Ps. cxix. 45. / will walk at liberty ; for I seek thy precepts.
JUSTLY as civil liberty is appreciated amongst us, there are but few who have just conceptions of that liberty which has respect to morality and reli- gion. Every one knows that unrestrained liberty is licentiousness : but every one does not know, that a perfect obedience to God's Holy Word is the most perfect liberty that man can enjoy. This, however, is plainly intimated in the passage before us ; from whence I shall take occasion to shew, I. That the ungodly are strangers to true liberty —
They will boast of liberty, and " promise it to all who will conform to their ways ; but they are alto- gether in a state of bondage8:"
1. To the world —
[The tastes of men differ, according to their age and to the sphere in which they move : but all of every age and every rank are subject to the laws of custom, which they dare not to infringe. Even the religion of men must be conformed to this standard ; and God's commandments must be reduced to the scale which men have established for the regulation of their own lives. If one be told what God requires, he immediately bethinks himself, ' What will this person say, or that person do, if I comply with requisitions so foreign to the habits of those around me ? Will they not deride my singularity, and set themselves to oppose my insufferable preciseness?' To justify their conduct, men put the Scriptures altogether aside, as an antiquated volume, the dictates of which are superseded by the wiser and more practicable maxims of fashion and " philosophy, falsely so called." Yes : of all unconverted men it is declared, that they " walk according to the course of this world b," and " gaze strangely at any who presume to choose for themselves a holier pathc."]
2. To the flesh—
[There are different degrees in which men yield to the impulse of their corrupt appetites : but every man has " a law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his
a 2 Pet. ii. 19. b Eph. ii. 2. » i pet. iv. 4.