liberty from those tyrannous laws or practices of men that would root out the Gospel and pull down the kingdom of Christ, and set up iniquity. This liberty must be desired, and not denied, even when we submit ourselves to prosecution; but it is, 1. The civil liberty of being from under the government of others and of having a hand in government ourselves. 2. The liberty of being from under the government of strangers, conquerors, or enemies. 3. The liberty of choosing our own governors, and having them not by other men's election set over us. 4. A liberty from burdensome payments and taxes, which are of no necessity to our good. 5. A liberty from arbitrary government, and from being liable to the mere will and passions of men. 6. A protection from the abuses and injuries of others. 7. And a liberty for our bodies from the restraint of imprisonment. All these are things that in themselves are naturally good; and especially the two last are very great mercies. But yet as the five first are smaller matters, so all of them are but temporal, transitory things, and not to be regarded in comparison of Christ and the heavenly liberties. The dearest of them must be denied when they stand in the way of duty, and cannot be had on terms of innocency. To sin for liberty, is to leap out of the frying-pan into the fire, as the proverb is; to become the prisoners of the devil, that we may not be the prisoners of men; to enslave the soul for the liberty of the body. Believe it, sin makes deeper galls than bolts or scourges do: it is an easy durance to lie in gaol, in comparison of lying in sin, or under the wrath of God. At the farthest, death will free you from imprisonment, but death alone will not free you from sin. It is but men's foolish conceits that makes imprisonment so grievous to the most. It is the same earth that they tread on, and the same air that they breathe in as before. The great trouble is that they have not their wills; for when their own wills do as much confine them, it is then no trouble. I can confine myself to one room, to one chair, the far greatest part of the year for my studies; and why should I not bear as well to be so confined by another, if my own will could but comply with it? Never grudge at restraint or imprisonment then, but find out some employment in it, whereby you may be serviceable to God, or at least serve him by your sufferings, and then rejoice in it, and bring your minds to your condition, and so you may set yourself at liberty in spite of the greatest tyrant in the world. Imprisonment is but a penal restraint; and if it be not involuntary, it is scarcely penal: it is therefore in your power whether you will be prisoner or not, because it is in your power whether it shall be involuntary or not. Be but willing of your confinement, and you are at liberty; and though you are not out of the place, you are out of the prison. The same room that is a prison to the rest, is none to the keeper that guards them, because apprehending it to be for his commodity, he is willing of it, and their prison is his home. And if you do but apprehend how you are called from temptations, and have an opportunity of honouring God, or at least of being more humbled and mortified, and so bring your mind to consent to your habitation, it is become your home and place of freedom: however he is unworthy of the liberty of the saints, that cannot deny the liberty of his habitation or bodily abode for the attaining of it. And for the things that men make such a stir about in the world, under the name of their civil liberties, some of them are no liberties, but fancies or miseries, and the rest of them are no further to be valued than they are subservient to the kingdom of Christ, and the good of souls. Conceited people call it their liberty to be governed rather by four hundred than by one, or by popularity than by other forms of government, and a great stir they make about this, as if their felicity did consist in it; when as the true liberty of a commonwealth consisteth in the fullest conformity of their laws and their execution to the will of God; in being free from all laws or passions of men that encourage iniquity, and are against the Gospel or the common good, and peace and welfare of the body: in a word, to have government best fitted to the ends of government, which is such a temporal safety and prosperity as most conduceth to the service and honour of God; but the species of government is none of this liberty in itself considered. A people may be at much more liberty under a pious monarch than an impious or unskilful democracy. The free choice of the most when they are bad (as where is it better?) may enslave the best; and the awe and interest of the rich is commonly such upon the people, that a free choice is somewhat strange. And that sort of government may be fittest for one people, that is unfit for an other; and their happiness lieth not in the species of government, let them stretch their wits to invent new forms as long as they will, but in the predominancy of God and his interest in the hearts of the governors, and in their laws, their officers, and execution. This is it, and nothing but this in government, that will give the commonwealth that desirable liberty, in which their welfare doth consist. And therefore those persons are enemies to the liberty of their country, that under that name would advance such kind of popular interest as is plainly against the interest of Christ; and must have magistrates and ministers restrained from doing the work of the omnipotent Sovereign, the one from punishing sin (if it be against the first table, or come but under the name of conscience), and the other from exercising church discipline, and all under pretence of the people's liberties. All these are carnal liberties to be denied. CHAPTER XXXV. Our Native Country and Habitations Denied. 18. ANOTHER part of carnal self-interest to be denied, is, our native country, or place of habitation, with all the comforts and accommodations they afford us. It is lawful to have some special love to our own country; but not such as shall prevail against the love of Christ, or seem sufficient to entangle us in sin. We must shew our love to it principally by desiring and endeavouring, that God's name may be hallowed, and his kingdom maintained, and his will fulfilled among and by our countrymen; but if they should. turn enemies to the Gospel or to godliness, we must love the servants of God abroad, much better than his enemies at home; and wish the success of his servants, though of other countries, against his enemies, though they were of our own. And if we cannot serve God, or enjoy the freedom of a good conscience at home, another nation, though it were in the utmost parts of the earth, where we may better serve God, must seem a better place to us. And if we be banished or necessitated to forsake our country, we must not stick at it, for the cause of Christ. It is none of the greatest trials to be put to remove from one country to another, as long as we have necessaries, wherever we come. We have the same God to be with us, and take care of us, beyond the sea, as at home; the same earth, and air, and sun to shine upon us; the same Spirit, and grace, and promises to accompany us; the same saints of God, and ordinances of worship, may be had in other countries as our own. It is a kind of childishness to make such a matter of being driven out of one kingdom into another, when we have the same or greater mercies in the other. All is but our Father's house; and we do but remove from room to room. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." As I said before of imprisonment, so I say of banishment: it is in our own wills by consenting to it, to make it no banishment. If you will make an affliction and a great matter of it, you may. A merchant or factor can live for his commodity, far from home, even among Turks and infidels, and take it for no banishment; much more should you do for the sake of Christ. Every place is our own country where our master's work lieth. We are but pilgrims; and as long as we are not out of our way, we need not complain much of being out of our country. Indeed we are here but strangers, and this is not our country, and therefore let us not over-love it upon a mistake. The apostles of Christ did purposely leave their countries, and travel about the countries of the world, to bring them the doctrine of salvation by Christ. And is it not better be walking lights to illuminate the world, than candles shut up within the walls of our own habitation? By faith Abraham, when he was called to go into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles-for he looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God;" Heb. xi. 8, 9. 19. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; for they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country: and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city;" ver. 13-16. It was the sorest kind of banishment that the saints endured, that is mentioned, they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth;" Heb. xi. 37,38. We judge ourselves unworthy of Christ and the new Jerusalem, and our heavenly country, if we cannot deny an earthly, sinful country for them. CHAPTER XXXVI. Bodily Health and Ease from Torments. 19. BUT a far greater interest of self to be denied, doth consist in our bodily health and ease, and from those pains and torments which persecutors use to inflict upon the godly. An averseness to suffering is natural to man, and in itself no sin; but an excessive averseness doth signify too much tenderness of the flesh, and too little power of reason, which should quiet the mind when it cannot abate the pain of the body, and must use to submit to a lesser evil to avoid a greater; or to obtain a greater good than it depriveth us of: Paul and Silas could sing with their bodies sore and their feet in the stocks. To be joyful in tribulation should be no strange matter to a saint, much more with a patient submission to undergo it. We may not thrust ourselves into the fire, nor choose suffering without a call; but we must suffer rather than sin, and choose the wounds and hurts of the body before the wounds and losses of the soul. But because flesh and blood will draw back, and make too great a matter of sufferings, I shall briefly give you ten considerations, that may persuade you herein to deny yourselves; and in two cases I desire you to make use of them. First, in case you have no way to escape suffering but by sinning, then deny yourselves and choose to suffer. Secondly, in case of God's afflictions, which unavoidably upon you, then deny yourselves by a quiet and patient submission; and for both consider,— lie 1. That is the best condition for us in which we may be most serviceable to God. And if we suffer for righteousness, we may serve God as well in such suffering as in a |