[2.] Their rights and prerogatives. First, They have a right to serve God with a ready and free will, and on comfortable terms : Luke i. 74, 75, ' That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our lives;' Ps. li. 12, 'Eestore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me by thy free Spirit;' and Rom. viii. 15, 'For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.' Second- ly, A liberty of access to God. A large door is opened to us, for communion with him : Eph. iii. 12, ' To whom we have boldness and access with confidence;' Heb. iv. 16, 'Let us come with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may have grace, and find mercy in a time of need ; ' and Heb. x. 19, ' Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus ; ' 1 John iii. 21, ' Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we boldness toward God.' Thirdly, A free use of all the creatures wliich fall to our share and allowance by God's fatherly providence : 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4, ' Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meat, which God hath created to bo received with thanksgiving of them that believe and obey the truth.
VeK. 21.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 175
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving;' 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23, 'Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' With good conscience we may nse the creatures, and get them sancti- fied to us by the word and prayer. Fourthly, A right to eternal life : Tit. iii. 7, 'That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life ; ' Kom. viii. 17, ' If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; if so be we suffer witli him, that we may be also glorified together.' Though we have not the possession, yet a title sure and indefeasible ; so that you see (and yet I have told you little of it) it is valuable. But it is a glorious liberty we are to speak of :
Secondly. Our glorious liberty in the world to come. That is a liberty which implieth the removal of all evil, and the affluence of all good ; and may be considered either as to the soul, or to the body.
1. As to the soul. We are admitted into the blessed sight of God ; and the perfect fruition, and pleasing of liim in perfect love, joy, and praise, to all eternity: 1 Cor. xiii. 12, ' For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face ; now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known ; ' 1 John iii. 2, ' But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is;' Ps. xvi. 11, 'Thou wilt show me the path of life; for in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand pleasures for ever- more; ' Ps. xvii. 1.5, ' As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.'
2. As to the body, it is in a state of immortality and incorruption, wholly freed from death, and all the frailties introduced by sin ; and because the body remaineth behind when the soul is in glory, our deliverance and redemption is said to be yet behind : Eph. i. 14, ' Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession ; ' Eph. iv. 30, ' And grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption ; ' and that in respect of the body : Kom. viii. 23, ' Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' In short, this glorious liberty may be some- what understood by the liberty which we have now.
[1.] Our liberty now is imperfect and incomplete, but then it is full and perfect. It is but begun now, and our bonds loosed in part ; but our complete deliverance is to come — from sin at death, from all misery when our bodies are raised up in glory. Sin dwelleth in the saints now, but in death it will be utterly abolished ; therefore they groan and long for it : Kom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of death ? ' Yet with hope, ver. 25,' I thank God, through Je.sus Christ our Lord ; so then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God ; but with the flesh the law of sin.' Our bodies now are subject to corruption and diseases, as others are ; but Phil. iii. 21 ; God will then perfectly glorify his children in body and soul.