Secondly, All believers are freed from the guilt of sin ; it may trouble, but it cannot condemn them, Rom. viii. 33. The hand- writing which was against us is cancelled by Christ, nailed to his cross, Col. ii. 14. When the seal and hand- writing are torn off from the bond, the debtor is made free thereby : Believers are to- tally freed, Acts xiii. 39- " Justified from all things :" And finally freed, John v. 24. " They shall never come into condemnation." O blessed freedom ! How sweet is it to lie down in our beds, yea, in our graves, when guilt shall neither be our bed-fellow, nor grave-fellow !
Thirdly, Jesus Christ frees all believers from the dominion as well as the guilt of sin. " Sin shall not have dominion over you, for " ye are not under the law, but under grace," Rom. vi. 1 4. " The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, hath made " me free from the law of sin and death," Rom. viii. 2. Now, who can estimate such a liberty as this ? What slavery, what an into- lerable drudgery is the service of divers lusts, from all which be- lievers are freed by Christ ; not from the residence, but from the reign of sin. It is with sin in believers as it was with those beasts mentioned Dan. vii. 12. " They had their dominion taken away, " yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time."
Fourthly, Jesus Christ sets all believers free from the power of Satan, in whose right they were by nature, Col. i. 13. they are translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of Christ. Satan had the possession of them, as a man of his own goods ; but Christ dispossesseth that strong man armed, alters the property, and recovers them out of his hand, Luke xi. 21, 22. There are two ways by which Christ frees believers out of Satan's power and possession; namely,
First, By price. The blood of Christ purchaseth believers out of the hands of justice, by satisfying the law for them, which being done, Satan's authority over them falls of course, as the power of a gaoler over the prisoner doth, when he hath a legal discharge, Heb. ii. 14. " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood ; " he also himself took part of the same, that through death he " might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." The cruel tyrant beats and burdens the poor captive no more after the
274 THE METHOD OF GRACE,
ransom is once paid, and he actually freed ; and therefore Christ delivers his,
Secondly, By power. Satan is exceeding unwilling to let go his prey : He is a strong and malicious enemy ; every rescue and deli- verance out of his hand is a glorious effect of the Almighty Power of Christ, Acts xxvi. 18. 2 Cor. x. 5. How did our Lord Jesus Christ grapple with Satan at his death, and triumph over him. Col. ii. 15. O glorious salvation ! blessed liberty of the children of God !
Fifthly, Christ frees believers from the poisonous sting and hurt of death : Kill us it can, but hurt us it cannot, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56. u O death I where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy victory ? <( The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law : But " thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord " Jesus Christ. " If there be no hurt, there should be no horror in death : It is guilt that arms death, both with its hurting and ter- rifying power. To die in our sins, John viii. 24. To have our bones full of the sins of our youth, which shall lie down with us in the dust, Job xx. 11. To have death, like a dragon, pulling a poor guilty creature as a prey into its dreadful den, Psal. xlix. 14. In this lies the danger and horror of death : But from death, as a curse, and from the grave, as a prison, Christ hath set believers at liberty, by submitting to death in their room ; and by his victorious resurrection from the grave, as the first-born of the dead, death is disarmed of its hurting power. The death of believers is but a sleep in Jesus.
Thirdly, The next thing to be briefly spoken to, is the kind and nature of that freedom and liberty purchased and procured by Christ for believers.
Now liberty may be considered two ways ; viz.
As to civil freedom, or liberty, it belongs not to our present bu- siness : Believers, as to their civil capacity, are not freed from the duties they owe to their superiors. Servants, though believers, are still to be subject to their masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, Eph. vi. 5. nor from obedience to lawful magis- trates, whom we are to obey in the Lord, Rom. xii. 1, 4. Reli- gion dissolves not the bonds of civil relations ; nor is it to be used as an occasion to the flesh, 1 Pet. ii. 16. It is not a carnal, but a spiritual freedom Christ hath purchased for us: And this spiritual freedom is again to be considered, either as,
The liberty believers have at present is but a beginning liberty :
SERM. XVIII. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 275
they are freed but in part from their spiritual enemies ; but it is a growing liberty every day, and will be eonsummate and complete at last.
To conclude, Christian liberty is either,
The liberty believers are invested with is of both kinds : They are not only freed from many miseries, burdens and dangers, but also invested by Jesus Christ with many royal privileges and inva- luable immunities.
Fourthly, And this brings us to the fourth and last thing; name- ly, the properties of this blessed freedom which the saints enjoy by Jesus Christ; and, if we consider it duly, it will be found to be,
First, A wonderful liberty, never enough to be admired. How could it be imagined that ever those who owed unto God more than ever they could pay by their own eternal sufferings ; those that were under the dreadful curse and condemnation of the law, in the power and possession of Satan the strong man armed ; those that were bound with so many chains in their spiritual prison ; their un- derstanding bound with ignorance, their wills with obstinacy, their hearts with impenetrable hardness, their affections with a thousand bet witching vanities, that slight their state of slavery so much, as industriously to oppose all instruments and means of deliverance ; for such persons to be set at liberty, notwithstanding all this, is the wonder of wonders, and will be deservedly marvellous in the eyes of believers for ever.
Secondly, The freedom of believers is a peculiar freedom; a liberty which few obtain ; the generality abiding still in bondage to Satan, who, from the multitude of his subjects, is stiled the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Believers in scripture are often called a remnant, which is but a small part of the whole piece : The more cause have the people of God to admire distinguishing mercy. How many nobles and great ones of the world are but royal slaves to Satan, and their own lusts !