Thirdly, The liberty of believers is a liberty dearly purchased by the blood of Christ. What that captain said, Acts xxii. 28. " With a great sum obtained I this freedom,1"1 may be much more said of the believers' freedom : It was not silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ that purchased it, 1 Pet. i. 18.
Fourthly, The freedom and liberty of believers is a growing and increasing liberty ; they get more and more out of the power of sin, and nearer still to their complete salvation every day, Rom. xiii. 11. The body of sin dieth daily in them: they are said to be crucified with Christ : the strength of sin abates continually in them, after the manner of crucified persons, who die a slow, "but
27G THE METHOD OF GRACE.
sure death : And look in what degree the power of sin abates, pro- portionally their spiritual liberty increases upon them.
Fifthly, The freedom of believers is a comfortable freedom : the apostle comforts Christians of the lowest rank, poor servants, with this consideration, 1 Cor. vii. 22. " He that is called in the " Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman,*' q. d. Let not the meanness of your outward condition, which is a state of subjec- tion and dependence, a state of poverty and contempt, at all trou- ble you : you are the Lord's freemen, of precious account in his eyes. O it is a comfortable liberty !
Sixthly, and Lastly, It is a perpetual and final freedom ; thcy that are once freed bv Christ, have their manumission and final dis- charge from that state of bondage they were in before : sin shall never have dominion over them any more: it may tempt them and trouble them, but shall never more rule and govern them, Acts xxvi. 18. And thus you see what a glorious liberty the li- berty of believers is.
Tiie improvement whereof will be in the following inferences.
Inf. 1. How rational is the joy of Christians, above the joy of all others in the world ? Shall not the captive rejoice in his recovered liberty ? the very birds of the air (as one observes) had rather be at liberty in the woods, though lean and hungry, than in a golden cage with the richest fare : every creature naturally prizes it ; none more than believers, who have felt the burden and bondage of corruption, who in the days of their first illumination and convic- tion have poured out many groans and tears for this mercy. What was said of the captive people of God in Babylon, excellently sha- dows forth the state of God's people under spiritual bondage, with the way and maimer of their deliverance from it, Zech. ix. 11. " By the blood of the covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners 44 out of the pit, wherein is no water." Believers are delivered by the blood of Christ, out of a worse pit than that of Babylon ; and look, as the tribes in their return from thence were over- whelmed with joy and astonishment, Psal. exxvi. 1, 2. " When the " Lord turned again the captivity of Sion, we are like them that " dream : Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our 64 tongue with sino•ino;.'>,
They were overwhelmed with the sense of the mercy : So should it be with the people of God. It is said, Luke xv. 24. when the prodigal son (there made the emblem of a returning, converting sinner) was returned again to his father's house, that there was heard music and dancing, mirth and feasting in that house. The angels in heaven rejoice when a soul is recovered out of the power of Satan : And shall not the recovered soul, imme- diately concerned in the mercy, greatly rejoice? Yea, let them re-
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joice in the Lord, and let no earthly trouble or affliction ever have power to interrupt their joy for a moment, after such a deliverance as this,
Inf.% How unreasonable and icholl/j inexcusable is the sin of' apos- tasy from Jesas Christ ? What is it but for a delivered captive to put his feet again into the shackles ; his hands into the manacles; his neck into the iron yoke, from which he hath been delivered ? It is said, Mat. xii. 44, 45. " When the unclean spirit is gone out of a " man, he walkcth through dry places, seeking rest and findeth none: " Then he saith, I will return into mine house from whence I came " out ; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and " garnished ; then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other " spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell " there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Even as a prisoner that hath escaped, and is again recovered, is loaded with double irons. Let the people of God be content to run any hazard, endure any difficulties in the way of religion, rather than return again into their former bondager to sin and Satan. O Christian ! if ever God gave thee a sight and a sense of the misery and danger of thy natural state, if ever thou hast felt the pangs of labouring and distressed conscience, ami, after all this, tasted the unspeakable sweetness of the peace and rest that are in Christ, thou wilt rather chuse to die ten thousand deaths, than to forsake Christ, and go back again into that sad condition.
Inf. 3. How suitable and well-becoming is a free spirit in be- lievers to their state of liberty and freedom ? Christ hath made your condition free, O let the temper and frame of your hearts be free also ; do all that you do for God with a spirit of freedom ; net by constraint, but willingly. Methinks, Christians, the new na- ture that is in you should stand for a command, and be instead of all arguments that use to work upon the hopes and fears of other men. See how all creatures work according to the principle of their natures. You need not command a mother to draw forth her breasts to a sucking child ; nature itself teaches and prompts to that. You need not bid the sea ebb and flow at the stated hours. O Christian ! why should thy heart need any other argument, than its own spiritual inclination, to keep its stated times and seasons of communion with God? Let none of God's commandments be grievous to you : let not thine heart need dragging and forcing to its own benefit and advantage. Whatever you do for God, do it cheerfully; and whatever you suffer for God suffer it cheerfully. It wras a brave spirit which actuated holy Paul, " I am ready " saith he) not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for * the name of the Lord Jesus," Acts xxi. 13. Inf. 4. Let no man wonder at the enmity and opposition of Satan to
378 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SEEM. XVIII.