free. What is it, I pray you, to enjoy freedom among
men? I ask you, what are you before God, whether bond or free? This is the
business indeed. The Pharisees pleaded a claim to the liberty and
privilege of being Abraham's sons and children, and thought they might
hence conclude they were God's children. But our Lord Jesus discovers this
mistake, when he tells them of a freedom and liberty that he came to
proclaim to men, to purchase to them, and bestow on them. They stumbled at
this doctrine. What, say they, talkest thou to us of making us free? We
were never in bondage, because we be Abraham's children. This is even the
language of our hearts, when we tell you, that ye are born heirs of wrath,
and slaves of sin and Satan. Here is the secret whispering of hearts;--we
be Abraham's seed; we were never in bondage to any. We be baptized
Christians; we have a church state,--have the privileges, and liberties,
not only of subjects in the state, but of members in the church; why
sayest thou, we are bondmen? I would wish ye were all free indeed, but
that cannot be till you know your bondage. Consider then, I beseech you,
that you may be free subjects in a state, and free members in a church,
and yet in bondage, under the law of sin and death. This was the mistake;
that was a ground of presumption in the Jews, and occasioned their
stumbling at this stone of salvation laid in Sion. You think you have
church privileges, and what needs more? Be not deceived,--you are servants
of sin, and therefore not free. There are two sorts or rather two ranks of
persons in God's house,--sons and slaves. The son abides in the house for
ever, the slave but for a time. When the time expires, he must go out, or
be cast out. The church is God's house, but many are in it that will not
dwell in it. Many have the outward liberties of this house, that have no
interest in the special mercies and loving kindness proper to children.
The time will come, that the most part of the visible church, who are
baptized, and have eaten with him at his table, and had a kind of
friendship to him here, shall be cast out as bondmen, and Isaac only shall
be kept within, the child of the promise. The house that is here hath some
inward sanctuary, and some outer porches. Many have access to these, that
never enter within the secret of the Lord, and so shall not dwell in the
house above. It is not so much the business, who shall enter into the holy
hill, but who shall stand