SERMON VIII.

2 PETER ii. 19.

While they promife them Liberty, they themfelves are the Servants of Corruption.

T has been the of thofe, who SERM.

way

have apoftatiz'd from Chriftiani- VIII.

ty, to do it upon this Principle, n

in hopes of finding more Liberty on the other fide of the Question; and it has been the conftant Practice of those, whofe Bufinefs it has been to make Profelytes that way, like the falfe Teachers in the Text, to promise it them; as if the Chriftian Religion was calculated to introduce Slavery, and the Profeffors of it were in a Confpiracy against the Liberty of Mankind: whereas this is fo far from being

true,

SERM. true, that on the contrary Christianity VIII. can no more countenance, or admit of Slavery, than any other Scheme can give Liberty; nay, 'tis the only Scheme in the World, in which Liberty has any Place. All within this Circle is Liberty and Freedom; all without is Bondage and Slavery: Accordingly, all good Chriftians are, and ever have been free, and all others are, and ever have been Slaves.

No doubt there will always be fome, who will be forward enough to promise Liberty upon another Footing: the most profligate and abandon'd Part of Mankind will not be wanting in Pretences of this kind; but then the Performance will never come up to the Promife: There may indeed be a Shew of Liberty, fomething that may look like it at first Sight, but a good Eye will quickly fee thro' the thin Difguife, perceive the Chain that is conceal'd under it, and discover that they, who thus promife Liberty, are themselves the Servants of Corruption. But for a further Illuftration of this Point, I purpofe in my following Difcourfe to fhew,

First,

First, What Liberty is.

SERM.

Secondly, That Chriftianity has the VIII.

only Claim to it.

Thirdly, That all Pretences to it from

the Side of Infidelity are falfe and
groundless.

First then I am to fhew, What Liberty is. And there is the more neceffity for having a right Notion of this, because no Word has been more mif-understood, or occafion❜d greater Errors and Mistakes.

By Liberty then, confider'd as the Privilege of Human Nature, (in which Sense only we now consider it) we are not to understand a Power of doing as we please, exclufive of all poffible Motives of Action; a Power of doing Right or Wrong, Good or Evil: This is indeed an Opinion many have entertain'd of Liberty, who have accordingly reprefented Man, their Free-Agent, as a Being endued with a ftrange Sort of Freedom, a Freedom to do all this, or any thing else. But now to denominate a Man free, because he has Power to do Evil, is little elfe but an Abuse of Words: For the Question is not, whether

SERM, a Man can do Right or Wrong, Good or VIII. Evil, but in doing which he may be ac

counted free. Every Tendency to Evil is a Tendency likewife in exact Proportion to Slavery, because it is a Clog, and Incumberance upon the Mind, that hinders it from exerting itself as it ought; and furely no Man would think himself the freer for being bound or confin'd; but a Man would then think himself free, when he had it in his Power to renounce all Obftacles of that Kind.

Liberty then is not the having it in our Power to chufe Right or Wrong; for tho' we may do either of thefe, yet we can't be therefore said to be free, but when we chufe what is Right: for to be able to chufe Wrong implies a Defect, and every Defect is a want of fo much Liberty. God to be fure is free, and if Liberty is a Privilege, he must have it to an infinite Perfection; and yet no one, I fuppofe, will fay he has a Power to chufe Wrong, or do Evil. No. His Liberty consists in an infinite Remove from this: therefore Liberty in the abstract Nature of it confifts

in

in a Power of doing Right, and in a Re- SERM moval of every thing, that stands in the VIII. way of it, either in thinking, believing, acting, or exerting any Faculty within us. Perfect Liberty is the Property of God only: But as we are his Image in this, as well as other respects, we have a Ray of it likewife in ourselves; only, as we are imperfect Creatures, and a want of Perfection being a proportionable Want of Liberty, we have it but in an imperfect Degree; fuch a Degree, as Human Nature will admit of. Having thus fhewn what Liberty is, I come now to fhew,

Secondly, That Christianity has the only Claim to it. Liberty thus understood is to be met with only in the Chriftian Scheme, because there only, (fuppofing Christianity to be a true Religion; and whether it is or not must be determin'd by other Arguments: However this is no unreasonable Suppofition, if we will but allow, that People had the fame Ufe of their Reafon and their Senfes at the first Propagation of it, as they have now, and that Tradition has at least the fame Weight

3