ed, willingly, out of a love of it. It is such a state when men are only passive to God's law, and unwillingly subject unto it (as an enemy) for fear of wrath and vengeance. And this must needs be a state of miserable bondage and servility, distraction and perplexity of mind; when men are at once strongly convinced of the wrath of God against sin, and yet under the power of their lusts hailing and dragging of them to the commission of it. It is that state (as I conceive) which St. Paul describes, (Rom. vii.) after this manner: "The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin: for that which I do, I allow not; for what I would that do I not, but what I hate, that do I." And again, "I see another law in my members warring against my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Now from the law in this sense, that is, from the bondage and servility of the legal state, we are not delivered, nor made conquerors, by what Christ did outwardly upon the cross, as some imagine; as if he had there purchased for us an indulgence to sin without controul; but by the inward working of his Holy Spirit, freeing us from the power and bondage of sin, and unbewitching us from the love of it.

Wherefore there is a double freedom from this legal state to be taken notice of; a true and a false freedom; which I cannot better explain, than by using the apostle's own similitude in the beginning of the seventh chapter: "Know ye not, brethren, that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? (or rather, as long as it, that is the law, liveth?) For the woman, which hath a husband,

is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth, but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of the husband. So then, if while her husband liveth she be married to another man, she shall be called an adultress: but if her hus→ band be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adultress, though she be married to another man." Where the law is compared to a husband; and one, that is under the law, or in a legal state, to a woman, that hath a husband. And as there are two ways, by which a woman may be freed from her husband; the one, if she break loose from him whilst he yet liveth, contrary to the laws of wedlock, and marry to another man; which is an undue and unlawful freedom, for then she is justly styled an adultress: another, if she stay till her husband be dead, and then, being free from the law of her husband, does lawfully marry to another man: in like manner there are two ways, by which men may be freed from the law, as it is an inward state of bondage and servility. The first is, when men do illegally and unlawfully break loose from the law, which is their husband, whilst he is yet alive, and ought to have dominion over them, and marry themselves to another husband; which husband's name is carnal liberty, or licentiousness, too often miscalled in these latter times by the name of Christian liberty and such as these may well be styled, in the Scripture-language, adulterers and adultresses. But there is another freedom from the law, which is a due and just freedom, when we do not make ourselves free before the time, violently breaking loose from it; but when we stay till the law, which is our husband, is dead, and the compulsory power of it

taken away by the mortification of our lusts and affections, and so marry another husband, which is Christ, or the Spirit of righteousness, (Rom. viii. 2.) “The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

Wherefore there are three general states of men, in order to God and religion, that may be here taken notice of. The first is of those, that are alive to sin, and dead to the law. This the apostle speaks of, (Rom. vii. 9.) "I was alive without the law once." These are those, whose consciences are not yet considerably awakened to any sense of their duty, nor to the discrimination of good and evil, but sin freely, without any check or control, without any disquieting remorse of conscience.

The second is, when men are at once alive both to the law and sin, to the conviction of the one, and the power and love of the other; both these struggling together within the bowels of the soul, checking and controlling one another. This is a broken, confounded and shattered state; and these, in the apostle's language, are said to be slain by the law. "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." Here is no peace, rest nor comfort to be had in this state, men's souls being distracted and divided by an intestine and civil war between the law of the mind and the law of the members conflicting with one another.

Wherefore the third state is, when men are

dead both to the law and sin, and "alive unto God and righteousness; the law of the Spirit of life freeing them from the law of sin and death." In the first of these three states, which is the most wretched and deplorable of all, we are sin's freemen, that is, free to commit sin without check or control. In the second, we are bondmen to God and righteousness, and serve God out of a principle of fear, and according to an outward rule only; children of Hagar the bondmaid, and of the letter. In the third, we are God's freemen and sons, and serve him in the newness of the spirit, out of a love to God and righteousness; children of the New Testament, and of Sarah the free-woman.

Wherefore here are two mistakes or errors to be taken notice of, that defeat and disappoint the design of Christ in giving us the victory over the law. The first is of those, that we have already mentioned, that seek to themselves a freedom from the bondage of the law otherwise than by Christ and the Spirit of righteousness; namely, in a way of carnal liberty and licentiousness; whereby, instead of being bondmen to God and righteousness, they become perfect freemen to sin and wickedness, which is the most deplorable thraldom in the world. Wherefore these men, instead of going forward from the second state unto higher perfection, wheel back again unto the first; just as if the children of Israel, after they had been brought out of Egypt, and travelled a while in the desert of Arabia, where the law was given, instead of entering into Canaan, should have wheeled back into Egypt, and then, enjoying the garlic and onions, and flesh-pots thereof, should persuade themselves this was, indeed, the true "land of promise,

that floweth with milk and honey." And there is very great danger, lest when men have been tired out by wandering a long time in the dry and barren wilderness of the law, where they cannot enjoy the pleasure of sin as formerly, and yet have not arrived to the relish and love of righteousness, by reason of their impatience, they should at last make more haste than good speed, being seduced by some false shows of freedom, that are very tempting to such weary travellers, and promise much comfort and refreshment to them, inviting them to sit down under their shadow; such as are a self-chosen holiness, ceremonial righteousness, opinionative zeal, the tree of knowledge mistaken for the tree of life, high-flown enthusiasm and seraphicism, epicurizing philosophy, antinomian liberty, under the pretence of free grace and a gospel spirit.

The second mistake, that is here to be heeded, is, of those, that would by all means persuade themselves, that there is no higher state of Christian perfection to be aimed at, or hoped for, in this life, than this legal state; That the good they would do, they do not: the evil they would not do, that they do; that the law of sin in their members still leads them captive from the law of their minds: having no other ground at all for this, but a novel interpretation of one paragraph in the Epistle to the Romans, contrary to other express places of Scripture, and the sense of all ancient interpreters; and yet with so much zeal, as if it were a principal part of the gospel-faith to believe this (which is indeed arrant infidelity), as if it were no less than presumption or impiety to expect a living law written upon our hearts. But