{2dly.) In reference to the moral law: —
[1st.] The first thing we have liberty from, is its rigour and terror in commanding. Heb. xii. 18-22, " We are not come to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, to the Avhirlwind, darkness, and tempest, to the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words, which they that heard besought that they might hear it no more ; but we are come to mount Sion," etc. As to that administra- tion of the law wherein it was given out Avith dread and terror, and so exacted its obedience with rigour, we are freed from it, we are not called to that estate.
[2dly.] Its imjiossibility of accomplishment, and so insufficiency for its primitive end, by reason of sm ; or, we are freed from the law as the instrument of righteousness, since, by the impossibility of its fulfilling as to us, it is become insufficient for any such pui-pose, Rom. viii. 2, 3; Gal. iii. 21-23. Tliere being an impossibility of obtaining life by the law, we are exempted from it as to any such end, and that by the righteousness of Christ, Rom. viii. 3.
[3dly.] From the issue of its transgression: —
First. Curse. Tliere is a solemn curse inwrapping the whole wrath annexed to the law, with reference to the transgression thereof; and from this are we wholly at liberty. Gal. iii. 13, " Christ hath re- deemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us."
Secondly. Death, Heb. ii. 15; and therewith from Satan, Heb. ii. 14, CoL i. 13; and sin, Rom. vi. 14, 1 Pet. i. 18; with the world, Gal. I 4; with all the attendancies, advantages, and claims of them
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all, Gal. iv. 3-5, Col. ii. 20; without which we could not live one day.
That which is pretended and claimed by some (wherein in deed and in truth we were never in bondage, but are hereby eminently set free), is the power of binding conscience by any laws and constitutions not from God, Col. ii. 20-22.
[2.] [In the second place,] there is a liberty in the family of God, as well as a liberty from the family of Satan. Sons are free. Their obedience is a free obedience; they have the Spirit of the Lord: and where he is, there is liberty, 2 Cor. iii. 17. As a Spirit of adoption, he is opposed to the spirit of bondage, Rom. viii. 15, Now, this liberty of our Father's family, which we have as sons and children, being adopted by Christ through the Spirit, is a spiritual largeness of heart, whereby the children of God do freely, willingly, genuinely, without fear, terror, bondage, and constraint, go forth unto all holy obedience in Christ.
I say, this is our liberty in our Father's family : what we have liberty from, hath been already declaimed.
There are Gibeoriites outwardly attending the family of God, that do the service of his house as the drudgery of their lives. The prin- ciple they yield obedience upon, is fi spirit of bondage unto fear, Rom. viii. 15 ; the rule they do it by, is the law in its dread and rigour, exacting it of them to the utmost, without mercy and mitigation ; the end they do it for, is to fly from the wrath to come, to pacify conscience, and seek righteousness as it were by the works of the law. Thus servilely, painfully, fruitlessly, they seek to serve their own con- viction all their days.
The saints by adoption have a largeness of heart in all holy obedi- ence. Saith David, " I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts," Ps. cxix. 45; Isa. Ixi. 1; Luke iv. 18; Rom. viii. 2, 21; Gal. iv. 7, V. 1, 13; James i. 25; John viii. 32, 33, 36; Rom. vi. 18; 1 Pet. ii. 16. Now, this amplitude, or son-like freedom of the Spirit in. obedience, consists in sundry things: —
1st. In the principles of all spiritual service; which are life and love; — the one resiDecting the matter of their obedience, giving them power; the other respecting the manner of their obedience, giving them joy and sweetness in it : —
{1st.) It is from life; that gives them power as to the matter of obedience. Rom. viii. 2, " The law of the Sphit of life in Christ Jesus sets them free from the law of sin and death." It frees them, it carries them out to all obedience freely ; so that " they walk after the Spirit," verse 1, that being the principle of their workings. Gal. ii. 20, " Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God ;" — " The life which I now live in
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the flesh (that is, the obedience which I yield unto God whilst I am in the flesh), it is from a principle of life, Christ living in me. There is, then, power for all living mito God, from Christ in them, the Spirit of life from Christ caiTying them out thereto. The fruits of a dead root are but dead excrescences; living acts are from a principle of life.