus? When a Physician cometh to heal a person of the Plague, O saith he, I will reward you, you shall not take all this pains with me for nothing; you shall have the rags that come off my sores, for your pains: Is not the Physician much beholding to him think you? So it is here, we have nothing but such rags to give the Lord Jesus, and alas they must be washed clean in his blood; our services healed as well as our souls, before they be worth anything: therefore I say, he himself freely prepareth the Lances to open the wounds, convinceth the poor creature of his condition; he himself takes the pains to open the vein, to empty the creature of himself, to cure him of that Plethory: He it is tempereth the Physic, is at the charge of it; O the richest Cordials in the world! tempered of his own blood and water, by his own Spirit, to support the poor creature when ready to faint: he sitteth over his people, even as a tender Father over a weak wounded child, and with what a heart you may imagine; he provideth Messengers of his own to be with them, to minister to them, to watch over them, and himself is always at hand. Ah dear Friends, that ever the Lord Jesus should set so high esteem upon poor sinners, when we were in such a loathsome condition, as that he would dwell in flesh, and take part of flesh and blood, that so he might have somewhat to make a restorative of, a healing medicine of, that we might not perish; one drop, every drop of his most precious blood, with respect to the value which the God-head put upon it, is more then if a world of pearl could be decocted into a cordial; and yet he spared it not: that he should visit sinners with this salvation, with his corrosives, his cordials, with his healing virtue, and power, and his heart, so ready to put it forth from time to time; this is unsearchable riches of grace, to do all this freely. Yea,

Eighthly and lastly, it will appear in this, that the Lord Jesus brings his heart full, and his hands full of reward with him to a poor sinner, so that he will be but healed; you see foolish children when they have fallen and wounded themselves, they must be hired to let the Father or the Surgeon heal it, put a plaster upon it; but crieth out as undone, had rather do anything then be healed; but alas, who would do it to a stranger? it may be thou seest a poor leprous creature lie languishing at thy gates, and thou canst heal him, but he is not willing; either he is in love with his disease, or distrusts your good will, or faithfulness, or something, but he is not willing to be healed: now where is there a heart so full of tenderness as to be willing to offer him a reward? I will give thee thus much, or thus much, if thou wilt but let me heal thee, for I pity thy condition: Brethren, a King and his subjects fall out, they rebel against the King in the war, the subject is wounded even to the death, except there be more then ordinary care taken of him; now the King, his heart relents, he cometh to him in the prison, and doth not upbraid him with his unkindness, nor pride, nor stubbornness, but entreateth him he will give him leave to heal him, that he will but suffer his wounds to be searched, to be healed, to be closed, so that he may not perish, he will pardon all that he hath done amiss, begs of him to accept of him, he will make him the second man in the Kingdom, he shall be near to him, if he will but suffer himself to be healed: Is not this rich mercy indeed, is there any such Paragon to be found? Surely no: but lo, this is in Jesus Christ, and more, for he not only promiseth a reward upon our healing, but maketh the poor creature willing also, willing to part with his lusts; and to speak the truth, I take this to be the greatest part of our healing, when a poor sinner that was in love with sin before, loved his lusts as much as his life; O his merry companions were as dear to him as his very eye, or his right hand, he could no more part with one then the other, and so his gain of unrighteousness. Now when the Lord by proposing of objects, which have a great force, but that is not all, but by a sweet and yet powerful bowing of the heart, maketh the poor creature willing to be healed; so that now he crieth out with Augustine, How long Lord, how long? this man is in a great measure healed, and this is the work, and yet he rewardeth for this, promiseth a Crown, giveth grace, and glory, glory with himself, fellowship with him, to lie in his bosom to all eternity. O here is unsearchable riches of grace! Brethren, I have only, if so much, brought you to the vein where these riches lie. O that you would dig a little by serious contemplating upon it. You will find more then I am able to speak.

Sixthly, Another Use shall be this, to warn us that we do not upon this score, because that Jesus Christ will arise with healing under his wings upon poor sinners; therefore to make bold with sin; it is no great matter, the healing virtue of Christ will be so much the more magnified. O how desperate is this! would you not think that man were out of his wits, that upon presumption upon the skill, and tenderness of the Physician, should without any care how, or where, wound himself, and gash himself, he hath a Physician that will heal him; you that dare be so bold to sin, that grace may abound, and make work for Jesus Christ, know this, this day, you know not what the grace of Christ meaneth, that make such a use of it: how did this stir the Apostles spirit? God forbid: he doth, as I may say, recoil; as a man startled at some horrid sight. O the Lord forbid you should suck such poison out of so sweet a flower! This concerneth two sorts of persons; First, such as yet never knew what this healing virtue of Christ is, only by the hearing of the ear, they hear the Lord Jesus is able to heal the most desperate wounds, and that he is willing, and therefore they make bold to continue in sin, they may go on to inflame the reckoning a little higher yet, it is all one with Christ to pardon millions as mites, to swallow up mountains as mole 〈…〉 it is true, if thou respect his power; but how dost thou know that he will do it for thee, sinner? or what hope hast thou, or canst thou have while it is thus with those? Its true, if sinners do not sin away the day of grace, he is willing; but did ever Jesus Christ tell thee that thou shouldest be healed particularly, though thou go on rebelling against him, wound upon wound upon thy poor soul? Surely no, be not deceived sinners, these are the insinuations of the wicked one, this is such Gospel as the Devil preacheth, when he preacheth Christ as an Angel of light, but in the close, you will find the Law instead of the Gospel; such presumption and security usually endeth in dispair, the time may come, that you that make so little a matter of it, may cry out and roar, O your wounds, you refused to be healed; what if the Lord then say to you, your iniquities shall never be healed, you shall die in your sins; what will become of your presumption then?

Secondly, it concerneth the people of God, that have had it may be some experience of this healing virtue of Jesus Christ, that have a long time been groaning under the loathsomeness and anguish of their wounds, and now at the last are healed through abundant grace. O take heed of returning to folly anymore; will you make bold with sin, that have known what it cost our blessed Savior, and what it cost yourselves? what it cost him, when as he would himself purge our iniquities; he took the Physic, and thou enjoy • st the cure; but is it no more to us. Brethren? the heaviness of his soul to the death; must he bleed to death, that we might not bleed to death, that our bloody issues might be stopped? did it cost him an eclipse of the light of the countenance of his Father, and wilt thou make so light a matter of it? walk so watchlesly as we do, to go on to grieve him, as we do some of us? O it is the want of keeping that fresh upon our hearts, what the cure of it cost, that is the great cause of our so often relapsing. And so we forget what it cost ourselves; it is strange that the burnt child doth not dread the fire: dost thou not remember when the Lord came to search thy wounds, what it cost thee when he went to the bottom of them? O dost thou not remember the stench of them, when he came to pluck off the hard crust grown upon them, and let thee see and be sensible of the filthiness in them? is this forgotten, that thou makest no more of sin? O dost thou not remember the time when thou wast even weary of thyself, a burden to thyself, thou couldst not rest many a weary day and night, it cost thee many an aking heart, and yet now so soon art making wounds again, making work again for Christ? Surely this is very ill requital of all that riches of grace. Or what, can we heal the breaches we make upon our peace by our recidivations when we please? It is true, if a man had his panacea in his pocket, that whatever disease he fell into, whatever wound he should make upon himself, he could cure it again when he pleased, it were somewhat like, there were some color; but have you the treasuries of grace in your own keeping? have you? or hath any man a pardon in a box, as the poor deceived Papists are grievously mocked? Surely no; Alas, we can make wounds, but we cannot heal them, we can make a shift to break our faces and bones, but we cannot heal them again, it is in his hand; and will it be for our comfort then, to grieve him by such careless walking? what if he resolve to grieve thee, and give thee enough of thy backslidings? Will it not be bitterness in the latter end? though he may heal it, it may cost thee many a throb and much smart for this wantonness; Brethren, take heed of this: O sickness is chargeable, it may cost thee mourning all thy days.

Seventhly, Then let it be for Exhortation to us all, that we get under the influence of this Sun of righteousness. Sinners, we have all of us need of the Physician, for there is never a whole soul among us, though to our own apprehension some of us think it is well with us, yet it is not, we are full of wounds, the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint, the Lord Jesus hath sent me to tell you where you-may have healing, and to persuade you to come to him; but alas, I am a child and cannot speak. Where is there healing to be had you will say? you know that as well as you can be told; why then, how cometh it to pass that you come not to Jesus Christ, he hath set open the Store-house, the Treasuries of pardoning-mercy, and healing-mercy, inviteth all that will to come, and yet you come not? Surely, either you do not believe this report, or else you do not believe your need of Jesus Christ. O consider what hath been said to that part, and the Lord help you to believe, and persuade you to come to him, for indeed it is he that must draw, and make poor sinners willing to come, or else they will never come to him, only he doth draw; one way is by proposing the object, by holding out a crucified Christ for them. And therefore let me a little propose something to you to persuade you to come to Jesus Christ.

1. Your need of Christ you have seen; for we are all wounded, yea even to the death, bitten with fiery Serpents, the venom whereof inflames our souls, and therefore a Physician we must have or else die: Now there is no healing in any other, but through his stripes; if you know of any other Savior that can deliver, can heal you, take him; follow after him; but I must tell you, when you have spent all, you must be fain to come to Jesus Christ for healing; and is it not better to come before you have spent all upon other Physicians that cannot cure when all is done? O that sinners could but believe this! I tell you truth, Brethren, a Plaister of anything else; made of our own sorrow, or tears, or righteousness, or good works, or whatsoever, it is so far from being a healing, that it will venom the wound more, and maketh yet further work for Jesus Christ, if rested in as a cure. I say, you may make a shift to stop the Orifice of the wound with a balm of your own procuring, but all the while the sore eats into the soul so much the deeper, wrankles within. O now the Lord Jesus, he beginneth at the bottom, and so heals it up; say not then, Are not Abana and Pharpar, Rivers of Damascus, better then all the waters of Israel? when we must go and wash in Jordan if we be healed.

2. Consider this, the longer you conceal your wounds and hold off, the worse will it go with you; for either the Lord will let you go on and never heal you, but let you languish away in these ways of sin you please yourselves so much in; or else if he do, the longer the wound is wrankling the worse it will be, the harder it will go when it cometh to be searched; when David had turned his back upon Christ for so long in the matter of Uriah, it cost him somewhat, it made him roar when the Physic came to work, the Lord withdrawing from him haply as long. O that while you are called today, sinners, now while healing is tendered, you would accept of it! the Lord make you willing.

3. Do but consider, what thronging there was to Christ for healing of their bodily distempers, they brought them from all parts to him, such as could not come themselves; and would there not be the like now if he were upon earth? O how would poor Creeples set the best foot forward to come to him, and such as had diseased creatures, Lame, Blind, Palsy? &c. O how would they take themselves bound to bring them to Christ for healing? and what, is the body more then the soul, Brethren? You would think you were undone if you were lamed, and could not stand upon your legs; why this is nothing to have a heart and a heart. Such a man is lame, one leg shorter then another, or walks with one foot in an higher way, and the other in a lower, and so halts, and is this nothing? O, what would a tender mother give now, if she had all her children and self under the plague at once, or lying of the stone or gout at once, one crieth, and another crieth, never pain like theirs. What would a mother give now for such a Physician, and how ready would she be to carry them to him? what is this to the plague of the heart, and the stone in the heart? and yet no out-cries at all, nor care at all, nay the Lord Jesus cometh himself, is first in the thing, visits with his salvation, moveth, entreateth to accept of pardon, of healing, and yet you will not; what shall I say more, Brethren?

4. Consider, that the Lord Jesus is most freely willing to heal poor sinners; do you think if the Lord Jesus had not been in good earnest, and hearty in the work of salvation of poor sinners, he would have prepared such costly cordials, made up of his own spirits and his own blood, that so no disease might be so deadly, but the sovereignty of the Medicine should be as lively? Surely no; did he ever refuse any that came to him for healing in the Gospel, for healing of the body, but rather while they came for healing of their bodies, he did ex superabundanti gratia, heal their souls; they came to ask crumbs of him, as the poor woman, and he giveth them the children's bread, his flesh and his blood to eat and to drink, to be food and Physic to heal and nourish them; you have heard at large, that none that come unto him he will in any wise cast out.

Therefore, Brethren, let me beg of you to labor with the Lord, and with your own hearts, and never give it over until he hath brought you, and set you directly under the beams of this Sun of righteousness: for the more direct they are, the more power they have, you know the reason: beams of the Sun in winter will not heal the earth of its barrenness and frozenness, but its bound up: and so some may have some glancing influence from Christ, some kind of tastes, and yet notwithstanding not amount to an healing, though to an escaping of the pollutions of the world, outward acts, yet it is not healed to the bottom; there are some lusts indeed, that are like sullen weeds, that will not live except it be in the shade and darkness, as in wells, and pits, and the like, where the Sun cometh not; and therefore, wherever the light of the Gospel cometh, these are presently done away. Some things are so gross, as if there be but a glimmering of light discovered, they fly away, will not endure it; but there are some secret lusts lie so close to the heart, have cast out their roots so there, and are so fastened in the spirit, that except the Lord Jesus do shine in his strength into such a soul, they will never up, they will never wither nor die, nor the soul be healed; but thus much for the Exhortation.

Lastly, I shall speak a word of refreshing to such as tremble at this Word, and every Word of God; are indeed sensible of their condition by reason of sin, and many sad complaints they make; I may imagine, but the Lord heareth the moan that every poor sinner maketh over his wounds, and over his diseases, before the Lord; as you shall have a poor creature that feels he is wounded, the heavy groans he fetcheth, one crieth out of the broken arm, another of a wounded head, a third of the stone, a fourth of the plague: O how it throbs and smarts, when the Lord opens sinners eyes to see what they have done, which they never saw before, thus it is with them: Why now poor sinner, is this thy case, dost thou see and know thy wound? know this day, there is healing for thee, cast not away thy hope; for so poor creatures are ready to say, is there any healing for me? there was never wound sure so deep as mine. O never was there disease so loathsome, so full of pain as mine! yea, here is a promise, the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings upon them that fear him; and now thou beginnest to be afraid of him: though before thou knewest him, thou madest nothing of rebelling against him, yet now thou dost: as they say, bring a man that is guilty of another's murder before him, he will bleed afresh. So the Lord Jesus, when a poor sinner, guilty of his blood, suppose the worst, and this is that which wounds thee now, why his blood will issue afresh to heal poor sinners; what is it that thou art troubled with, is it in thine eyes, is the eyes of thy understanding darkened? he will heal this: how ready was he when the blind men cried to his that they might receive their sight? you know he healed them. What, wouldst thou have thy memory healed of its slipperiness and treachery? he will heal that, he hath done it for many a one in a strange manner. What is it? thy thoughts it may be are wandering and vain, he will heal that; what is it? thy love it may be is full of dissimulation, is not out of a pure heart, and not • ervent as it should, he will heal that; and for thy will, of its pronness to sin, this sin, that sin, thy own iniquity, he will heal that: and so for the Irascible part, he will heal thee of those fears, and troubles, and inordinate passions, vanities, lusts, and vain desires.

O but saith one, my disease is a Relapse, I have found strength against such or such a lust, but I have fallen back again! Be it so, he will heal their backslidings: though it be true, if any sins be talents, these are they. Yea, he will forgive an hundred talents as well as thirty pence; backsliding is a kind of compound of all sins; so much the sadder it is, by how much there is a slighting and undervaluing the blood of Jesus Christ, wherewith we have been purged and cleansed; but is this thy trouble (as this Novatianism is in every poor troubled conscience) to question, Whether ever God will pardon or heal, if they fall after repentance? though I must tell you, usually it costs them more smart; yet the Lord will heal even such as these; what, was not David's sin a backsliding, and Peters a backsliding? the most fearful sin; and the most remarkable sins pardoned and healed, were backslidings, only thou must be content to endure something for the healing of those fearful wounds thou hast made in upon thy soul, for there is no wound cured in a moment, nor without any anguish; and all that he lays upon thee is nothing, the smart is nothing, though the plaster lie long upon thee before it be healed, to draw the sore to a head, to break it, to draw it, to heal it, there▪ will be some time, but he will heal thee poor sinner; if he have made thee weary of this sin, desirous of healing indeed.

And for you that are crying out of broken bones, it may be there are some whose condition this is, that do fear the Lord, and obey the voice of his servants; it is the greatest fear of thy soul to displease the Lord, to grieve him, happy soul with whom it is thus; but thou art over-cast, thou art clouded, thou seest no light, thy bones are broken, thy spirit is wounded, O who can bear a wounded spirit? Be of good cheer man, remember this, hath he not promised it, that he will arise upon them that fear the Lord with healing in his wings? he will heal those broken bones, and the flesh wherein there is no soundness by reason of thy sins, he will heal it, and he is doing of it, though thou art not sensible of it; he pitieth thee, and knoweth how to pity thee, for himself was eclipsed, though the Son of righteousness, that he might know how to pity them that suffer in the like kind for the time to come; he knoweth thy frame, what thou canst bear, and he will not let thee sink O thou of little faith • though he may fright thee, as he did his Disciples, the cloud will be over again, only thou must wait for him; he knoweth what it is to be without the light of his Fathers countenance as well as thou, and he knoweth what thou canst bear; therefore be not discouraged man: and beside, thou hast his promise for it, only look to it, that thou fear him, that thou put not forth thy hand to iniquity, that thou say not with that wicked King, Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? he that shall come, will come, in the best season. When the mercy will be most sweet and seasonable, himself may have most glory by it, and thy soul most refreshing.

O but saith another, I am not healed I doubt then, for alas, I find, though haply I break not out as before, to uncleanness actually; yet I have eyes full of adultery still, I find the dispositions, and inclinations, and yieldings of my heart strong to mine own iniquity still, some to one and some to another. • or answer to this: Is this thy burden, thy grief that it is so? dost thou loath thy • elf for it? dost thou hate it? wouldst thou fain have it rooted up? thou art healed in the greatest part, there is the core fetched up from the bottom, though the wound be not altogether healed up, it is the work of longer time then haply God hath been dealing with thy soul; but be of good cheer man, lay thyself under the Sun of righteousness, labor to improve the Covenant of grace, wherein he shines most gloriously; he hath promised he will circumcise thine heart, and thou shalt be able to love the Lord with all thine heart, and that he will subdue all iniquity for thee; and see if he be not as good as his word in his own time, which is the best time.

We have already endeavored to open the main promise in this bundle, and apply it, with what advantage the Lord and your own hearts can tell; you have heard at large that Jesus Christ is a Sun of righteousness, and that he will ari • e with healing in his wings upon them that fear him. So that there is Christ promised, light, and heat, and healing, reviving and quickening promised, and through him. And now we are come to speak to the liberty which is promised with Christ, which is none of the least considerable Appendices of our justification through his blood, and though you have not long since heard somewhat upon this subject, however, if you hear but the same things, the Spirit of the Lord may breath where and when it pleaseth, we may meet with him sometimes in hearing the same things, that at another time he hath not been found in.

— And ye shall go forth: This is principally, as I told you, spoken to the Jew; to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile; as all the Gospel promises, they were first preached to the children of the Kingdom, when the Gentiles were strangers from the Covenant of promises; but now the Lord hath made them nigh in the blood of his Son that were afar off; in Christ all the promises are Yea and Amen to them, as well as to the Jews; I told you at the first, that we are not to confine promises made to times and persons, except by unavoidable nece • sity, where the matter promised is such, and the promise such as can agree to no other time or person; no persons or people's condition can become like to theirs to whom the promise is made, or are not capable of the thing promised, as the promise of the Messiah to come of David; and that in Abraham's seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed, &c. therefore this is a promise concerning all the people of God, as their conditions become alike, yea all that fear the Lord in any of these senses we have already spoken to.

By going forth here, some understand, a going forth of this life, or a going out of the grave, which is a prison indeed to some, though not properly so to the Saints, but a place of repose until the appearing of Jesus Christ; So Alap. citing Tert. and Jer. the reason is, because they took that which is spoken of the day of the Lord in the foregoing verse, of the day of Judgment, That day which should burn as an Oven; but I do rather conceive that it is not meant of the day of the last Judgment, but the day of the fearful desolations of Jerusalem, out of which yet the Lord did deliver and save his own people; and the rather I conceive so, because of the growing up like Calves of the Stall, promised afterward: now if that be the day, there is no room then to grow any higher, to spread any further, but as the tree is cut down so it lies; there is then in the words a promise of an enlargement from under restraint, wherewith their spirits were bound up, as I may say, and were imprisoned, and this we shall see (I hope) is very great; only take here the note of observation from the words.

The Lord Jesus rising upon a soul, brings enlargement to that soul or people, ye shall go forth. For the prosecution of this I shall propose this Method. First, give you the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the quod, that it is so, Secondly, the quid, what this enlargement is which cometh▪ along with Jesus Christ to a Believer. Thirdly, the quare why it is so: And Fourthly, the Use of the Point.

First then for proof of this, peruse a Text or two in that Evangelical Prophet, who doth very eminently hold out Jesus Christ, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness: there is the Call of Christ: And I will hold thee by thine hand, or, hold thine hand: there is the support of Christ in that great work: and will keep thee, and give thee for a Covenant to the people; for a light of the Gentiles: He is indeed the Spirits of the Covenant; the marrow of the Gospel; the very Spirits of all the promises is Christ; the speech is • igurative. Well, but what is he to do? To open the blind eyes; to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house. Mind you therefore, the Lord Jesus was willing, as I may say, to be imprisoned in our body, if I may so say; or if not, in other respects he was in prison, that he might set his people free, bring them out of the prison: even as Paul when he might, would not go free, except they came and fetched them out of prison. So here, sinners would never go out, except the Lord Jesus came and fetched them out. A Prince for Rebellion casts his Subjects into prison, in the dungeon, there they lie, and would lie and rot there, their stomach is so great, they will not ask for deliverance; nay, if they would, they cannot set themselves free; the Prince cometh with his own hands, knocks off the bolts, breaks the bars & gates, and bids them follow him: so the Lord Jesus doth for sinners. So again, in that place of John, If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed: there is much liberty and freedom, and you will not hear of your being in bondage; but saith our Savior, to set at Liberty is not the work of everyone: it is the Son that only can make you free; and if he make you free, you shall be free indeed. The Lord Jesus you know came into the world, not only to work out salvation for his people, but to preach the salvation he did work out: not only to shed his blood, but to preach remission of sins through his blood, as the Apostle hath it, How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Which at the first began to be spoken to us by the Lord, and afterward by those that heard him: so that he himself preached salvation; he himself did work it out, for no other name is given under heaven: now he preacheth this as a main part, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted; He was anointed, there is his Office; and because anointed as a Prophet to preach it, therefore the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, poured out without measure, he was gifted and fitted for it; which though some understand of Isaiah, as well as of Christ, yet of Isaiah but as the type: Well then, to proclaim liberty to the Captives, and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound. Now surely if this be the substance of his preaching, where he cometh and revealeth himself inwardly to a soul, in a soul, giveth himself to a soul, there must needs be a going forth out of the prison, out of the bondage, wherein the poor soul was held: so we have it in that place, saith the Lord again, even as in chap. 42. so chap. 49. of Isaiah, I will preserve thee, and give thee for a Covenant of the people, &c. That thou mayest say to the prisoners go forth, to them that stand in darkness, show yourselves: and it is no more with God but dictum ac factum, his words are operative words; mark you, they shall Go forth when the Sun of righteousness ariseth upon them; his Commission is his work, for to say to the Prisoners, Go forth; if he bid Lazarus come forth, he cometh forth; he calls the things that are not, as if they were; commands light out of darkness, and so commands Deliverance and Liberty for his poor people that are bound: I hope none will say this is all Old Testament proof; for this is Gospel as clear as the Sun, and to take away all ground of a cavil, read but Luke, and you shall find this is the very Text our Savior preacheth upon to the Jews; tells them, that day this Text was fulfilled, that is to say, that he was the anointed of the Lord; the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, because he was appointed to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised; but I may not wast anymore time, it is but burning day light to hold a candle to the Sun: It is written with a Sun-beam, except you shut your eyes you must needs see it.

The second thing, Is the quod, what this enlargement, or freedom is that is here promised? and truly this is a large question, and wherein most of our work will lie: each of us in the general acknowledge a slavery, a bondage we are under, from which the Lord Jesus doth speak to his people to go forth, yea brings them forth; but we have not a distinct understanding of it: and alas, I am the meanest of them, who make it their work to preserve knowledge; yet as I have received, I shall endeavor somewhat this-way to open the nature of this liberty.

That we may the more clearly proceed, we must distinguish of freedom or liberty into Civil and Spiritual; Civil, is a freedom of ma • s person from servitude of men, so that he shall no more be under • he yoke; and thus the Jews misunderstood our Savior when he spake of freedom; If the Son do make you free, you shall be free indeed: why said they, We are the seed of Abraham, we are free-born, and we never were in bondage to any man; they meant sure they were never particularly sold for servants to any, else bred in bondage to any to be their servants, not meaning their public state, but private, else they much did forget themselves; for they had often been in captivity and bondage, as in Egypt and Babylon, and at present under the Romans; but this is not the liberty we chiefly aim at, nor may we extend it to this bondage, any further then it is a curse: now we know the Apostle tells us, that if a man be called, being a servant, care not for it, for such an one is the Lord his Free-man, neither bond • or free: is there any difference? they are all one in Christ; therefore our Savior did not come to break all yokes off the neck of Servants, or to deliver all such relations; no, but it is meant here surely of a spiritual Liberty, a freedom of the soul from its thralldom; nay himself cometh to be a servant; did he not rather sanctify such a condition and relation then abolish it?

Secondly, Then taking it for spiritual Liberty, that is to say, a freedom from Spiritual evils, the subjection whereunto is a bondage to the poor creature; we must know yet further, that we may take it either in a larger, or in a more restrained sense; in a more restrained, only for that liberty and freedom which the Saints have ever had through the Lord Jesus, since the Covenant of Grace was preached to them, and they closed with it; for we must know that ever before Christ came in the flesh, Believers believed in him to come; they had a liberty through him as to the main parts of it, and necessarily to salvation, though haply not in that degree that now ordinarily Believers indeed have that freedom: but there were some yokes upon them then, which now we are delivered from, they are broken from off the necks of the Saints; yea, and such as were pinching yokes indeed, but yet less considerable by far, then those from which they were delivered and set free; so that now we see there is a larger liberty, and more glorious, which the sons of God have; which will better appear when we come to speak to the parts of it, only this I thought good to premi • e, lost any should think that liberty began only when Christ was revealed in the flesh; for it was the smallest part that then was added, though, I say, the other liberty from the sore condemning, destroying bondage of the soul they had before, haply is now heightened to believers; and so much by way of premise.

For the opening of this spiritual Liberty, we shall consider, 1. Its Subject. 2. Its Causes. 3. Its Parts, extensive and intensive, if we may so speak, that is to say, the degrees of it.

First then for the subject of this Liberty, they are all Christians that are so indeed; therefore it is called Christian Liberty, not only from Christ the Author, but from the Subjects, they are Christians, Believers, both Jews and Gentiles, Bond or Free, Male or Female: Jerusalem, saith the Apostle, which is above, is free, which is the Mother of us all; all such then as receive the Gospel, as the poor are said to do, all those upon whom the Sun of righteousness doth arise, they are set free, they do go forth: for the partial subject of this liberty, that will better appear when we come to speak of the parts of this liberty; some are for the freeing the mind, some the will, some the conscience, some the whole man, but of this afterward.

Secondly, Then for the causes of this liberty which is here promised, we shall speak to some of them.

First then, The principal efficient cause is, the Father, Son, and Spirit; the work of the Trinity ad extra, are individed: the Father it is that calls us to liberty; Ye are called to liberty, (saith the Apostle) use it not as a cloke to the flesh. I marvel (saith the Apostle) that you are so soon removed from him who hath called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel. The Apostle meaneth the calling to liberty, which he calls the Grace of Christ; and that Doctrine of the false teachers that would subject them again to the Law and Ceremonies, and to that bondage, subvert their liberty, he calls it another Gospel. And for the Son, we have it: If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed; and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free: false Brethren came to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. And for the Spirit, it is as clear: The Law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death: the mighty, powerful working of the Spirit, is called the Law of the Spirit, as the powerful operation of Sin, is called the Law of Sin; and so in that place, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty: and so the Spirit of Adoption it is, that succedeth the Spirit of Bondage, and setteth us free from that Bondage.

Secondly, The impulsive cause is merely his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his good pleasure, yea, his tender mercy, his bowels: So it is in the Original, The bowels of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us: there is the arising of the Sun of rightousness upon us, and the effect of it you have before: That we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness, &c. It is not misery is the motive only, else he would do it for all as well as some, for we are all of us in the same bondage naturally, one as well as another.

Thirdly, The meritorious cause is the blood of Jesus Christ, no less then the blood of the Kings son is the price of the liberty of poor Slaves in bondage: this must needs be tender mercy indeed, rich love indeed: so saith the Apostle, That through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is, the Devil: no less then a Kings ransom is paid for the liberty of every poor creature that is made free, and therefore he took upon him flesh and blood; because the children were partakers of the same, that he might die for them, and to deliver them that for fear of death were in bondage all their life-time, of which more afterward; we are now speaking to the meritorious cause the price of his precious mercy, even the blood of Jesus Christ.

Fourthly, The means of conferring or conveiging this liberty to poor Sinners, is the Gospel of liberty, the Covenant of Grace held out in the Gospel is the means; and this is plain in many places; As in that of Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the Captives: if ever any preaching was the Gospel, Christ's preaching was, and the Covenant, who himself was given to be the Covenant to the people: sure he would preach nothing but that, or in subordination to that, as he doth preach the Law too, as would easily appear: but we may not digress: and so in tha • other place of Luke, where either that or some of the fore-cited places in Isaiah are quoted: Ye shall know the truth, (saith our Savior) and the truth shall make you free: by truth there, I take it is not meant indefinitely, any truth whatever, no, nor a scriptural truth, but the Gospel of truth, which is called the truth: Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ: it is such a truth, so pure and precious: For his word is like Silver tried and purified seven times: (that is to say) his Promise, therefore he concludeth, That the Lord will keep them, he will preserve them forever: and so precious, so confirmed by miracles, that all other truth scarce deserveth the name of truth in comparison of it: either it is not so pure, but hath some dross, or else not so precious. O they are precious Promises indeed! as the soul knoweth right-well, when he cometh to stand in need of a Promise, and the sweetness of it he sucks out, and it letteth down the sweetness of it upon the soul; but take a parallel Scripture to show that Gospel is called the truth: The Apostle speaks plainly, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel: and again to the Ephesians, In whom also ye trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise. So that this is the truth then, the knowledge whereof shall make us free; where the Spirit of Christ is, there is liberty; that is clear, as you heard before; Now how is the Spirit given but by the Gospel? Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of Faith? which is that hearing of Faith by the Word of Truth; the foregoing Verse, even that which held forth a crucified Christ to them, hearing of Faith, not the rumour of Faith, but hearing is such an hearing, as whereby a man believeth; and Faith by a Metonymy, is put for the Word of Faith, as the Gospel is called sometimes, because Faith thereby is begotten; now by this the Spirit is received, and therefore liberty cometh; and therefore the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit, in that place of the Apostle, because therewith the Spirit is given and ministered to poor creatures; whereas the Law works Bondage and Wrath, Therefore Jerusalem is free, which is above; (that is to say) the Church built upon the Covenant of Grace is free, is the Mother of us all, but enough of this; The Gospel is the outward instrumental cause.

Fifthly, the inward instrumental cause or Con. as some will have it, which I shall not now dispute; that is faith, whereby we close with this Covenant; it is the Word of Faith and hearing of Faith, (that is to say) of the Gospel, so as to work Faith, whereby the Spirit is given which brings liberty to the soul. Alas, many hear the Gospel of liberty which we preach, and few do receive it, few believe it; for it appeareth by woeful experience, we are yet in bondage, we have never gone forth to this day, many of us, though we have had as much preaching of the Gospel as any other; Jerusalem that now is, (as the Apostle calls it) was in bondage then, though they had the Gospel preached among them a great while, they believed not; except the Spirit therein be conveyed, the Gospel is but a dead letter as well as the Law, and a deadly letter also: and so much for the causes of this liberty or freedom which cometh by Jesus Christ.

The third thing under this head, is the parts of this liberty or freedom, which we shall consider two ways. First, Extensively, in their latitude • And secondly, Intensively, in the degrees of each of these parts in its latitude. But that we may the better understand it, we must know that liberty is a relative, and respecteth some bondage, some imprisoning or shutting up, from which this liberty is a deliverance, ye shall go forth: and therefore to set off the luster of this glorious liberty, it may not be amiss to run a parallel between them. That there is such a bondage under which every poor creature without Christ, is held, we shall at present presuppose, though afterward haply I shall come to prove it: I would not here too far digress before we come to speak of the parts of the bondage, to which the parts of liberty will be opposite and correspondent. I shall say in a few words, something to the Author of this Bondage and Tenure of it, and but a word or two.

For the Author of this bondage under which poor creatures are without Christ altogether; and in part also many times when they are under Christ, and under Grace.

First, Some part of it is to be ascribed to the Lord, so far forth as it is merely vindictive, or an inflicting of a just penalty upon Sinners for sin, so far we may ascribe it to God, as will more plainly appear in the following Considerations. The Law which genders to Bondage, it is his Law, and holy, and just and good, though it gender to Bondage: nor will it follow, because we are delivered form it, therefore it was an evil in itself, but only per accidens, by reason of our corruption, and so the Spirit of Bondage which in some is vindictive, when he binds and hampers a Sinner with the cords of his sin, haply never intending that he shall see through those terrors to his comfort; this is from him, and justly; or else if it be in order to a settlement, to a peace, to an Adoption, a Sonship through Christ, as preparative to the receiving of Christ, this is from him; and so several other parts of it are from him under this Consideration.

Secondly, But so far forth as any part of it is sinful, there it is from Satan, and from our own evil hearts: for darkness cannot come from the light, nor can anything unclean come from that which is altogether pure, no more then a clean thing can proceed from an unclean, as the bondage under sin, which more at large afterward we shall discuss.

Secondly, For the tenure: for being in bondage, we are in bondage to some person properly; to something improperly, and by a kind of Prosopopeia we are said to be in such a bondage; now there is some Tenure (as I may say) wherein they do hold us in bondage, there are three or four tenures (if I may so call them) whereby we are thus held under Bondage, until Jesus Christ come to set us free. First, A Sale▪ Secondly, By Birth. Thirdly, By Captivity or Conquest. Fourthly, By Tyranny and resignation of themselves up to such a vassalage: but a word or two to each of them.

First then, There is a Bondage by Captivity, when People are taken Captives; this is so common, there is none can be ignorant of it. What are the Turks Gally-slaves but the prey of their piracies? all is fish that cometh to the net; so it is in this case; This is one Part of the Tenure, we are taken captive by Satan even at his pleasure; Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage; this is the military Law, the Prisoners were ever the Conquerors slaves; we have seen it but too evidently with our own eyes, we have born witness to it in our days, wherein there hath been so much leading into captivity, and so much complaining in our Land; So Satan he hath overcome us in our first Parents, we were overcome, and ever since he holds fast his hold he had of us; and though he let Sinners enjoy a little chain sometimes, so that they are ready to think they are at liberty, yet alas he takes them alive at his pleasure; you see a beast of prey sometimes so sportful as to play with the prey, and, let it go a little, it runs, and thinketh it is free; but alas all this while it is under the command of the beast of prey; as Pharaoh would let Israel go, so they would not go far, he fetcheth them in when he pleaseth.

Secondly, There is also a Bondage by Sale, as you know Joseph was sold into Egypt for a servant; and nothing more ordinary then selling and buying of servants; he is bought with thy money, saith God to Abraham, Gen. 17. 12. & 13. (distinguishing of servants) he must needs be circumcised, whereby it appears, they had a more absolute power over them, then they had over other Servants bought of any stranger, which is not of thy seed; thy bond-men and thy bond-maids shall be of the Heathen, not of thy brethren, Of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids, Levite. 25. 44. These were to be even as a Possession to them, ver. 25. and their power was so absolute over them, that though they smote them with the hand or a rod, so that they died, if they continued a day or two before, they must not be punished for it, for they were their money, which was somewhat an hard bondage to them; truly brethren, thus it is, We are sold under sin, (as the Apostle saith) speaking of himself, who was not altogether freed from this bondage, he was sold under sin, being carnal, (that is to say) in part, as in that first of the Corin • hians, They are called carnal, that were as Babes in Christ; so far as sin prevailed, so far the bondage did appear, he was sold in the first transgression. Now there is another selling whereby a man doth sell himself to commit wickedness, as you know Ahab did. Paul did not now sell himself, but was under the former sale, and in such a bondage he could by no means altogether free himself from; he could not shake off his chains and weights that did hang upon him by reason of this bondage; but now Sinners, they sell themselves. Such as Ahab, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? saith he to Elijah: I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord; and so the Israelites are said to sell themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, making their Sons and Daughters pass through fire, &c. Now by this Sale, the Sinner passeth himself over into the power of him that buyeth him, yet more and more fully. Quod venditur, transit in potestate ementis: The Devil knew the meanest of his, the price he pays, a little pleasure of sin, a little profit; he cares not how often there be a bargain between him and the soul of a Sinner; a man that for a little pelf will venture and hazard his soul, he shall have it, or else it shall cost the Devil a fall; I speak not of Witches selling themselves to Satan, for the accomplishment of some lust, to satisfy some discontent, but of every lew and wicked Sinner; he little knoweth what he doth, that goeth on in a course of Sin; every new transgression and satisfaction to the flesh is a new price, (as I may say) laid down in your hands for your souls to become slaves to the Devil. O how many times hath he bought many of us! and have we sold ourselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord? the ambitious man for the satisfaction of his lust, sels himself to commit wickedness; as the covetous you see in Ahab, to have his desire, would not stick to murder, to suborn witnesses to swear falsely; the ambitious person would not care to swim through a Sea of blood to the Throne, they are slaves to the worst of Tyrants, a lust; it would make a man tremble to read the fearful things that are done upon this account, specially by the Ottomans, the great Turk, who rivits himself in the Imperial Throne, with the bones of his murdered brethren, as one expresseth it. O how dear a rate do men give, who sell their precious souls for a spurt of pleasure, for the pleasures of sin for a season, they are not always in season neither; or a little profit of sin, a little unjust gain, they pay not twenty, nor an hundred years purchase, but if the Lord do not intervene with the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ, they pay eternity for it, and when they have so sold their souls to commit wickedness, what can they give, or what would they give in exchange for their souls again? a world full of honors, and pleasures, and profits then, alas, would be nothing to part with, if they might but have them redeemed, when it is too late; this is another way whereby sinners come into bondage.

Thirdly, By brith also there is a bondage; as you know the children of them who were taken captives were captives, they were sold themselves, that were sold, and with them their children, therefore such servants as the Israelites bought with money, how many so ever they did beget in their families, they were all servants and bond-men; so Abraham had so many servants trained, born in his own house, 318. I had servants born in mine house, saith Solomon. The Israelites indeed, if they did sell themselves through poverty, or became servants, they did continue until the year of jubilee, but must not be ruled over with rigor, as they might rule over strangers, nor must be kept as bond-men forever; but the strangers they might buy of them, and leave them as a possession forever to their children, that is to say, both them and their children; they might buy, and so sell them again, and leave them to their children, and therefore all born in such a condition were bond-servants; so we find in that place when our Savior told them they should be free indeed, if the Son made them free; why said they, We are Abraham's seed, and never were in bondage by birth; we are free, not as the seed of the Canaanites, who were bond-men, and they never were in bondage to any, they were not sold as servants; poor blind creatures could see no further then a civil bondage or liberty. Now truly Brethren, thus we are all of us bond-men and women by birth, being all strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel, and Covenant of promises (as the Apostle speaks) they are the children of the promise only, that are free. We are all the children of wrath by nature, not a mothers child of us free-born; if any by nature should have been free-born, surely the seed of Abrah • m according to the flesh; but our Savior tells them their liberty was but imaginary; if the Son did make them free, they should be free indeed; this is the third.

Fourthly, by tenure and usurpation there is a bondage also; as we see it in the case of Israel in Egypt, they were bond-men in Egypt, and they made them serve a hard bondage, it is called the house of bondage; they made them serve with rigor, so saith the text, in all manner of service; the design of the King being to weary them out by degrees, and yet to advantage himself by their service, while they were wearying out, this was their wise dealing with them, lest they should be too hard for them; and truly of this nature is the bondage wherein the people of God themselves are in part, though the Devil have no title to them, the price being paid for them to the justice of the Father, yet he as a tyrannical • aylor, loath to let them go, and therefore he loads them with chains, lays heavy temptations upon them, and sin rageth to lose its servant, and therefore tyrannizeth, and the Law in the members carrieth captive to the Law of sin, and this is one great grief to the poor child of God, that though sin do not reign in their mortal bodies, yet it tyrannizeth over them, and with a strong hand many times holds them down, so as that they are not able to stir hand nor foot: but more of this afterwards.

Now for the parts of this bondage, with which the parts of that liberty or freedom we are to speak of will run parallel: We shall devide this bondage into these two general parts, it is either to sin, or else to the black concomitants, which are very many; we shall particularize some of them, and thereby our liberty will the more plainly appear.

First then for sin, it is clear we are in bondage to sin, either totally or in part, all of us by nature altogether in bondage, for we are sold under sin; and though it be true, that sin is only a privation of good, and disposition to evil, and so properly cannot be said to rule over us, yet by a prosopopeia we are said to be in bondage to it, therefore we are said to be sold under sin; sold under it, and therefore in Scripture it is, that sin is called an old man, corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and this old man it is that hath the poor sinner under his power, and ruleth him with subtlety. O they are deceitful lusts, • he counsels of sin, the fetches, and tricks, and devices, depths and methods of a sinful heart, who knoweth Brethren? he carrieth it so slily, that many think themselves at liberty, as free-men as any the world hath, yea so free, as to promise to others liberty, and yet themselves in the mean time are the servants of sin; and not only so, but the •• are Laws of sin which carry a strength with them, and the poor creature under them must obey them; and these Laws are nothing else but the wills of the flesh, as the Apostle calls them, an arbitray government here beginneth and takes it rise. Hoc volo, sic jubeo, &c. saith the imperious person. If a sinner begin to question what reason there is in such an act, he is prompted to sin, bloweth out the candle; hoc volo, &c. let my will be a reason, I will have it so. So many lusts, so many wills, and is it not a bondage to be under these? Ye were, saith the Apostle, the servants of sin, but now ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you; and so in several other places: whosoever committeth sin, saith our Savior, is the servant of sin. You talk of being Abraham's seed, and never being in bondage, this is nothing to my purpose, I speak of a bondage to sin, and he that commits it is the servant of it; he that works it industriously, is a drudge to his lusts, as alas, how many of us are? and he that curiously works it is an Artist. O with what art can some mon lie, and cheat, and cozen, and play the hypocrites! these are the servants of sin. O when one fulfills the lusts of the flesh, and of the mind, maketh provision for the flesh to satisfy the lusts thereof! This man is a servant of sin: the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, the love of profits, the love of pleasures, and the love of pride, when men give themselves up to satisfy these, study their lusts, how to fulfill them, this is a bondage under sin with a witness.

Now blessed be the Lord, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath delivered us, as many as believe, from this bondage, so the Apostle breaks out pathetically, Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you; now saith he; being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness; and this is set forth by our death to sin; ye are dead, saith the Apostle to the Col. and your life is hid with Christ in God; now death puts an end to all bondage 〈◊〉 as Job speaking of it, the small and great are there in the grave, and the servant is free from his Master. A woman, saith the Apostle (speaking of sin, of the Law with respect to sin, as afterward we shall speak somewhat) she is bound to her husband as long as he liveth, but if he be dead, then she is free. So it is in this case, death breaks all the iron yokes and brazen gates, therefore saith the Apostle, he that is dead is freed from sin; not as the vulgar and some read, is justified, as if our justification and sanctification were confounded; for here the Apostle is speaking of our Sanctification, or the death of sin, crucifying the old man, of being buried with Christ in body, and so dead to sin; now saith he, he that is dead, is free from sin; the Con. is comprehended in the Antecedent, he is freed actually from sin, Sin shall not have dominion over you, saith the Apostle, no iniquity shall have dominion over you. Thus believers are freed from sin, whereas before we were under a cruel bondage; you that have experience of this liberty, what it is to be freed from your former lusts which you served, foolish and hurtful lusts; the Lord teach you to prize it.

But secondly, now for the Con. of this bondage to sin, there are many and very dreadful, which every poor sinner is under, which are also as parts of this bondage.

First then, hence it is that we are in bondage unto Satan, that we are under his power, that we are in bondage by nature to him, as the Jailor, it is clear, the Spirit that now rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience: he rules there, setteth up his throne there; & service to such a Master cannot be a freedom, but a bondage, a cruel one. A Master that delights now naturally in nothing but mischief; though it be but to swine, yet he would do mischief, much more then to poor sinners; and therefore he is said to lead captive poor creatures at his pleasure, to take them alive; and indeed, it is the Devil that binds the pinching yoke upon us, his loins are laid upon the back of a poor sinner, and his being the Tyrant, doth help the former prosopopeia, whereby bondage is ascribed to fo • , Zech. 1. 15. the heathen helped forward; &c. Not as if sin would not work and keep the creature in subjection, or were a dead Law of itself, and must have a Prince, a King to put it into act; no, no, if there were no Devil to aggravate our bondage, we should find the rage of lust very great, and their commands very peremptory, but yet however he is not idle, he stirreth up, and endeavoreth to enrage our lusts more and more; the Devil stirred up David to number the people: Why alas, David had that pride and fleshly confidence in him that was ready enough to provoke him to it, but the Devil helped it forward, his concurrence with sin maketh it the more powerful; as the Spirit of the Lord acting our graces, so doth the Devil also, though with some difference, act our corruption: was it not the Devil that filled Ananias and Sapphira their hearts? he had filled them as his throne, and so had laid the commands of sin, of their lust, of their carnal fears, that they were over-born by them: and so he entered into Judas after the sop: he came to our Savior, and he found nothing in him, and yet he would vex him with his temptations notwithstanding: but alas for us, he can come within us, he hath matter enough to work upon, and he can come within us to the very fancy, and there secretly work: now the Saints, they are delivered from this Con. which is a part of the bondage also; he rules no more in them, for they are not the children of disobedience; our Savior saw when the Gospel went forth to be preached, Satan falling like lightening from heaven, he came down with a witness, was dethroned, cast out: the strong man armed holds all in quiet possession, that is to say, Satan holds the heart of poor sinners quietly, while he hath his armor, their ignorance, and this carnal reasonings, and corrupt affections, and stubborn wills, while these are his, he is safe enough; but now let the Lord Jesus come and take away the armor, change the heart of a poor creature, and then alas, he is spoiled of all; therefore he is said to spoil principalities & powers, & to make an open show of them. So that he hath led captive; taking captivity actively or passively: actively, he hath led him that did lead his people captive, now captive himself: or else passively, those were led captive by Satan; now the Lord Jesus hath captivated them to himself, brought them under his own dominion. Satan cannot now anymore challenge them as his own, nor rule over them as his slaves, and this is another piece of this liberty, to go forth of the paw of this Lyon, the jaws of this rouring Lyon, that goeth about seeking whom he may devour.

Secondly, another part of this bondage is the guilt of sin, which is an obnoxiousness to the wrath and displeasure of God, whether the creature • eeth it, or seeth it not, he is under condemnation, his guilt is the Obligation which bindeth him over to answer it at the great day of Jesus Christ, as you see offenders are bound over to answer it at the Assizes or Sessions; this is guilts work in respect of the soul; now we look upon a guilty person that is bound over as a prisoner, if he go under bayl he is under a bondage by reason of this guilt. So it is here, the Law of God is that which shuts up a sinner, as it is in that place of the Apostle; so that we are, as I may say, in prison; and a man under guilt, whether he sleep, or whether he wake, he is a guilty person and under bondage; specially, if it proceed so far as to a condemnation, as it is in this case, every unbeliever is condemned already in the Court of Scripture; for God doth manage in this liberty concernments of our souls by a Law, by a Law he acquitteth or condemneth, and so unbelievers are under this bondage also; from this now every child of God is set free, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, their guilt is done away, their surety hath satisfied justice, hath paid the debt, laid down the price, and therefore all being cleared, the poor creature is set free from that part of his bondage. Is not this an unspeakable freedom to have all the guilt of our sins that ever we commtited taken away? but this is but the second.

Thirdly, another Con 〈…〉 is this, the darkness which from sin ariseth, and is, as I may say, chains upon the soul, and no small part of this bondage; Dungeons you know are usually dark places, and therefore darkness is put for the prison, sometimes, as a Synonyma, to bring out the prisoners out of prison, in that place of Isaiah, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house; and so again, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth; and to them that are in darkness, show yourselves: The darkness you know imprisoned them in Egypt, no man stirred out of his place, none went forth nor came in by reason of the darkness; and so the night imprisoneth men, shutteth up their works and employments, night cometh when no man can work, which is the night of darkness, by removing the Gospel; or else the night of death: Now when the Sun of righteousness ariseth upon a soul, he shall go forth of this darkness or prison.

Here it will be inquired what is meant by this darkness, which is a part of this bondage. First, by darkness, I mean a state of ignorance; gross darkness covereth the earth, saith the Prophet; ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; that is to say, so dark as that nothing but the abstract would suffice to set forth their condition. Now truly, ignorance may well be looked upon as a bondage, for it is the very beginning, the principal of all our bondage, and therefore when the Lord speaks of delivering a poor sinner from the power of sin, he saith, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son: mind you, from the power of darkness, darkness is the power of Satan, he is the Prince of the power of darkness, as some render that place: were it not that sinners are blind-folded, do you think they would be led by Satan into so many horrid things? O if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Alas, the Panther hideth his head when he allureth the beasts, the sweetness of his smell, or beauty of his skin, only the Drag is said to fly from him, Isid. li. 12. 2. See Mead upon Revel. p. 2. p. 52. Alas, they see not the head, which is ready to affright them and devour them; and not only is it the ground of this bondage, but of all the rest; how cometh it to pass that poor souls are plunged into such desperate gulfs of despairing, and such breaking bondage in that kind, but because they are held in ignorance, they do not come to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, he keepeth them in ignorance of the promises, the sweet and precious promises of Jesus Christ. O dear friends, it is impossible, were it not for our ignorance of that love of God in Jesus Christ, and that riches, exceeding riches of grace that is in him, and his thoughts that are above our thoughts, that there should be so many cloudings, such fearful plunges as many poor souls are put unto, yea many times even after they are once delivered from them; why now I say, when the Lord Jesus cometh, ariseth upon a soul as the Sun of righteousness, he dispels this ignorance, discovers sin in its own colors, and indeed worse it cannot be set forth in; therefore the Apostle saith, that sin might appear to be sin; and then he opens the treasuries of the Promises of the Covenant of Grace, to let a poor sinner see there is enough for him there: though his sins be great, yet mercy is transcendantly greater: if he have mountains to be covered, the Lord hath a sea to swallow them up; if multitudes of sin, there is multitude of mercies: there is love, which will cover a multitude; and so by discovering himself thus, and ourselves to ourselves, he by degrees setteth the creature at Liberty from those fearful apprehensions of God, and from that delight in sin, which formerly he had taken; so that now no longer will he serve it. But a little more▪ plainly, take a Scripture or two for it, in that of Isaiah, To proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound; the opening of the prison, some read it so, and so do our Translators, though it is acknowledged by the learned among us, that the latter is nowhere else used in this sense for the prison, nor for the prey, as some others use it; and therefore some do take the word to be but one, and render it om • im • do apertionem, so that the doubling of the Letters here are Emphatical, and by way of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , though then Manaph here remaineth as a difficulty, for words so doubled use not to be so joined together: so that some would have it here nothing else, but a very large opening of their eyes, and say that it is used most properly, if not constantly, of the opening of the eyes: and surely this is the way of God's delivering his Captives, and agreeable to the text here; the Sun arising in the morning opens the eyes, setteth the senses at liberty from that prison of darkness they were in in the night; and elsewhere it is manifest in that of Luke 4. 18. To preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind: and again the Psalmist, The Lord looseth the Prisoners, he openeth the eyes of the blind; therefore Paul was sent to open the eyes of the blind, and turn them from the power of Satan to God, and from darkness to light; for we must know that this bondage is of the soul, the faculties thereof, and chiefly the will: Now the Lord when he cometh to deliver us, dealeth with us as with men; and therefore, first opens the eyes of the mind, and draweth us with the cords of a man, with arguments over-pouring our reason, and then, with the cords of love, sweetly thereby inclining our hearts, and bowing our wills, and then the poor creature comeeth forth out of this bondage; before we see we are in prison, or see the loathsomeness of it, the darkness of it, we are in love with it, and will not go forth.

But Secondly, This darkness comprehendeth another, and that is Error, or rather this ariseth from the other, and therefore we shall speak to it apart, Ye err, not knowing the Scripture, nor the power of God; he saith not, ye err, not knowing immediate Revelations, but not knowing the Scripture; for there the light is in the Lanthorn, if we will behold it; now this error, of what kind it will be, it is a snare of the Devil, and therefore it is a bondage. The Apostle there speaks of Heretical Doctrine, held by such as do perversely oppose themselves against the Ministers of Jesus Christ, who hold out the truth as it is in Jesus. He showeth how Timothy is to carry himself to them, in meekness, instructing them that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance, to the acknowledgement of the truth; Repentance is a turning from sin to God, and to the contrary Grace or Virtue, and that is the acknowledgement of the truth; therefore their sin was some corruption of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will, out of the snare of the devil; a sad snare it is: if the devil can but get so far within a man as to dazzle his eyes, to blind them, he may lead them whither he will; if he can but corrupt their judgment, especially in fundamentals or practicals, then they are his own, they are fast enough, he carrieth them captive, takes them alive even at his pleasure. Now our liberty from this part of bondage also is by the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon us; the Spirit maketh us free, as he is a spirit leading his people into the truth; not only the notion, but the practice of it also; & we have an anointing, whereby we know all things, saith the Apostle, speaking of Antichrist: it is needle • s for me to speak to you of him, you have an anointing will teach you to avoid th • se his errors: O happy is that soul, that hath such a Guide! such a Leader to lead him forth out of prison; even as the Angel went before Peter, else between sleep and wake, hope and fear, he might haply have mist his way. So the Lord Jesus cometh and giveth his Spirit, and bids the soul go forth: alas, whether should they go? they know not the way, as Thomas said; why saith he, • ollow me, I will lead you, as he in his word hath therein revealed himself, and maketh it out by his Spirit to his people.

Fifthly, There is another part of bondage, under a slavish obedience, that is to say, such an obedience to the Law of God, as nothing but a slavish fear is the principle of it; and truly, this puts on men to do many things; they know it is written, Cursed is he that continueth not in everything that is written in the book of the Law to do it: Now this sticks with the poor soul, God requireth me to love him with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength; and if I do not, I am cursed; therefore now he buckles a little to it, as far as such terrors will carry him; but alas, he is not able to do it; like a slave that doth his task, while his Master stands over him with a rod; or because he is sure to be beaten, if he do it not; not out of any love to the Master, nor to his service at all, what a grievous bondage is this? Let but any Apprentice, that hath a hard Master, whom he serveth merely out of fear, as the Egyptians did their task, because if they did them not, they must be beaten: and this maketh the yoke very heavy and uneasy, also it pincheth exceedingly. Now when the Lord Jesus cometh to a soul, he breaks this yoke, the Law genders to bondage; the curse of it hath the very seeds of bondage in it: Now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh, ariseth upon a soul, letteth him see that he hath undertaken for him, not only the curse of the Law, being made a curse, but hath set his love upon him, hath paid all the debt, will take him to be his son, no more as a servant; O now when the soul beginneth to be sensible his condition is changed, that he is a Son, and now hath not a cruel hard Master to serve, but a Father that will pity and spare where he falleth short of his duty, let him do his best; this doth much facilitate the work, maketh the yoke easy, and the burden light, his Commandments are no more so grievous to the soul, as they were before: Now the Law of Christ is a perfect Law of Liberty to him; before it was a Law gendring bondage; for alas, before it was only preached to the ear, and that under the penalty of such a curse, now it is written in the heart; now there is an echo in the soul resounding, Thy will Lord will I do, when he speaks anything; as the Law of love was upon the heart of Christ, in the work of our Redemption; now his Law is in our hearts, and therefore we delight to do his will in some measure, I delight in the Law of God after the inward man, as the Apostle saith; as a Servant it may be for a while under his Master hardly used, yet afterward he changeth his manner of dealing with him, offers him great immunities, it may be, to be of a Servant, Son in Law to the King: O now the Servant will be bored, he will now become a willing servant, and not be dragged to obedience by terrors and fears anymore, but willingly yieldeth up his members weapons of righteousness to holiness: now the service is hearty and free; his people shall be a willing people in the day of his power: O saith the Apostle, Ye were the servants of sin, but now thanks be to God, ye have from the heart obeyed the form of doctrine delivered to you: from the heart, that is to say, out of love, it cannot else well be from the heart; for whom we dread with a slavish fear, we hate, and while the soul looks upon God, as such a Judge, as a cruel Master, and his Law a cruel, bloody Law, nothing but blood and ruin to them that come not up unto it, there is a hatred of God, it is impossible to love him, or his service; and then the service such a man doth, it is not from the heart; a man may serve sin, and yet do some service to God out of a slavish fear, as most unbelievers do; therefore they pray, and therefore they read, and therefore they do many things, and yet serve sin; but they never obey from the heart, until this work be done, the Law of love be written in their souls: now you shall go forth, you shall obey no more out of fear, but out of love: this is a Fifth.

Sixthly, From the terrors and fears before a man's conversion, which usually seize upon the creature, in order to it; for truly, before the Lord hath to do with our hearts, we are so dead asleep with the opium of sin, that there must be somewhat to rouse us, to awaken us; usually there is a spirit of bondage, which works fear and dread, and terror in the soul, that is to say, when the Spirit of Christ, breathing in the Commandment, maketh sin appear to be sin, exceeding sinful, and opens some of the terrors which sin doth breed in it, witnesseth to the poor creature, that he is in a state of condemnation, that there is no way but one with him: O now the soul beginneth to be amazed, and startled, and knoweth not what to do! this runs him to the heart: he had many afflictions and troubles in the flesh before, never any came so near as this; and no marvel, because the Spirit▪ of Jesus Christ hath wounded him at the very heart. Brethren, the Law of God is, as I may say, an Habeas Corpus, or rather Animam, apprehends, or claps up a soul, as I may say, puts him in prison; and therefore the Apostle useth that expression; mind you, the Scripture hath concluded all under sin 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 hath shut us up together, all concluded under one prison▪ in one dungeon, that the promise, which is of Faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe; but before Faith came, we were kept under the Law: I pray you mind it, we were kept as in a Garrison, as the Learned interpret it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; and again, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , being shut up together unto the Faith, which should afterward be revealed: it is just as it is with a Prince, he proclaimeth Pardon to all his Rebellious Subjects, but withal he sendeth out his Messengers, his Pursuivants, to apprehend, throw in prison, keep under Bolts and Shakles as many of them as he can apprehend; this is not contrary to his mercy, nor proclamation of Pardon, but in order to it, subordinate to it, that so his Pardon, offered might be accepted, they might sue for it: So it is here, the Law doth thus shut up a soul, as I may say; as when there is an Highway open for a man to walk in, but he will go another way, there it is hedged up; at last he is so hedged in, he cannot tell which way in the world to get out again: O then! if he could but find the open way, he would go in it: So it is in this case, the Lord maketh this terror and this bondage a means to their enlargement. Ah blessed Prison! that is only to make poor creatures willing to be at liberty; well, now this the Lord Jesus when he cometh and revealeth himself to a soul, he brings him out of these labyrinths of fears and terrors; letteth the poor creature see, that himself is the way, and the only way; he hath undertaken the work for his people, only if they will believe, though they have no strength in them to do anything, nor to extricate themselves from the difficulties they find themselves in, by reason they cannot fulfil the Law; yet he is the mighty one upon whom help is laid, and withal letteth them understand how his bowels do yern over them, and how his heart is open, ready to enlarge them; and so persuadeth them to close with him; and then they go forth when faith cometh; so Christ is the end of the Law, and the • awe a School-Master to bring us to Christ: But that is but the Sixth.

Seventhly, Another part of this bondage, is those after-claps of fears and terrors, that after Christ hath been revealed to, and in a soul, may befall the creature; alas, you find it so, they may be clapt up afterward in the pit of noise, the horrible pit, and be in the deeps, and in darkness; and like Jeremiah's dungeon, sink in the mire, where there is no standing, they feel no bottom of their misery, their fears are overwhelming; or like Jonahs Whales belly, they are in the belly of hell, and all the waves and billows of God go over them: O this is sore bondage! however it be true, that the Spirit of God is never anymore a spirit of bondage to them, to witness to them they are children of wrath afterward, yet he doth not say but they may have bondage again; and all fear hath torment, and is bondage to the Spirit, it doth fetter it, and shut up and contract the spirits exceedingly. Now I say, the darkness of a man's own heart, which doth naturally gender, fear, and Satan to help, and the frowns of God's displeasure for the present, though he do not witness anymore that a man is a child of eternal wrath and displeasure, these may bring the poor creature into sad perplexities; Well, yet the Spirit of the Lord Jesus when he cometh, brings also liberty with him from this bondage; David will tell you so; and Heman will tell you so: do but consider what conditions they were in? how came they to be delivered? O lift up the light of thy countena nce upon me; Son of God arise upon me, shine upon my soul, and then I shall be healed. O restore to me the joy of thy salvation, make me▪ to hear joy and gladness, &c. Well, the Promise doth extend even to this bondage also, and to this may we refer the next: I will speak of it distinctly.

Eighthly, There is another Bondage, and that is the fears of death and judgment, whereby many a poor creature is kept in Bondage all the days of their lives; (as the Apostle saith in that to the Hebrews) to which I will speak a few words; He came; (saith the Text) and took part of flesh and blood, that through death be might destroy him that hath the power of death (that is to say, the Devil) and deliver them that through fear of death were all their life-time subject to Bondage. Brethren, death itself is a terrible thing, the Simplex could say, but hardly could he tell the reason of it; for them that have no fear of God before their eyes, but have put out the eye of reason, and live like Beasts, giving up themselves to commit wickedness with greediness, though while they can keep off the apprehensions of death, they may go on merrily, but when that seizeth upon them, it mars their mirth, it maketh a change in their faces, and they are not: now truly death is not so terrible in itself considered, but that the stoutness of a man's spirit, specially where there is no other consideration of it, he may overcome it, and live above the fears of it, as the Heathens some of them did; but now a man that knoweth indeed what death is, not only a dissolution of the union between the soul and body, taking down this mouldering Tabernacle, but a Serpent with a sting it is, where sin and guilt lies upon the soul; it is the beginning of sorrows, the arrest of the soul to judgment to come, to receive its doom for all its bloody evils he hath been guilty of. The worldling is not willing to give up his soul, O he knoweth, he can never answer for his wasting of his spirits, and spending his time to lay up treasure here, and in the mean time neglecting his soul and Jesus Christ, and tenders of Grace; he knoweth this well enough, and therefore he will not yield up his Spirit, they shall take it from him, as it is in the Parable; This night shall thy soul be taken from thee: and so for any other sin; and now I say this maketh death terrible, and by reason of these fears of death, men that have any sight or sense of their condition, they are in Bondage all their lives long, yea, even the people of God themselves are in some measure under this bondage; and according to the measure of the discovery of Christ to them, and the power of faith in them, is this fear, and this bondage broken, and the Lord Jesus came for this end, to deliver them: alas, before his coming the Saints may be specially meant here, who had indeed the knowledge of Christ to be crucified for Sinners, and beheld him crucified, though darkly in the sacrifices, &c. and in the promise from the foundation of the world, but yet notwithstanding they had not that confidence usually, but there was more room for doubtings and fears, because they died still without the accomplishing of that promise; now though such as had an extraordinary measure of faith and a prophetical spirit, might see this clearly, and so it might raise them much what above this bondage, yet ordinarily I believe it was not so, that they had such clear conviction of the freeness of grace, and the abundance and riches of it in Jesus Christ, and therefore it did not so f • lly quiet their Spirits in respect of fears of death and judgment, they did not so clearly see the sting plucked out; therefore the Apostle saith, those Sacrifices, though they did hold out Christ, could not make the comers thereunto perfect, and therefore they were often repeated; But now the Lord Jesus he hath by once offering, forever perfected, completed their salvation, and therefore you shall find, that the Apostle and others do so triumph over death, and the grave, and sin, as we hardly find any before the coming of Christ; and it must needs be so, because now the Spirit, which is the liberty of the Saints was poured out in a greater measure, and therefore we may understand this of a general state of the Saints before the coming of Christ; the arising of this Sun of righteousness indeed, hath shone into the very chambers of death themselves, to let us see tha • there is not that real terror in it, that otherwise, except himself had gone through it, and broken the bars of it, and plucked out the sting, and sanctified it as a passage to our Glory as well as to his own, we should still have been in as great bondage as they were in this respect, and therefore Simeon saith, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word: now he had embraced the Lord Christ not only in his bodily arms, but had a clearer discovery also of him to his soul doubtless: and the sense may help faith also.

But then secondly, According to the measure of the faith of his people is the degree of their liberty from this bondage; alas, it is terrible to many of us, yea, such as do believe; but their faith is weak, and the persuasions of sense are strong, and hold down the soul many times, but the Lord Jesus came to deliver his people also from this bondage, and according to the degrees of his manifesting himselfto the soul, will the soul go forth from these fears: and though Aristotle died doubtful whither he should go, and yet cried out, Ens entium, & causa causarum miserere mei; Yet the Apostle, and those that attained that pitch, to know that when our tabernacles are dissolved, we have an house eternal in the heavens: to know, the sting of death, and victory of the grave is swallowed up by Jesus Christ, it left its sting in his side; to know that when we are dissolved, we shall be with Christ; and know how much better that will be to the soul, that is well studied in these things, and grown strong in the faith that is in Jesus, he will desire to be dissolved and to be with Jesus; O here is a going forth now, a liberty and freedom indeed, by the arising of the Sun of Righteousness upon us.

Ninthly, A freedom or liberty from the Covenant of works; What saith the Law? Do this and live: continue in everything that is written; now when the soul cometh to see how spirittual the Law is, and how earnal he is, and sold under sin, that it binds not only the thoughts, but the desires of the heart, that there must not be so much as a vain thought pass through his soul, but if there do, this Covenant knoweth no mercy; alas, this keepeth the poor creature under much bondage, and trouble, and doubting concerning his condition; now we must know that this is not a bondage of God's putting upon us, (though he gave us the Law) but of our own making; the Lord gave the Law with Evangelical purposes, it was added because of transgression; it was added, that the Covenant of Grace, that it might convince poor creatures of their condition by s • n, and not to be their Savior, or a Covenant of life to them; When the Commandment came, sin revived, and I died: (saith the Apostle) that is the work of it indeed; but now we would needs make it to be a Covenant of works, and look upon it so: and therefore do what we did in obedience to this Law as for life, expecting to be saved by our own works: and so the Hebrews, the Jews to whom that Law was first given: we see, how they would not submit, they would not stoop to have this yoke taken off from them, they would not submit to the righteousness of Ged, but would have a righteousness of their own; they had two strings to their bow, and as long as either of them would hold, they would not yield to be righteous by the righteousness of God in Christ: the one was their freedom by Birth, They were the seed of Abraham, and not the seed of the Bond-woman, and therefore what need they care for this liberty: the other was their own works, they made account their own penny was good silver enough, though the Lord knoweth it was but reprobate silver, they went about to establish their own righteousness, they would be justified by a Covenant of works. And so there were some that came, and endeavored to turn aside the Galatians to another Gospel, by teaching them they should again put their necks under this yoke, not only of Ceremonies, though that be one thing to the Jews, if not to the Gentiles, that never were under it; but it is the Law, the Moral Law, as a Covenant of Works, else to what end doth he mention the curse therein: And if ye be justified by the Law, Christ shall not profit you, you are fallen from the Doctrine of Grace. Well now, the Lord Jesus, when he is revealed to a soul, delivereth him from this: though I must tell you, it is an harder matter to get clearly off it, then many do imagine; and even the people of God themselves shall find, that too often they are turned aside to the bondwoman from the free, from the Covenant of Grace to a Covenant of Works. Again, from the Law as provoking, for that is the Bondage chiefly the Apostle speaks of: Rom. 7. But the more clearly and fully the Grace which is in Christ, is revealed to us, with the greater power he ariseth upon us, the more fully are we set free from it. Here we might discuss the question, how far we are delivered from the Law, and how far by Jesus Christ? I will rather reserve that to another place, and proceed to conclude this part.

Tenthly, There is a kind of bondage the people of God are under, even that weakness, and straitness, and deadness of heart towards God: you know that sickness doth weaken a man exceedingly, in so much that he can scarce go upon his legs, he is a prisoner a great while under that weakness, from all action to purpose; let but a poor prisoner be under hardship a while in the prison, and how feeble will he be, and scarce worth the ground he goeth upon? a while longer he is a prisoner under that weakness, so it is here; therefore saith the Psalmist, Then will I run the ways of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Now the Lord Jesus when he cometh in with pardon, speaking peace, smiling upon the soul, filling the heart with joy unspeakable, this joy of the Lord is the strength of the soul, he goeth forth, even as a man to his labor in the morning when the Sun ariseth, that drowsiness, heaviness, deadness under which he was a prisoner before, being now removed.

Eleventhly, There is a liberty and freedom also from outward afflictions, for these are also an appendix of the Law, a part of the execution of it; and therefore the Lord doth set his people free from the fear of these, before they come, which is a kind of bondage upon them. Secondly, From the presence of them when they are come. Or Thirdly, From the evil of them, the pinching, and wringing, and galling of the yoke.

First, In respect of the fear of them, They shall go forth: he speaks here plainly to the believing Jews, they were afraid of the judgments of God in the threatening while they did but hang over their heads, and they were in a kind of prison, or bondage by reason of this fear; Well saith the Lord, Fear not, you shall go forth, the Sun of righteousness shall arise upon you. Job was afraid of his sorrows: take and compare Job the none-such in the East, a most eminent Saint, and Paul in the New Testament: and the one you find; he is afraid of his sorrows, Paul he glories in his tribulations, you never hear him complaining of his sufferings, no nor feared them, he knew that bonds and imprisonments did abide him in every City, but he cared not for any of these things, he had a richer discovrey of the Grace of God in Christ, then Job had, and clearer it is like; and therefore this set him free in a great measure from them: and indeed his soul that knoweth the things that are freely given him in Christ, knoweth now that he is his Father, and what ever shall befall him, it shall turn to his good, what need he much to fear.

Secondly, They shall go out from the presence of them, this the Lord doth many times for his people what though the day of the Lord burn like an oven, and burn up the chaff and stubble, and devour them root and branch, I will be an hiding place to you, saith the Lord, You that fear my name indeed, and tremble at my word: O the Sun of righteousness shall arise upon you, and by virtue of his death ye shall be delivered as the Jews were in Egypt, By the sprinkling of the blood of the Passover upon the Posts of the Doors, which did represent and typify the blood of Jesus Christ: and in that place of Z • ch. Mark you, saith the Lord, concerning his people's Deliverance out of Babylon, a type of spiritual deliverance and freedom of his people: as for thee also by the blood of the Covenant, I have sent forth thy Prisoners out of the Pit wherein there is no water; this is done by virtue of the Covenant of Grace, whereby this freedom and going forth is made out to Believers, therefore you may observe, when the Lord cometh to deliver Israel out of Egypt, he ushers it in thus. I remember my Covenant: the difference between the deliverances of Israel and other people are, the one is a Covenant mercy, the other a common mercy merely. Well now saith the Lord, ye shall go forth of the burning, even as the children in the Furnace, it burned, but they escaped, the Lord Jesus was with them, so shall ye go forth; and the Lord did provide a little Zoar for his people in the destruction of Jerusalem, many of them escaped to Pella as the story goeth, a little Town beyond Jordan; and so the Lord doth seal the 144000. before he brings those bloody calamities upon the earth, the persecuting world, and those in the ninth of Ezekiel, O who would not be in Covenant with God! they shall go forth.

Or thirdly, They shall be freed from the destroying evil, the hardening evil of affliction, which is a bondage, and a sore one too, being bound in affliction and iron; and so Job in the 13. ch. ver. 27. God writeth bitter things against him, and puts his feet in the stocks, and all his affliction together is called Jobs captivity; he was, as I may say, resigned up to the pleasure of Satan for a while, who led him from one affliction to another, but the Lord brought him out, and brought him off without the evil, the Devil expected that he should curse him and die, curse him to his face: now I say, the Lord maketh his people go forth, brings them through; and not only so, but without any of the hurt seizing upon them. Sinners are the harder for being in the fire, but they are melted, as very a stone as Pharaoh was, he began to burn in the fire, and be hot, and a man would have thought his heart had given, but it was a stone still; but his people came out melted, refined with this Epiphonema to all their afflictions. O it was good for me, I could not have been without it, much of my dross is gone by it; and thus the Lord maketh his people go forth; • e shall go forth.

Twelfthly, There is one more, and that is the yoke of Ceremonies & traditions of men, I will put them both together; the Ceremonies were a yoke you know, circumcision was a hard service, to draw blood of their children at eight days old, their journeys to their feasts at Jerusalem, their offerings and oblations, they were very chargeable, insomuch that they grew weary of them, and snuffed at them, &c. And for the Traditions of men, they are a grievous burden where their Doctrines are taught and received; the Apostle comprehends both-under that word, the rudiments of the world, whereunto he would not have them be brought in bondage again, the difference of meats and drinks, &c. the Lord Jesus hath let us loose from those observations, and therefore it is a desperate doctrine, a doctrine of Devils, or at least of them that speak lies in hypocrisy, to forbid to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving; and blessed be his name, that by the rising of the Sun of righteousness among us, he hath brought us out from this bondage generally: and if he would be pleased to shine among the poor ignorant Papists, that they might but come to the knowledge of his will, doubtless this would be quickly shakt off with them also, but you have the parts of this liberty.

For the degrees of it, we must know this, that it is not in the same degree to every believer, you have already heard, how that before Christ's coming it was not in such power as since; Ye shall go forth, hath been accomplished in many respects since the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the more faith and the clearer sight we have of Jesus Christ, with the greater power, and splendor, and glory he shines upon us, the more of the riches of his grace we come to apprehend, the more fully and perfectly to rest upon that grace, the more shall we find that all these bondages shall be broken we have been speaking to; but thus much for the two things, which is, what this liberty is.

Which are the arguments for the further confirmation of the Doctrine, Where the Lord Jesus ariseth upon a soul, there is liberty and enlargement.

First, from the very nature of that gift of grace, the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon them, what is this but the giving of himself unto a soul, revealing himself in the soul, as the Apostle speaks, it pleased the Father to reveal his son in me, by which means that darkness and terror is taken away in great measure; Christ is all in all: the bondage you heard before, it is either sin, or the sad effects of sin; the revelation of Christ answerably, is either for holiness, or else by joy and comfort, wherein he meeteth with both the other, the guilt, the bondage he takes away, to that end himself was made sin, that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; it is the power of Satan, him he overcame; yet the power of sin that is broken also, sin shall not have dominion over you, &c. If it be terrors, fears, whatsoever, our blessed Savior where he maketh himself manifest to a soul; is enough to take away all, but this you have in effect had before, therefore no more of it here; he adopts us all, Joh. 8. 36. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , was used in some Cities in Greece, as Grot. noteth:

Secondly, another Argument shall be this, that they might serve him, therefore they shall go forth; while a man is under bondage he is at the command of such as he is in bondage unto, and therefore cannot serve another Master whatsoever; this specially respecteth that part of the bondage which concerneth sin and Satan: when Satan had filled Ananias heart, could he obey the will of Christ? No, no more could Ahab that had sold himself to commit wickedness; it is impossible for a man to be a slave of sin, and a servant of Christ at the same time. I speak not what a man may do for an act or two, but a man that doth work sin, labor it, hammer it in his brain, forge it there, art it and pollish it, and with great dexterity, for such a man to serve Christ, ye cannot serve God and Mammon, saith our Savior, mentioning one lust, they are contrary one to another; When a man doth wickedness with both hands earnestly, there is never a hand left for Christ's service; that is complete service indeed, when it is from the heart, as seemeth by that opposition, thanks be to God, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine. So that the heart is the main thing, if that be gone after sin, we cannot serve the Lord Jesus heartily; and then for the carcass, the lip, the eye, the tongue, he matters it not; therefore first, the Marriage-yoke must be broken between the soul and sin, before they can be married to another, even to the Lord Christ to serve him, ye are become dead to the Law, that, ye might be married to another; when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness; mind you, if under the command of sin, you are free from righteousness, it hath no commanding power over you at all; and if a man be under the commanding power of Christ▪ there sin hath not the command of him, we must be dead to sin, and so free from sin, as the Apostle saith, he that is dead, is free from sin, or else we cannot be alive to God to serve him. Brethren, I know that every man would be thought a servant of Christ, and we look upon him as the off-scouring of the world, and not worthy to live among men, that would not serve the Lord; poor creatures, while we are under the command of sin it cannot be, when a man yieldeth his members instruments of unrighteousness to unholiness, and yet pretends to be a servant of Christ. What is this but a mockery? but be not deceived, God is not mocked: would you not take this to be a mockery, if one come and tells you, O Sir, I will be your servant if you will give me this or that reward, but you must give me leave to do all the service I can to your enemy, you shall have the name of my service, but your enemy shall have the reality of it: is not this a mockery?

Thirdly, That their services may be more cheerful, therefore he setteth them free from their bondage, and this respecteth that part of bondage which concerneth the Concomitants, even sorrow, and fears, and terrors, and the like; the Lord doth not love to have his people follow him whining, he loveth a cheerful giver and a cheerful doer of his will, it is much for his honor that his servants should lift up their heads; for what would we say to see a poor servant go discouraged, and as if scarce worth the earth he goes upon, amazed with fears, with sorrows; sure such a servant hath a hard Master, that he hath so little joy of his life, therefore the Lord Jesus maketh his people go forth out of the horrible pit, setteth them free from all their fears, and terrors, that they may with a cheerful and a large heart serve him; here is love indeed, that the Lord doth so sweeten his yoke and his service, as that his people shall delight in it, therefore saith he, that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.

Fourthly, that their services to him may be more strong then otherwise they would, a man under bonds brought down with bard bondage, cannot do the service which another man can, but the▪ joy of the Lord is the strength of his people, as in that of Neh. 8. 10. therefore he doth enlarge their hearts, that they may run the ways of his commandments, takes off the fetters for this very end; a poor child of God under terrors and fears, or under the prevailing of a lust, have, as I may say, their hands manacled, they cannot fight, their feet are fettered, they cannot walk, much less run.

Fifthly, Yet one more, and that is, lest a poor soul held under bondage too long, should put forth his hands to sin, this respects specially the bondage of sorrows and fears which are ready to swallow up many a poor creature many times, my spirit is over-whelmed within me, saith the Psalmist 〈◊◊〉 like case; the Lord will speak peace (saith the Psalmist) unto his people, that they may not return to folly anymore; for if the Lord should lay his hand upon them, continually pressing them, they could not always hold out, but if they can find no pleasure in God nor in his ways, they would be inclinable to return to their pleasures of sin, as in that Psalm, let not the rod of the wicked always rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest they put forth, &c. as you see the Psalmists heels were almost thrown up, and himself upon his back, his faith upon its back in this very respect. O saith he, if it be thus, I must be plunged every morning, always in the net, under the yoke of affliction, in affliction and iron continually, surely I have cleansed myself in vain; and these rods are the rods of God of a lesser nature, those with which the spirit is lashed are most sore, and therefore the soul might be in danger to depart to iniquity, to return to sin again; how soon did Israel resolve of making them a Captain to return again? N • h. 9. 17: If the Prodigal return in such distress to his Father, and he should keep him hungering and languishing, when he hath not so much as husks to eat; surely this were the way to put him upon it to return again to riotous courses: the peace of God keepeth them with God, &c.

Sixthly, Again, because the spirit would fail which he hath made, if he did not in due season break the yoke, set them at liberty; as a tender Father will not lose his child for want of the rod, no more will the Father of spirits for want of •• shing our spirits; yet on the other hand, a tender-hearted Father will much less lose him by over-doing of it; as he will not spare him, indulge him to death, so neither will he whip him to death, hang • rons and fetters upon him until they eat into his soul and consume him. O no, when the Father seeth the spirit of the child to fall, and he beginneth to swoon under his rod, under the yoke of fear, which hath torment, be it what it will be, then he letteth the rod fall out of his hand, falls a kissing of the child to revive him again; we must preserve the spirits, and maintain nature in Physic, and if purgations have wrought the patient off his strength, there must be a restoring with Cordials, 1 Cor. 10. 13. he will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able, &c. he will not suffer his people to perish, and sink, and go away in prison and bondage, and therefore he causeth them to go forth, and doth arise upon them to that end.

For the Application of the point, there are several uses to be made of it.

First then, take notice from hence what a grievous bondage the service of sin is, this is the principal part of the bondage, and all the rest are but the product of sin; sin is pregnant, it hath the seeds of all those terrors, fears, sorrows, slavishness, deadness, straitness, and all the rest in its womb, but itself is the chief, and therefore we are said to be sold under sin, and sin is said to have dominion over us; so many lusts, Brethren, in strength, so many pairs of fetters there are about our legs, and how then is it likely that a sinner should run the ways of God's Commandments! but I hope by what hath been said already, it will be granted, that a condition of sin is a condition of bondage; only a little to aggravate this consideration to you, and all little enough, I doubt, to startle sinners who are in this condition.

First consider, it is the basest, most sordid thing that can be; you know a servile condition is mean and base in comparison of liberty and freedom, take it at the best; but to serve the basest of men, who would not abhor this? what spirit would stoop to be a drudge to a Master, to rake Channels and cleanse Jakes, who would not abhor this? Brethren, this is nothing to sin, to the slavery of sin: as it was the greatest honor in the world to be a servant, a son of God; Moses the servant of the Lord, David my servant: As you know servants do much bear themselves up upon the honor of their Masters. So it is the basest servitude in the world to be in bondage to a lust, for a man to sell himself into the hands of sin and Satan, for a moments pleasure of sin, this is base: It is brutish for a man to subject his understanding and will to the passions of his lust, dishonorable base passions; for beasts are led by their appetites.

Secondly, As it is base drudgery, so secondly the poor sinner hath so many lusts and so contrary to serve and satisfy, that he must needs be distracted between them; one commands him this way, and the other commands him that way; as now for a man to serve his pride and covetousness, or his luxury and covetousness, these are contrary, and distract, and distort the mind, and hurry him hither and thither, he can enjoy no peace in his own spirit at all; you shall see a man that will spend at no aim when he is in company, and none seemeth to set less by the world then he at such a time; but afterward, when he recollects himself, then he must run, and drudge, and hurry himself and all his family, and drive faster then they are able to bear, and all to make up that which he hath consumed upon his lusts, is not this a miserable bondage to be under such contrary lusts?

Thirdly, Yea consider that these lusts are most insatiable, in drinking up a man's time, and spirits, and strength, and will never leave a man while he hath anything to lay out upon them more. So you know the Prodigal spent all that ever he had upon his lusts, all his patrimony, his time, and strength, and spirits, and all; and so the wanton doth upon his Delilah, and thou mourn at the last, saith the wise man, when thy life and thy body is consumed, and say, how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof? except it have all the precious workings of the soul, it is not satisfied, it must have all the thoughts, be in them all, though God be in none of them, all that precious water must drive this mill; as for covetousness, now how is the soul under the power of that lust, as I may say, hanged up like a meteor in the air, as the Evangelist hath it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , be not hanged up as meteors in the • ir, as I may say, between heaven and earth; and be not careful, • aith our Savior, be not divided, distracted in your cares. O • hat they shall eat, and what they shall drink, how they shall accomplish this and that design, what a drudge is any man that is under the power of this lust, he doth nothing but root in the world? in other servitude, if that a servant were maimed or dismembered, lost an eye, yea or but a tooth, they must be let go for their eye-sake, or for the tooth-sake, but here sin doth nothing but wound the soul, breaks a man, consumeth him soul and body, and yet will not let him go; sin doth put a man's eyes out, that so it may have the more full complete command over the poor creature, and stops the ears, and strikes out the teeth, and distasteth the palate, so that anything of God hath no more relish then a chip to a soul, maketh the poor creature lame for any lust harboured in the soul, maketh a man go with an uneven pace, and halt, he cannot go uprightly, and so it weakens the hands and maketh feeble knees, and indeed like a woolf in the flesh, or a greedy wen, devours all the strength, and yet will by no means let the poor sinner go free.

Fourthly, It is a growing bondage, the longer a man continueth in it, the faster he is held with the snares and bonds of his sins; in the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, saith Solomon, and every act of sinning doth fasten the snare so much the more upon the soul with bands of iron and brass, yea of adamant; the longer they are in this dark and filthy dungeon, the deeper they sink into the mire and clay, where there is no standing, the heart groweth more hard through the deceitfuluess of sin. O the cup of delights is a bewitching cup, and the more a man drinketh of it, the more he may; every drop of oil you cast upon the flame, maketh it the harder to be quenched, every act of sinning doth strengthen the habit, as in all other cases, and dispose a man so much the more strongly, incline him to the same sin again, and so there is so much the more ado to get the heart off from these lusts; there is many a poor sinner among us, I believe, can speak by experience what a miserable bondage it is, and what a growing bondage it is, the further a man goeth in it, he goeth still further into the prison, binds the yoke upon his neck so much the harder and closer, insomuch that a gray-headed-sinner you shall seldom see recovered out of the snare of the Devil, though sometimes we may: This the fourth.

Fifthly, it is so durable a bondage, that it abides in part, even where a soul is brought under the command of another principle, it doth continue in a great part in many a gracious heart, as in this place of the Apostle, I am carnal and sold under sin; he saith not he was, but he is carnal; that is to say, in part, as those in that first to the Corinthians, are you not carnal? that is to say, hath not the flesh a great sway with you, when you are so divided and full of strife and emulation, and one for Paul, and another for Apollo? &c. and therefore the Apostle did walk heavily under the sense of the chains which were upon him, not altogether shakt off. O wretched man, who shall deliver me? I am carried captive by a Law in my members to the Law of sin. O strange, that in the Apostle, so sanctified, so mortified a creature, yet the Law in his members should have such a strength as this is, to carry him captive; though the spirit do lust against the flesh, yet the flesh doth lust against the spirit, so that they cannot do the things they would; they are under bondage in part, though notunder the reign of sin; yet it usurpeth, and tyranizeth, and lays its commands upon a poor believing soul, as if he were altogether his own; sin will not let go its hold altogether, but if it lose the Cittadel, the Tower, the chief Fort, the Will, yet it will lurk in some of the out-works still; if it lose the heart, it will hold by the heel still, and hang about us, that we cannot walk at liberty in the ways of his Commandments.

Sixthly, The reward to the service and bondage of sin, what is it but bondage upon bondage? you have heard how many sad Concomitants there are of this bondage of sin, doth it not subject to the curse, to the wrath of God? it is not only an unprofitable service, what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? that is to say, what good had ye by them, ye are now ashamed of them: that is the reward, as you see in the case of Adam, it laid him open and naked before the Lord, both without covering for the shame, and without defense against his displeasure, now he wanted somewhat instead of his innocence to screen him from the everlasting burnings, or the presence of God, who is a consuming fire, yea the wages of these things is death, whose end is destruction, saith the Apostle, whose glory is in their shame, whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things; a man will hardly believe this, that the savouring of earthly things is so dangerous a service, being so pleasing as it is to men; alas, you little think what you do, you have heard some of you, how many evils do attend it, you little know what wounds you get, a wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away; this is nothing to the wound of the conscience. O what pains sinners are at to store up gun-powder at last to blow up their comforts and their souls and all; would you not think it a sad servitude where a master should delight in nothing but the cruel wounding and goring of a man's self, this is nothing indeed to the service of sin, you will one day find sinners, the truth of this, whether you will believe it now or no, that sin is big with terrors, and fears, and amazement, that sin doth nothing but wound the soul, the conscience, though you feel it not for the present; many and many that have been as senseless as many of us are, that yet at last mourned and said, O how is my flesh and my body consumed! O what a wretch was I to serve sin, to lay out myself for sin, that now hath nothing but woe and misery, nothing but racks and woundings to reward me with! O what a reward is it Brethren, to pass fro m the chains of your sins here, to those everlasting chains of darkness!

Se venthly and lastly, it is inextricable, as to ourselves, we cannot open the prison doors, nor loosen our fetters, the cords of our sins wherewith we are held, and bound over, as I may say, to Judgment. O I know the poor creature, specially when his eyes are open to see what a condition he is in, will be making many an attempt, sometimes to break prison, sometimes to loose his bonds, but it will not be; O what resolutions and vows you shall have many a sinner make, specially after a passion in their spirits, when their eyes are a little open; O they will never return to their folly anymore, and it is the next thing they do. O the bands of our own making are too slender to pull a poor creature out of the mire and clay, they all break even as a thread of Tow when it cometh to the fire, and there the poor soul sticks; no, nor is it the prayers nor tears of our own that can do it, for you shall see, and haply some of us know it by experience, though it be wonderful to see a man pray and sin, and weep and sin, mourn and sin, go on in the same course of sinning a long time, some of our souls I believe know this, we pray and are not willing to be delivered, as Aug. did, and so mourn upon the sight of the grievousness of a sin, but it prevails not to for sake it. O no, if any of all this would have done it, what need the Lord Jesus then be anointed for that work, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound: surely the Lord would do no nothing in vain: but so much for this Application.

Then it may teach us the vanity of all conceit of liberty or freedom, or going forth before the Lord Jesus come and shine upon a man's soul, then they shall go forth, not before; what is the reason that the most of men can satisfy themselves with their condition as they do, but they have some conceit they are at liberty; were sinners persuaded that they are under the dominion of sin and Satan, &c. could they eat, or drink, or sleep? what a fearful thing would we think it, if the Devil had but power over our bodies, to carry them whither he pleased, to shatter and shake them at his pleasure? but what is this to the having power over the soul, over the will, the affections, the mind, by keeping them in blindness? and yet sinners do not believe they are in such a bondage, but think they are free, nor do I think there is any one thing doth keep more poor creatures in bondage then this, they think they are free; but let us see a little the vanity of such conceits.

First, Some are so gross, as to think they are born free, when as you heard before, We are born the children of wrath, we are all born in the house of bondage, in the Prison House; and therefore, we as well as our Parents are under bondage. Can a slave bring forth any other then a slave? If many of us look to the Rock whence we are hewn, as the Prophet speaks, we shall find that our very Parents were the servants of sin, and it may be lived and died so; and what then? were they the slaves to Satan, and can we be Christ his Free-men by Birth? It cannot be surely. It is very strange, that men that know their Parents to be loose, wicked, profane, earthly, carnal crearu • es, that yet should bear up themselves with this privilege, they are born free, they are Christians by birth, such men little know what goeth to make a Christian; can the bondwoman bring forth children that are free?

Secondly, Others have a fairer pretence for it then this, they think they are free by birth, because they had faithful believing parents, we have Abraham to our Father, and we being his seed, how can we be in bondage? I must confefs, Brethren, this is something to me, for as Satan hath servants born in his house, in his kingdom, so the Lord Jesus hath in his; if bond-men were born bond-men, and servants were born in the house, then God hath servants also born to him, and his servants are free in that sense, that they are his servants, and therefore it is remarkable in that of Leviticus, they must let their servants go free, and their children also, for they are my servants saith the Lord, whom I brought out of Egypt; which was a Type of our spiritual bondage: mind you, the Lord calls them his servants, his children, as well as others; only note here two or three things for the clearing of it.

First, that this is by grace and not by nature; for by nature and natural generation, no man can beget, nor woman bring forth any child that is free; no, though they themselves through the riches of grace are made free, yet their children by nature are the children of wrath as well as others; yea, though they belong to the Election of grace, and be saved whether they die in infancy, or come to the acknowledgment of the truth, and believe, as the Apostle did; yet by nature they are the children of wrath, a sad condition our poor children are in by nature, if parents did but well lay it to heart; but what then doth this hinder, but that by grace they may be free, though by nature they are bound? as the Apostle himself by nature was a child of wrath, under the curse of the Law; that is to say, and in bondage, but by grace he was free; and why might not the Lord by grace make him free sooner if he pleased, as well as later? is it not all one with him, can he not make children free as well as men if he please? are not men purely receptives in the first grace, and are not children as passive and receptive as any?

But secondly, there is a freedom invisible and saving, and a freedom visible, and both by grace; the freedom invisible, when a soul is actually set at liberty from the power of sin and the bondage of his corruptions; or else visible, when there is ground for our judging they are so freed; now many are visibly free, that are not invisibly free at all: so there is many an hypocritical professor, that carries it so like a free-man of Christ, that it would puzzle the most discernible spirit to discover that he is under the bondage of sin or Satan, and yet he is so invisibly haply, but visibly he is free, that is to say, appears to be so: appears to be in Covenant with God, for that is the freedom; therefore where ever Christ is spoken of, as to preach liberty, it is said still, he is given as a Covenant to the people; so many appear to be in Covenant, and so visibly are such, that invisibly are not▪ and so the children of such holy parents, who are in Covenant with God, are visibly free, though invisibly they may be in bondage, that is to say, they are in visibly in Covenant with God, that is to say, we have ground to judge charitably and hopefully of them, that they are in Covenant with God, and if they so die, that they are • aved by virtue of that Covenant there; which for my own part, I know no other revealed way of salvation, and therefore if we deny them this, we must either say there is no grounded hope of their salvation, and I would be loath to be such a durus pater infan • um, to deny all visibility of salvation to them: Or else we must say, the Lord hath left nothing upon record, whereby we might have any comfort concerning little ones that die in that condition; which what an impeachment it were to the wisdom & grace of God in Christ, I wish men would impartially consider. And if they will say they may be saved, can it be without the invisible grace? have they not corrupt natures, and the seeds of all sin in them? and can any unclean thing enter into heaven? and therefore sure they must be freed from sin: and will we grant them the invisible grace, that they come under that which is narrower, and shall we deny them that which is larger? would you think that man himself, that should yield that a man may be in the Kings bed-Chamber, but he may not be in the Palace; or a man be in this house, and yet not in the City, which is much more large and comprehensive?

But thirdly, I conceive that this visible freedom of theirs is to be limited with the time, until they come to discover the contrary; as an hypocritical professor, to us he is visibly a Saint, and free, until his leaf do fade and fall, and that be taken from him which he seemeth to have, as it is in that of the Evangelist; now the child is upon his Fathers root, the Lord owning them with their parents in the same covenant of grace; yet if afterward, when they come to understanding; and by the rule of Christ they are to own the covenant themselves actually; if they do disown it, they shall be cast out as well as Ishmael was, and therefore it is I suppose, that our Savior reproveth the Jews when they stood now at age, and should have minded what themselves had done, now standing upon their own, and not upon their Fathers root, they should have owned the Covenant themselves, and believed, that so they might have been free indeed invisibly; but though they never wrought the works of Abraham, to believe in Christ to come, and now in Christ come, they should have believed; but wrought the works of the Devil: yet they bound themselves up with this, that they were the children of Abraham, they were so indeed; and this in their infancy was ground for a believing hopefully of them, specially if their Parents were Believers; but now the Lord required themselves, I say, to own the Covenant, and walk worthy of it, else that would not stand them instead; it is just as if a man that maketh a profession of Christ gloriously for a while, and in the judgment of all that behold him he is a gracious man, but yet he falls off, draweth back to perdition, the latter end of such a man is worse then his beginning, yet he bears up himself, O I am a Christian, I have professed Christ as well as you, and yet at present is thus stubborn and rebellious; do you think this would satisfy any man's spirit concerning him, is not here as much vanity of hope concerning his condition, as in the other case?

O but some will say, what a Doctrine is this? can a man be free in any sense, and yet come into bondage again, and perish afterward? are not the gifts and calling of God without repentance? therefore that children should be free by virtue of this Covenant, and yet afterward become the servants of sin and Satan, and be so desperately wicked and profane, this seemeth derogatory to grace, and that any that have been in Covenant of God and free, should now be bound with everlasting chains of darkness? It is no derogation from the truth, nor from the grace that came by Jesus Christ that it should be so; for mind you, it is one thing to be free in the account of God, and another thing to be free in the account of the Church and people of God; God judgeth not as we judge, visibly we judge, and he judgeth that which is invisible: now it is true, one that hath been truly inwardly delivered from the bondage of sin, and so gone out of prison, he can never be reduced to such a condition, cannot perish; and so that man that is, or ever was invisibly in Covenant with God, can never come to that place of darkness; but such as only visibly and in appearance did own the Covenant, or were in Covenant, may miscarry; how many glorious professors that made a great show for a time, and sprang up as fast, and flourished as much as any, that yet now are the fuel for those everlasting flames? what could men judge of them, but that they were in Covenant with God, and so free-men and delivered from the prison, from the bondage, yet alas were in the hold of sin to that day? and why may it not be so, and allowed in this case, as well as in that? may not the children of the Kingdom be cast out into outer darkness? I could wish that were well considered, the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; we will allow professors a communion and fellowship with us as free-men, as men in Covenant with God, whose profession so oftentimes prove rotten and unsound, and think this profession is a sufficient ground to declare to us they are in Covenant with Christ, and yet we will not allow Believers children to be in Covenant with God, because afterward they come to walk contrary to this Covenant: Nor do we think the declaration of God, that he doth own them as his, as his children, his servants, as holy to himself, to be as sufficient to make it out they are in Covenant with God: For my own part, I see not the pretended difference, but if there be any advantage in the visibility of being in Covenant with God, I take it upon this hand, for I do and shall make more of a word of God, where the Lord hath said it, that they are his in a way of grace, though it prove to be but visibly, not invisibly, then I shall make of any man's profession in the world, which can amount to no more then a visibility, or at least I shall make as much of it.

Well but then, suppose thou wert a child of Abraham, of believing parents, and so wert free and in Covenant with God visibly; yet alas, this will not now stand thee instead to salvation, no more then a profession of a temporary faith will do an hypocrite; thou workest the works of the Devil, art a very drudge to Satan, and the world, and thy own hearts lusts, and yet will hang thy hopes of salvation upon a being born free, we are Abraham's seed; if any seed of Believers since the Covenant, should have been saved and freed, inwardly and savingly, by being the seed of such parents, when themselves came actually to renounce it in works, to deny the Covenant in works, they might have it by Abraham; but yet you see our Savior tells them, the Son must make them free, before they could be free; therefore this is a vain conceit, the Lord persuade poor sinners against it.

Secondly, some there are, that because they feel nothing of such a bondage as hath been spoken of, therefore they conclude there is no such thing upon them, they do not feel any such thing as fetters and ginns upon them, they never were under any such slavishness of obedience, under any such terrors, nor under the command of their lusts, they think they are Masters of themselves, and can command their passions and appetites as well as any others, and therefore sure they are free. This is a deceit also. The more undiscerned the bondage is, the more sure it is; it was the slateliness of some Princes, they would not be seen by their subjects, nor make their persons too common, they should feel the weight of their loins, but not see them, to keep up an esteem among them; if they had made themselves too common haply, and too cheap, it might have weakened their authority: So it is in this case, sin and Satan will not be seen haply in the business, they know if it should appear to a sinner he is in bondage to them, it were a dangerous step to dethrone him, and devest him of his commanding power over a poor sinner; for who, if he did see himself thralled to so base and bloody an enemy as Satan is, would endure it long? and therefore he keepeth them in darkness, from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; therefore it is the first work of grace to open the eyes, as in the case of Paul, who art thou Lord? he knew not, nor did he know his persecution was a sin; he was so far from it, as that he thought verily he ought to do many things against that way: And truly so it is with many a poor soul, they think they are as far from bondage in sin; as he that is furthest, whereas they are altogether in bondage: A man in error, if of a lesser or greater moment, he is in the snare of the Devil, and yet he thinks himself free, specially before admonition; else fundamentals are written so clearly, that after the first and second admonition, if administered with such clearness and tenderness as it ought. Dear friends, I doubt there are some of us, that it never came into our hearts seriously to consider, scarce to suspect that we were in bondage; do not your hearts bear witness to this truth? believe it, such are in the greatest bondage of all others ordinarily. I know it is true, that even from the child-hood, under gracious education, which the Lord hath promised a blessing to, as one of his Ordinances, with it may be instilled so insensibly, as that a man may scarce ever know how it came to pass; but yet that he is free, he may know, as the blind man said; but I speak of sinners, that it is too apparent; alas, if they did, or could but search, and try, and ponder their ways, that they are in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity, and yet think highly of themselves, as Magus did, that they are somebody: O this is a grievous deceit.

Thirdly, There are some, that because they part with some sin, they think they are free; it may be they were before drunkards or blasphemers, now they are reformed, and not guilty in this kind, therefore they think they are free, they have gone forth; when alas they are held in the cords of another lust; it may be run from one extreme to another, reel from one pit to another, and truly one chain upon the soul will hold it fast enough; one foot in the snare holds it as well as if the whole body were restrained; if Satan have but one cord about us, he takes us alive at his pleasure; Because that they pass one Gate in the Prison, they think they are presently out, no: Brethren, there are iron Gates and Bars yet to be opened, there are more lusts yet to be shaked off, before you can look upon yourselves as free; Sampson must have his Delilah; Herod, his Herodias, though he did many things.

Fourthly, Some think they are free, because it may be they forbear the outward acts of rebellion: so be they can keep themselves unblamable and unreprovable of the world, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they heed not what is within. Brethren, what is it the better to have the hand and the foot out of the snare, and the heart be entangled? a man may through fear, slavish fear of God, or else fear of men, fear of shame, or the like, forbear to act, and yet the heart love and like the sin well enough. The Dog is not offended with his vomit, though he bring it up, he liketh it well enough, it is only some pain at the stomach which he cannot brook. So you may pluck away the iron from the Loadstone, but it hath a lingering after it still; and so Phaltiel when his Wife was taken from him, he parted with her indeed, because he durst not otherwise choose, for the dipleasure of the King would wax hot against him; he might lose his liberty, if not his life, if he had refused; but saith the Text, He went mourning after her, he did it with an unwilling heart. So may a man part with sin, the practice of it, but yet his heart cleaveth to it still; he may cast it away when the coal is fired, but yet he could be content if the fire were out, to put it into his bosom again; Brethren, Is it thus with us? we dare not let down sin haply, swallow it, for fear it prove bitterin the belly: but yet we will roll it under the tongue as a sweet morsel; surely this is not to go forth, to be set free from this bondage, therefore do not mistake yourselves: it may be thou dost not gripe and oppress in bargain, dealing hardly or over-reach, but thy teeth water at it, thou couldst digest it well enough thou durst, thou dislikest it not, because it is sin, and displeasing to the Lord, thou art not yet free.

Fifthly, Some think they are free, because loose Libertines promise them liberty, when themselves are the servants of sin; Truly Brethren, if ever hell were broke loose, now is the time: the Devil never enjoyed more chain then now, specially as an Angel of light: it is come to that pass nowadays, that men think they are never free, until they have broken the bands of Christ, and cast away his cords from them, until they have broken the yoke of Christ from off their necks: sons of Belial, that will not endure to he yoked, though never so easy; O these Ordinances, and Duties, and Services, they are a bondage, they are poor and beggarly rudiments, to which they will not anymore be in bondage: they will not anymore be Priest-rid den, as they call it: and as for Sabbaths, and Prayers, and Hearing, and Reading, and Meditating, these are poor empty things, and a burden it is to bear them, they are weary, and snuff at it, as in Malachi. It is true, they are empty to them that have not communion with Christ in them: Else as David saith in the like case, The soul may there be filled with marrow and fatness. But now mind what saith the Apostle, When themselves are the servants of sin; I do observe it, and it is worth the noting, in the example of such as would not have their necks under the yoke of Christ, his Ordinances, but live above them; have the yoke upon them, usually they are persons under the command of their lusts; and are these likely persons to teach men the way to liberty? surely no.

Sixthly, Some think they are freed and delivered, if they do but attain that knowledge which the Apostle speaks of, in the use of indifferent things; they scruple not anything, as clean or unclean, in meats, or clothes, or days, make no difference at all, and hereupon they make account they are free, whereas this may stand with a bondage unto sin notwithstanding; O how may such men in the very use of this part of their liberty enslave themselves to sin, to their lusts? it is but a pretence many times, their liberty is; they will use the creatures liberally, and without scruplicity and nicety, will nor suffer their consciences to be coy or tickle in such small things wherein they have a liber • y, whereas the very truth is, they have no command of their Lusts nor Appetites, and then liberty▪ is the cloak of it; they are so impotent they cannot forbear meat or drinks; or such & such rich apparel, as is a question, whether it become them or no; they are brought under the power of these things, and yet liberty is the pretence: Surely brethren this is not to be free neither: so much for this second Use, whereby we may perceive, how many of us, that, it may be, think we were • ree, are yet in bondage to this day; these mis-conceits of freedom set us not free: a Prisoner dreams his chains are fallen off, and he walks up and down at liberty; but when he awakes, alas, his bonds are upon him still.

Seventhly, No nor yet is everyone that doth endeavor to fulfill the Law of God, yet set free: there is many a diligent soul, very industrious and laborious, it may be, and as they think, for heaven, that would put the most of us to shame in this point: and yet all this while alas they are working in their fetters, in their bonds, yea they do twist and work bonds, they are held in the cords of their own services, stick there and never go further, these are not free neither: it is not Moses anymore then Abraham, that can make free; it must be the Son must do it; yea, truly, for my own part, I take it, that these poor souls that are under the Law as a Covenant of life, are in the most dangerous condition: for alas, they are in love with their bondage, and so much the more, because they take it for freedom: A man is in love with his Fetters, because they are gold, he maketh account they will buy his freedom, when he pleaseth: when any offers to take them away, what, would you have me to part with my gold? O no: And so many a poor creature is in love with a Sepulcher full of rottenness, and dead men's bones, because: it is painted and garnished: how hard a matter is it to persuade many a Justitiary among us, that he is in such a bondage, and stands in need of this great power of Christ to make them free? &c. Well then, do we move as heartless Christians do? like Watches, with outward motion? come duties from us, like fire from a Flint? alas do we what we do by constraint, or of a willing mind.? are we a free people? is love our constraint? as the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5. &c.

3. Use. Shall be then to take notice what an incomparable benefit the Gospel is, that brings such glad tidings unto poor souls in bondage, in prison: Brethren, do but imagine how welcome tidings it would be to a company of poor Gally slaves, to tell them, your Prince hath laid down your ransom for you, and hath sent to proclaim Liberty to you, if you will go forth: O how their hearts would leap within them for joy, they could hardly believe it at first, but would be like them that dreamed there in the Psalms; but when they come to themselves, surely they would rejoice more in it, then if they had found great spoils; you have heard it is the Gospel preached, whereby this Liberty is held out, yea and conveyed; for the truth shall make you free: and now to a man that is in love with the prison, and not willing to come out, the tenderings of Liberty is not so much; but he that is weary of the nastiness of the Prison, of the weight of his chains; he whose spirit is overwhelmed with the pre-apprehensions of his condemnation, and, it may be, never expected to come out of his prison, except to be led to Sentence, or to the Execution: now for Liberty to be proclaimed to such, and freely too: O what a benefit is here? Brethren, if it were not for this Gospel of glorious Liberty, what were the world but a prison, a dungeon full of poor miserable Caitiffs, shut up under sin to the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, at the great Day: it were better for us to die as soon as we are born, were it not for this Gospel: What miserable comforts were our Riches, our Honors, our Friends, and Relations, were it not for this Gospel? A man in prison, liable to condemnation, under Bolts and Shakels, tell him of wearing soft raiment, or Royal dainties, faring deliciously every day: alas, it goeth not down with him, he is a prisoner in bondage, nothing can be pleasing to him, it deadens his heart, his relish to all things else; liberty would be a sweet welcome message to him: Brethren, this is the tidings of the Gospel.

4. Use. See here and admire the riches of this Grace of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, that he should proclaim Liberty to the Captives, notwithstanding their willfulness in throwing themselves into these chains, their willingness to continue in them, and unwillingness to go forth, to go out of them; notwithstanding their being worn out, as I may say, and spent in this bondage, so that they can very little be serviceable to him. For the first of the aggravations of the bondage, which tends to heighten the freedom and deliverance from it, that we willfully plunged ourselves into it: if a man be taken captive by the Turk against his will, we pity him much; but if he willfully throw himself upon them, this takes away much of the compassion; yet this is our case: did not Adam sell us in the first transgression, in which respect we are all to this day sold under sin? yea more then so: alas, what sinner is there almost that liveth to any years, but he sells himself with profane Esau? sells his soul, and his hope of heaven, and all for a Mess of pottage, for a little moments satisfaction to his lusts: Nay, do we not all subscribe to that act of selling us under sin, when we so willingly embrace our chains? In so much that some do even wear their chains as their ornaments, glorying in their shame, that is to say, making their boast of their wickedness. And that yet notwithstanding, when no eye pitied poor sinners in this condition, they themselves were so far from pitying themselves, that they were pleased with the prison: all men in the like condition with themselves, cannot pity them; the Saints alas, want bowels to such as willingly are in bondage: that yet the Lord, who is most slighted in all this, should pity and make a way for their deliverance; this is unspeakable, rich grace! that the Lord should, as I may say, study a course to make them willing to come forth; to which end all the sad and fearful Characters of this bondage in Scripture are; to which end is the Law given, that sin might appear to be sin, and exceeding sinful, and the bondage very great, that they might thereby see themselves shut up: to this end, all those sweet invitations, and powerful expostulations with poor sinners in the Gospel; O why will ye die? why will ye perish and rot in prison, since there is a ransom found for you? the Lord takes no pleasure in your death; and why will ye delight in your own death? O what powerful Rhetoric are these loving entreaties, expostulations, the yearnings of his bowels over them? his tears over Jerusalem, when they would not be gathered under his wings? and all this to make the poor sinner willing; and when all will not do, that he should even put forth a power upon their wills and hearts, inclining them to it by a sweet, and yet strong, though not compulsory influence of his Spirit upon them, this is admirable! what tenderness was there towards Lot, that when he lingered and delayed, the Angel took him by the hand, and brought him without the City, and bid him haste for his life: truly there is not a soul delivered from this bondage, but there is as much exercise of the patience, and bowels of Christ toward them, to make them willing; yea to take them by the hand, when they linger and make excuses: as those in the Gospel; I will follow thee, but let me go and bid farewell to my friends: I must not come off abruptly from my old Companions in sin, but take leave of them handsomely: I must go bury my father, saith another; but the Lord Jesus takes by the hand, plucks us out, as I may say, by head and ears, before we will come out.

Again, consider how we have worn out ourselves in the bondage and slavery of sin, and with these fetters upon our souls, or else spent so, that now he may even say, we ourselves may say of our days, there is no pleasure in them: so Luke 4. 18. to set at liberty them that are bruised, Dimittere confract • s in remissionem, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which words are not in Isaiah 61. neither Hebrew, Greek, nor Latin, but they are added 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by Luke, as some conceive: • atabl. and others, read them v • lneratos, persons wounded, shattered, worn out with the hard bondage and service they were put to; bondage is a weary thing at the best; but when a man is such a slave, as that he must like a Gally Slave, work like a horse in the service of sin: O what pains sinners do take with both hands! earnestly they come to iniquity, and so exhaust their spirits, the best milk and marrow in the bones, so that they are as dry sticks, that are good for nothing; and yet that the Lord Jesus should to such proclaim liberty, bring them forth, that are able to do him no service in a manner; so the thief upon the Cross: and so the Jew that Andreas is said to convert, hanging upon the Cross: and so many a gray headed sinner, that never ceased serving sin, yet now, &c. Truly, if the Lord Christ should set us free, with a respect to any service we should do him afterward, I doubt none would ever be set free: for Brethren, what can we add to him? if thou be righteous, it profiteth him not at all; he is a God infinitely perfect in himself, our goodness extends not to him; all the best of Lebanon, and the wood are not enough for a burnt offering, so great a God he is; and yet though he be not advantaged by our service when we are set at Liberty, but what commandments he giveth us to observe, and giveth us hearts, inclineth our hearts thereunto, they are for our own welfare, as in that of Deuteronomy. The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, for his good, his advantage; and so is all the services: or if it were, yet alas (I say) how are we broken many times with the bondage of sin, so that we are fit for nothing, the understanding and affections so weakened and wasted, and besotted with sin, that afterward we can do little for him, because of that sad effect sin hath left upon our souls, and yet he delivereth us: this the fourth.

Use 5. Then it shall it be for Exhortation and invitation this day to every poor sinner, that is in bondage, that they would close with this promise, that they would go forth: O Sinners! that you would but accept of Deliverance and Liberty, that now the Lord Jesus, after so dear a purchase of it, doth tender to you; you see he is willing, he came on purpose into the world, to preach and proclaim liberty to the Captives: Now art not thou a Captive? and hast thou no mind to be set free? And for some Motives to stir us up a little, at least to a consideration of our condition, and what we do all this while.

First, Consider this is the acceptable year of the Lord, as in that of Isaiah: O it beginneth with the preaching of the Gospel; indeed the acceptable year, mind you, acceptable to Jesus Christ: It pleaseth him wondrous well, if sinners be willing to come out of prison, to be set at liberty: there is many a poor soul that thinketh with himself, I am willing; if the Lord Jesus be willing that I shall go forth: O it is the acceptable year of the Lord, there is nothing more pleasing to him, then to see the ransom he hath laid down for you sinners take effect, and bring out many out of bondage; the Apostle applieth it to the times of the Gospel; There is joy in heaven, &c. The Father of the Prodigal, how willing was he? and then it is the acceptable year to sinners too: O how did men that were in bondage long for the Jubilee, and breath and pant after it, especially if their bondage were hard? that set them all free. Dear Friends, Consider, this is the great Jubilee, proclaimed solemnly with the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel, that every poor creature, that will, may go forth out of prison; yea, that if now they go forth, the Lord Jesus is willing we should; but if we shall trifle away this year of the Lord, which we know not how long it may last to us: either the Gospel may be taken away from us, or else we from the Gospel; or else the things which concern our peace in the Gospel be hid from our eyes, that we shall never see them: O that sinners would but consider this, these seasons the Father hath kept in his own power, that sinners might be afraid to trifle away one Sabbath, wherein this grace is offered, for fear that it never be offered more to us: If the Servant did neglect to take the opportunity of the Jubilee, he must be in bondage, he and his, until another Jubilee, and so he himself was like to perish in that service.

There were only three things that did hinder their going free in that acceptable year: 1. Either they were strangers, and of the cursed Canaanites, who were doomed to bondage; now there was no going forth for them: Or else 2. The Matters would not let them go free: Or else 3. They themselves had no mind to go free, and so bound themselves forever to their Masters.

First, I say, The Strangers: alas, the Jubilee was not proclaimed to them; and therefore, though they might he willing to go free, yet they could not, they were as good never think of it, it concerneth them not; and the Masters knowing this would never let them go free; surely, this is not our case, though the time was, when we were sinners of the Gentiles, and afar off, and the year of Jubilee was not proclaimed to us; yea, the Lord Jesus forbid his disciples, to go into the way of the Gentiles: If this were our case, then there were some excuse for our continuing in bondage; and thus it is with many a poor people under the Sun this day; the Lord Christ hath never said to them that sit in darkness, go forth, else haply, Tyre and Zidon would have done it sooner then Coraz and Bethsaida.

Secondly then, the unwillingness of him to whom we are in bondage, to let us go free: it is true, sin is unwilling to let the sinner go; alas, how shall lust be satisfied and served then? And so is Satan, as long as ever he can, he will hold his hold; but doth not the Lord threaten the hard hearted Jews, since they would not let his people go out of bondage, that he would proclaim a Liberty to them, to the sword, and to the famine, and to the pestilence? Pharaoh was very loath to let Israel go as long as he had a being, therefore he was destroyed: And so sin and Satan, they will not let the sinner go; O how a man's lusts do cling about him then, when he should go free! what, will ye forsake me now, have I not brought you in so much content, so many sweet hours you have had of repose in my lap, so much gain and advantage, have you not lived by me, and will you now leave me? these will stratle the soul; and then for Satan, either he multiplieth his baits, maketh the best of everything in the way of sin that now beginneth to be laid open, to find colors and glosses to put upon them, or else he rageth and tells the soul, thou go free! dost thou think that now thou hast served sin so long, Jesus Christ will accept of thee? and indeed, all that his wit or power can do, he bestirreth himself, now he seeth his kingdom going down, and his yoke breaking; I, but remember this, that the Lord will break him to pieces, tread him under-feet if he refuse to let you go, the Lord will pluck you out of his hands, destroy his power.

Thirdly, Our own unwillingness, for if the servant said, he loved his Master, and his Masters service, and he would not go free, then the Jubilee served him in no stead, he must have his ear bored to the door-post by the Magistrate, and so be his servant forever; either this might be as a punishment of his contempt of liberty, now he might have liberty, which is rather to be chosen, as the Apostle saith: and the Lord out of a tender respect to them, as his people, that he hath bought out of bondage, would not have them kept in bondage by their Brethren; Now if he would not go free, but loved his Master so well; that he preferred his service before freedom, he should have this torment and public shame, to be bored through the ear: And I tell you Brethren, it will not be the piercing of the ear that shall be the recompense of your refusing of this liberty, but the piercing of your hearts, as with a sword, when you come to see what your bondage will bring you unto; or else secondly, That now they must never go out of their Masters doors without his leave, the servitude must be stricter then ever it was; and so truly I do believe, Brethren, that now, where the acceptable year of the Lord is preached to sinners, they have liberty offered, and they will not accept of it; that now they are more fully under the command of Sat • n and sin, then they were before. Thirdly, that hereby might be signified the willingness of their service for the time to come, that they had, as I may say, their ears opened now to what ever their Master should command them; and so in that Psalm; Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but mine ear hast thou bored or digged, so the words may be read, that is to say, thou hast made me willingly obedient to thee to the death, & that obedience is better then sacrifice; and truly this is the saddest of all the rest, when men shall give up themselves with a fuller will to serve Sin and Satan then ever they did before, in stea • of going forth; O let us fear and tremble before the Lord, lest while liberty is proclaimed, we instead of going forth, be bored in the ear, and become Satan's servants forever, never go forth from our bondage.

Again, Consider yet further, that the day if liberty is proclaimed; it is the day of the vengeance of our God also, as the Prophet hath it; as if he had said, if it be not a day of liberty, and of going forth to you, it will be a day of vengeance to you as well as to the enemies of Christ; for what desperate love is this, to sin against Christ? that when he hath been at so much pains and cost to purchase a liberty for us, and we refuse and reject it, will not part with our chains, will rather rot in prison then come forth, what can be expected but wrath to the utmost to come upon such a soul? O surely the Gospel will be the savor of death to death to such a soul, a savor of bondage to bondage and everlast • ng chains of darkness will be their bonds forever: Brethren, think of this before the prison doors be shut and barred, before you be sealed up unto this destruction.

Lastly, Consider how sweet and precious Liberty is, even civel libetty, how sweet a thing it is; else men would never expend so much treasure and blood as we have done for it: Ah, this is nothing to a freedom from sin, and from other bondages which arise upon sin unto the soul: Ask but any poor creature that is newly come out of the dungeon, out of the horrible pit, where there was no standing; will they not tell you that liberty is sweet? it is not to be expressed: If Paul had not been free, he had had many a lash by those cruel tyrants. If the soul be not free, it is liable to perish, to be whipped▪ to death, to eternal death with Scorpions; ask but any of the people of God, who have been wearied and almost worried with their lusts; O the iron entered into their soul, they did sit in darkness, in the dungeon many a sad day and hour, and at last Out of the depths they have called to the Lord, he hath set them free: O what an Heaven upon Earth they found it when they have been delivered in any measure from this bondage! what would they take to be in the same condition again, specially under the command of their lusts? not all the world; brethren, the Lord persuade your hearts now, now while it is to be had, before you be called for out of prison to the judgment, that you may go forth and enjoy this glorious liberty.

O but you would say, Alas, what should we do in this case? we are convinced; it may be some poor soul ma • say of himself, that this is a miserable bondage we are in, even by sin and the consequents of it, and we would fain be set free, but we know not which way to go about it; we are in a maze, a wilderness, a labyrinth, a du • geon: we grope, and grope, and cannot find the way out: O what shall we do? it may be this may be the case of some of our souls; I will tell you what you shall do.

First Deny your own policy, and wisdom, know, they will not set you free; Judas had much knowledge, and yet he hanged himself; you will rather by depth of reasonings plunge yourselves deeper; the Gospel is foolishness to them through the pride in their carnal knowledge.

Secondly, Labor to know the Gospel in its tenor, and to close with it, to believe it, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free; truth truly known will set a soul free; this truth is the truth of the Gospel, for Grace and Truth come by Jesus Christ: and it is observable that they are both put together; Sanctify them with thy Truth, saith our Savior, thy Word is Truth.

There are three things here considerable.

First, That there must be a through acquaintance with the bondage that we are under, and the better condition of service; how much the service of Christ is to be preferred before that of Satan; for the truth is, while a man knoweth no better, he will be content to serve the worse; there is never a sinner under the dominion of sin, but thinketh he is the freest man; and the people of God that are bound up in their Spirits to such a strict way of walking with God, he thinketh they are the men in bondage; but alas, it is because he understandeth not his own condition: nor is it a slight hint of such a thing that will usually prevail to a freedom from all sin, therefore you must labor to study what this bondage is, see what thou art exposed to by reason of it, and see what a prfect freedom the service of Christ is. O what great reward there is in the very keeping of his Commandments; joy is such an inseparable attendant upon obedience, that some measure of it followeth every good action, as the very heathens themselves acknowledged; much more then, when the Lord Jesus is the Master, and his service the work.

Secondly, Thou must be acquainted with the commands of Christ; his precepts are pure, and they have an influence upon the heart that believeth them, to bring him out of that bondage, to set him free: I do believe nothing more keepeth many a soul in bondage; he knoweth not what the will of Christ is in such or such a particular, else he would do it. Be acquainted with Christ the sum of the Gospel, you shall know the truth; that is to say, what he hath done to set poor creatures free became a servant obedient to the death, was in bondage, in prison, in the horrible pit, how he was put to it to overcome, &c.

Thirdly and principally, thou must be acquainted with the promises of the Gospel that are made to this end; it is their excellency to help forward our freedom; this part of the truth well known, so known as to be closed with, will make every poor creature free, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free; and so this in the text, the Sun of righteousness shall arise upon you with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth: and so many other places, sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the Law, but under Grace: It is the very tenure of the Covenant, and of the promises in Scripture, that he will deliver his people, save them from all their uncleannesses, and subdue all iniquities for them, yea though they work iniquity with both hands, Vers. 3. Either we know not these things, or else we make not use of them, we act not faith upon them; the Lord doth love to have his people use the importunity of faith, for nothing is so importunate as faith, nor offers, as I may say, such violence to heaven as that doth. O Brethren, the Lord help our unbelief, and forgive our neglect of our faith in this point; if thou canst act it but weakly, yet put forth some act of faith, hang upon these promises, tell the Lord he hath caused thee to hope upon this his Word, else thou couldest not hope, and thou dost hope in this Word, else thy heart would altogether sink within thee; and will he now make thee ashamed of his hope, hath his promise ever failed a poor creature, and will it now fail thee?

But beside this, dost thou find thy heart moved, made willing indeed to part with sin? Art thou in good earnest in this business? O yes, saith the poor soul, I would rather then my life be set at liberty, for what good will my life do me, if I must continually serve sin, and grieve such bowels of love towards me in Jesus Christ? have you searched, do you know your hearts in this point? it may be thou hast not that heed of trusting thy heart further then thou seest it, it will deceive thee then; but if thou hast searched it; and begged of God to search it, and thou▪ dost not find but he hath through infinite riches of grace made thee willing to come out if thou couldst tell how: I tell you Brethren, if this be so, the chains are fallen off from your hands, and the bolts from your legs, your freedom is in a great part accomplished, only thou canst not find the way out of the prison. O then follow Christ, follow his Spirit, when he moveth thy heart at any time to search and try, maketh thee tender, puts thee into a frame to bewail the evils of thy heart, take the hint up and be doing, follow him and he will bring thee through one iron-gate, and through another, and thou shalt find thyself at the last set free, and know thy liberty, and the things freely given thee of God.

O beg the Spirit, for he is the cause of liberty, it depends upon him as light upon the Sun, and the Spring upon the Fountain; he applieth what Christ hath done for us, knowing the deep things of God, he revealeth them, he only convinceth and answers objections, &c.

The sixth Use of the point shall be several admonitions or exhortations to them that are set free from this bondage; thou hast had the Sun of righteousness shine upon thee, and art gone forth from sin, from that bondage, those fears, terrors, darkness and distractions which sin brings upon poor creatures, thou rememberest the time when thou couldst do nothing but sin against the Lord and grieve him continually, thou couldst not cease to sin, thou wast under the command of sin, and now through grace, exceeding rich grace, the gates of the prison are open, the Lord hath plucked thy feet, thy affections out of the snare; What doth the Lord thy God require of thee? this should be the next enquiry of the soul, me thinks, after so signal mercies.

First, surely he expecteth thou shouldst give him the glory of all, praise him, and exalt him alone: alas, what are the calves of our lips, they cost us nothing, the poorest have this, and the richest have no more in effect but this, if thou be able to do little for Christ, yet thou mayest praise him, thou mayest admire his rich grace, make his name glorious? Truly Brethren, I believe some of us are able to say by experience, that our unthankfulness for the freedom we have had, hath been an occasion of our being clapt up, for all the design of God in Christ, in redemption of poor creatures, is to make his mercy and grace glorious, as he did his power in the creation and wisdom; Now how is it made glorious among us, but by our acknowledgment of it, our lifting up the Lord Jesus not only with our hearts but our tongues; art thou brought back again into darkness, and into the prison after some refreshing? Consider, wast thou thankful for what thou hadst? we are all sick of the leapers disease in the Gospel, ten were cleansed, but where are the nine? I doubt scarce one in ten of us do praise him according to what he hath done for our souls, and those that do▪ yet scarce for one act of his loving kindness in ten, in bringing of-us forth; it may be he delivereth us ten times from a dead heart, before we once give him the glory. O this Popish principle of pride that is in us; is that which seals: up our hearts and stoppeth our mouths from praises, but opens it in complaints, in discontents, when we want such a mercy. O if our f • eece be dry when others are wet; we are ready to question, why doth the Lord deal so with me rather then with another, why have I not as much enlargement of heart as another, as great gifts, freedom of speech, and utterance, as great grace in any kind? Why am I not set above these wretched carnal delights as well as others of his people? as if, God should do anything for us out of respect to us, we had deserved anything at his hands; whereas we may rather expostulate with ourselves, O why is it not worse with me then it is? why am I in no sorer▪ bondage then I am? where I am once overthrown, it is mercy I have not an hundred times been over-thrown with-my lusts. So on the other hand, it stops our mouths for returning unto the Lord for what he hath done for us; we may many of us thank ourselves for much of the bondage that is upon us, that we so much complain of. O if every time the Lord setteth our frozen spirits a melting, every time he setteth our straightened hearts at large, we instead of lifting up ourselves, we could and did but admire that grace, magnify him, loath ourselves, would he not much more delight to enlarge us? O therefore look to this.

Secondly, Then look to it thàt ye stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free; I speak not so much here to the yoke of Ceremonies which the Lord hath taken away altogether, but I speak specially to our freedom from the dominion of our sins, the freedom from the Law as a Covenant of life, and from outward pressures and bondages; you know our fears were great when we saw this cloud of blood but hanging over our heads, and many of the precious ones of God, I know, when I was little and scarce able to take notice of such things, yet I have been an eye and ear-witness of the sad complaints made before the Lord of it. Now hath God delivered us from this, stand we fast in this liberty.

But first then, for that of sin and our lusts, hath the Lord broken the yoke of them, set thee free when thou didst groan under it? O take heed of returning to folly anymore; hath he spoken peace to thy troubled soul, loosed the cords of thy sins wherewith thou wast held, and wilt thou be tampering with sin again? This was the madness and perverseness of Israel, they would make them a Captain and return to Egypt again, to the house of bondage, when they had been but a little tried in the Wilderness; but we have no such discouragement upon us as to put us upon such resolutions, but merely the unfaithfulness of our own hearts, and unsteadfastness of our own spirits: the Apostle speaks of some, who having escaped the pollutions of the world, they did return with the dog to the vomit, with the swine to the mire; the condition of such a soul is worse then ever it was, he brings seven other spirits worse then himself, and the latter end of thàt man is worse then his beginning. O when the Devil can but fasten upon such a poor creature again, that once hath gotten out of the prison, like a cruel Jailor now he will lay more fetters upon him, now he shall be even over-whelmed with temptations, now his feet, his head, and his heart and all shall be put in the stocks, have their bolts and chains upon them. Sinners, you never make work for Christ, but you make work for yourselves, lay a grievous foundation for much bitterness to your own spirits; a little care, a little watchfulness here, may prevent heart-breaking afterwards, which we do necessitate (as I may say) Jesus Christ to by our backslidings; to this end therefore fly sin, as Moses fled from the face of his Serpent; fly youthful lusts, make hast away, the Devil and sin will pursue hard, and cast this golden apple in our way, this and that occasion; O take heed of them. So the Apostle, fly fornication, and fly Idolatry, &c.

Secondly, Take heed of returning to that Covenant of works, or Covenant of life, which was a yoke of our own making; if our blessed Savior hath been pleased to break it, set us free, shall we ret • rn to that bondage again? I doubt this is a great cause of much sorrow and heavy walking before the Lord of many a poor creature: O he cannot do this, and he cannot do that, and therefore he doubts all is not well with him, whether he have anything to do with Christ? It is true, if he had made our doing, our perfect obedience the condition of his Covenant, it had been somewhat, but he hath not, but faith in him; take from him for all ends and purposes, not only for pardon, but for strength, for food, for victory over our sin. Now we go off this, and therefore we move so heavily and cannot stir, but are like a door off its hinges, a Chariot off its wheels, bring much bondage and trouble upon ourselves, and much of our time and pains is spent in poring upon this, and getting healing again for this, which might be spent in glorifying him.

Therefore beg of God to this end, that he would establish you with his Princely Royal Spirit, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; the Son maketh us free by his Spirit; and therefore David maketh that prayer, as being sensible of this. O beg this Spirit for establishment, the Lord will be entreated, he puts arguments into our mouths, and giveth us the greatest encouragements to beg the Spirit, of any other mercy that I know of, as being the greatest mercy, and the principal of all Gospel-grace, and therefore being so great a gift, poor sinners might be afraid to ask, but saith he, you are Fathers whose affections are finite and mixed, you are not pure love, yea you are evil, and yet will give good gifts to your children, much more will God give the Spirit; this the Apostle is earnest with the Lord for, that he would stablish and strengthen his people to every good Word and Work, for grace is but a creature, and so is weak, cannot consist of itself without him, therefore be earnest here.

Thirdly, Since we are delivered from outward pressures, the yoke that did gall the necks of the people of God as before; hath the Lord set us above our enemies, hath he before our eyes brought our Egyptians down in the red Sea of blood, and shall we return thither again? I speak not of the same bondage, I hope the Lord will keep his people from that, but I speak of a worse, to be delivered from a tyranny of man, to return to a tyranny and dominion of sin; it is sad, the heathens could say, Servitus gravissima est sibi ipsi servire, it is the heaviest yoke for a man to be yoked with his own ends and interests, to seek himself, serve himself, specially his sinful self, to make provision for his lusts. It was a sad character of Rome that Augustine giveth her, Victrix gentium captiva vitiorum. What are we the better for being delivered from that bondage? if such as were humble then, and low, and meek, and self-denying, now are high, and fierce, and self-seeking, proud and wanton, and luxurious, their whoring, hawking, and hounding, and spending their time in such sports which should have been laid out in public service, was looked upon as a great evil, God caused their houses and lands to spew them out. I wish we be not beginning to come under that worse yoke, now we are delivered from that of oppression; was it not better for Israel to work in the Iron-furnace, in the brickkill, then to be enslaved to their lusts in the wilderness, and there to perish? and was not Babylon better for them, then to be at liberty, and yet to become slaves to their lusts, to their Idols? Brethren, I pray you let us look well about us everyone; it is true, the day of the Lord, it hath burned like an oven among us, and many have been as stubble fully dried put into it; the briars and brambles that did scratch and tear the people of God, they are consumed, God hath gone through them and consumed them; and are we anything the better, are we not worse? If we now melt away with the sweetness of our liberty, grow luxurious and wanton, wanton in opinions, that men know not well what they would be, but anything, so it be new and the thriving way: and wanton in apparel; are there not as many slaves to pride, to vanity, to self, as there were then to the lusts of other men? I beseech you, which is the worse, to be at the mercy of another man's lusts, which can but reach the body and effect our sorrow for a time; or the mercy of our own merciless lusts, which will work our woe and ruin? O therefore look to this then, if set at liberty, sly sin; as he said to Lot, fly for thy life, &c. sly fornication and youthful lusts, &c. said the Apostle.

The third part of the Exhortation then shall be, to take heed how we abuse this our liberty, as saith the Apostle, not using our liberty as a cloak of malitiousness; haply alluding to the manner of persons. The Apostles scope in that place leadeth us to one part of the sense of this abusing of our liberty, and that is to think they are so free now, that they need not have their necks under the yoke of men at all, for that goeth before, exhorting them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; to be subject to the higher powers and subordinate powers, is very consistent with this spiritual freedom▪ was there ever any so free as our Savior, who is the Son that maketh us free? and yet did not he submit? submit to his parents, was subject to them, and subject to the powers under which he lived, because his Kingdom was not of this world; and would it suite with the head, and will it not suite with the members? But I hope I need not speak much to this. But there is much more wherein we may abuse our liberty as children, by a carrying it frowardly and rebelliously against their parents, upon pretence of liberty: and servants that are under the yoke, it may be think they may do much in this case, more then they have warrant to do, because they are free, it may be, and their Masters haply in bondage under sin, therefore shall they despise them? No, but count them worthy of all honor, serving them in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not for by-respects and ends, for fear of their displeasure, but for Christ's sake to do it: this is freedom indeed.

But to speak a little more generally, many men think when once they have gotten their necks out of the yoke, from under that bondage, and those fears that they have been under, they think now they are at liberty, they are past all the worst, when they have gotten a little peace, and therefore though before they walked mournfully before God, and were diligent in following hard after him, now they slack their pace, grow remiss, they have their consolations, the loaves they would have, and now they may take their ease. O this is a horrible abuse of this liberty, for therefore the Lord speaks peace, that we might not return to folly; and we quite cross, because he hath spoken peace to us, therefore give up ourselves to folly; is not this to walk contrary to him? and will he not walk contrary to you? is not this to make our liberty a cloak, an occasion to the flesh, a handle for the flesh to take hold of, and so to bring you into bondage again, and so make more work for Christ to set you at liberty again? Brethren, can we make our liberty a cloak to the flesh, and do you think the Lord will not pluck that cloak over our ears, and show us our nakedness again, and make us know how we come by it again, before we have it? and therefore take heed of this, I beseech you, lest your liberty degenerate into licentiousness; Maxima libertate minima licentia, said that Antient.

But yet more particularly, take heed of abusing of your liberty in the use of things lawful in themselves and indifferent; it is a sign of a heart that hath little fear of offending God, that dare walk just at the very brink, upon the very line of destruction, between sin and lawful liberty, if it can be assigned▪ You find the Apostle of another Spirit, rather then offend his weak Brother, he would never eat meat while he lived: why how would he live? rather upon herbs, and fruits, and such things, then to eat flesh as long as he lived too. I tell you Brethren, in our days, though there is much discourse of liberty, there is little true use of it, when a man will offend all the people of God, and his Brethren, rather then he will part with an excrement; and a woman rather then sorbear her spotting, and painting, and bedlam nakedness. If the things be lawful in themselves, which I think they are not; or a man will rather grieve all the people of God then cross his humor, this is sad.

Again, Brethren, one man may have a greater liberty then another in this case, and another greater then he in another case; as for instance now, Abraham might look upon Sodom when it was flaming, but Lot might not, because there he had his desirable things, lest it should draw back his heart from the journey now commanded him; and so if a man do but observe when temptations and lusts meet together; where his corruption lies, what is the scum of his heart, and what doth use to fire his lusts, there he may not give himself such a liberty as another may, whose temptation lies in another thing: as if a man's temptation lie to excess in eating, in drinking, it is not lawsul for such a man now to look upon the wine when red, &c. to come in the danger of such a temptation; and so if a man have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease to sin, he may not behold an object that another may, whose temptation lies not there.

In a word, look to it Brethren, that we serve one another in love, this is opposed to using our liberty as a Cloak to the flesh, to bear one another's burdens; Brethren, we are not at liberty one from another, we may not say with Cain, Am I my Brothers keeper? we ought not to despise the infirmities of the weak, because they see not as we see, and therefore are grieved and offended at many things that we make nothing of; here we ought to bear their infirmities, to cover them, to labor to inform them, and forbear them, not despise them; become all things to them that we may lawfully, as the Apostle became all things, but a sinner, to gain them; this is serving one another in love, and the labor of love either to God or men is a free service indeed; we are rather ready to serve ourselves one of another, for ought I perceive, generally it is so, then serve one another in love. Brethren, I doubt there is little love for Christ sake, though there may be some for our own, and then all the liberty we talk of, it is but bondage; the Law of love is a Law of liberty indeed, but enough of this.

Fourthly, Then look to it, that we being free from sin, we become the servants of righteousness; that is to say, that you give up yourselves, yield yourselves unto God, unto Christ, as instruments for the holy Spirit to play upon, as instruments, tools, weapons of righteousness for the Lord to make use of, even as he pleaseth, this is the end of all that liberty held out in the Covenant of grace, that we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives: Now hath the Lord then set thee free, brought thee out of the horrible pit, broken off the shakles, knocked them off, set open the prison? what can we do less then this? spend ourselves now in his service. O if men would but consider, how much of their strength and spirits sin hath had, while we were under that bondage: Me thinks it should put us on so much the more earnestly, specially considering how our service addeth nothing to him, it is for our own good, as you heard before, and it is all he expecteth for delivering of us. What poor Gally-slave would not most willingly yield to a Noble-man to be his servant, where his service is honorable, and pleasant, and delightful, so be he would redeem him? why this is the very case.

Beside, if we consider the fruit here, and the reward hereafter; the Apostle puts both together, and I will not put them asunder, the first-fruits, and the harvest, they have their fruit unto holiness; the more we serve the Lord Christ, the more easy, pleasant and delightful will his service be, the more our souls will shine with the beauty of holiness; as the bondage groweth by continuance, so doth the freedom by this service. I dare say, the more acquaintance any poor heart hath with a diligent, close, humble, upright walking with God, the more pleasant the ways of God are to him; yea, and the more holy that man groweth, it must needs be so, because he hath more communion with the Fountain of holiness, even God in Jesus Christ, and the Spirit also: would you be holy, Brethren? would you be more and more freed from the remainders of bondage which are upon you? Believe it, the only way is to lay out yourselves more in the service of Christ; the Spirit of Christ will delight to be where he is entertained; where his motions are received, every hint is taken, and followed, and improved, and the more that spirit then dwells in the heart, which is his contrary principle lusting against the flesh, the more the flesh must needs go down in a soul. But the end is that will make up all. O the reward will be according to our works; when a man is rich towards God, hath been faithful in a little, faithful in a great deal, hath laid up a good foundation against the time to come, O how shall such shine in glory! Me thinks our eyes should be a little forward, the eye of faith, as well as altogether backward to Christ, and what he hath done for us, to what he hath prepared for us, and therefore he himself proposeth himself as a pattern to us in this very respect, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, having laid aside every weight, being set free from this bondage, then run, looking to Jesus the Author of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross, despised the shame; endured the clouding of his Fathers face from him, that was the weight that made him hang the head; it is the proposing of the end that sweetens the means, health that is aimed at, how it sugars many a bitter potion, a man will endure anything in such a case: Well, though we may have much ado with our froward and backsliding hearts, and be many times wearied with them; yet give not over, but run, & work, and so work, as men set at liberty, not in chains, cheerfully and strongly upon all the former considerations, and this will be a right use of our liberty indeed.

Fifthly, Then be not brought under bondage unto men, that is to say, to have our consciences enslaved, either through the fear of men, or favor of men; surely, if the Spirit of Christ be in us, as it is, if we be his, it will free and make us go forth from this bondage: You have seen it in all experiences, when they threatened the Apostles, commanded them they should not preach in that name; the Spirit that was in them did break all those bonds, though it taught them 〈…〉 ot to rebel, to be tumultuous; for it is pure and then peaceable, the wisdom that is from this Spirit, yet it taught them not to regard it; whether it be fit to obey God or man judge ye? they rejoiced the more, that they were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ; this wind that bloweth where it listeth, it bears down all opposition, there is no resisting of that Spirit that speaks and acts in them. See the Martyrs, how it did triumph over their adversaries, they overcame their cruelty by the invincible patience, and yielding their bodies to a torment, rather then their consciences to the cruel commands of sinners, which tend to their wounding. Was there ever such a slave as