2. The second doctrine abused is exemption from the rigour and curse of the law, ' Ye are not under the law, but under grace.' There- fore men take a liberty to sin ; they are not under the law. But we must distinguish how we are, and how we are not, under the law.
[1.] We are still under the law as a rule of obedience ; so the apostle saith, 1 Cor. ix. 21, ' Not being without law to God, but under the law to Christ.' The apostle still ruled his actions by law, both the law of God and the law of christian charity. To be in this sense without law, is either to make us gods or devils. If you plead it de jure, of right, it is to make the creature a god ; for it is impossible any created thing can be without law ; that were to make it supreme and independent, as if its own will were its rule, without liableness to be called to an account by another. Saul proclaimed, 1 Sam. xvii. 25, ' That whosoever would encounter the Philistine, his house should be free in Israel ;' but it is as impossible to free the creature from sul)jection to God, as it is from dependence upon him. If you plead it dc facto, this were to make us devils, to live in direct opposition to Gcxl, and rebellion against him, or exempt us from his authority: Ps, xii. 4, ' Who have said. With our tongues will we prevail : our lips are our own ; who is lord over us ? ' Thus every creature must be under a law.
304 SERMONS UrON ROMANS Vf, [SeR. XVI.
[2.] There is a good sense in which we are said not to be under the law ; as here in the text, and Gal. v. 18, ' If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law ; ' that is, not under the condemning power of it, spoken of Rom. viii, 1, ' There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ ; ' or the irritating power of it, spoken of Rom. vii. 5, ' While we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death ; ' namely, as it did rigidly exact duty from us, and gave no strength to perform it. Well, then, we may from hence see what liberty we have by grace. There is a twofold liberty — a holy and blessed liberty, and a wicked and carnal liberty.
(1.) The holy liberty is to be freed from the power of sin and the curse of the law, that our enthralled spirits may be set free to love, serve, please, and delight in God ; and so, ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,' 2 Cor. iii. 17. And for this end we are freed from the law as a covenant of works, which required what to us becomes impossible : Rom. viii. 2, ' The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death ; ' and freed us also from the burdensome task of ceremonies, which God thought fit to impose in the church's nonage : Gal. v. 1, ' Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage.' These ceremonies did revive the sense of trans- gressions, and the curse due to them.
(2.) The sinful liberty is a freedom from righteousness, as the apostle calleth it, Rom. vi. 20, 'When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness ; ' from a voluntary subjection to God and his holy laws, a desire to be free from that strict and holy manner of living which God commandeth, or to be at liberty to sin against God, or please the flesh and follow our own wills, to be merry, wanton, lustful, worldly, to eat and drink what we have a mind to, to game, and roar, and riot, and revel, and in the general to live as we list, without being curbed by so precise a law as God hath given us. Now I will show — (1.) That this is not liberty; (2.) That Christ never came to establish it ; (3.) That the contrary is the true liberty.
(1st.) That this is not liberty. For lihertas non est potestas volendi et faciendi quod velis, sed volendi etfaciendi ea quce lex divinajuhei — it is not a liberty to live as we list, but to live as we ought : Ps. cxix. 45, 'And I will walk at liberty, for I keep thy precepts.' Man affects the false liberty, and is impatient of any restraints : Ps. ii. 3, ' Let us cast away his bands and cords from us ; ' they would do what they please without check and control. But all this is but delusion and mistake. In reality they live the freest life that lie under the bonds of duty, that make conscience of praying to and praising God, and walking with him in the stricter course of holiness. Carnal liberty is but a thraldom of slavery ; for these we are disabled from pursuing our great end, which is to be everlastingly happy in the enjoyment of God. They that indulge this liberty dare not call themselves to an account for the expense of their time and employments, which every wise man should do, nor think seriously of death, or judgment, or heaven, or hell, but presently they feel a horror and torment in their minds.