Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

The same holds true, in relation to the government of God.. Admit that his laws are " holy and just and good," and they are not only not incompatible with perfect freedom, but essential to it. No righteous and benevolent being will desire to do what these laws for- ^ bid. To righteous and benevolent beings, therefore, they are no re- straint or incumbrance. If any desire to indulge in unrighteousness and malevolence, then laws are indispensible, and must be maintained by adequate penalties, if the great Jehovah is just and good. The highest offence in any community, is that which strikes at the foundations of government. If God, therefore, were to tolerate im- piety towards himself, this would be to tolerate contempt and disloy->. alty towards the Supreme Ruler and his whole authority. And if these " Foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ?" There is no power beyond His throne ; there is no future existence beyond the life to come, to which the groaning v/orld may look for relief. Offences against our neighbor may be heinous, but as offen- ces against our neighbor, they are only partial and limited wrongs. Their damning guilt, is their relation to the law and the authori- ty of God. As SIN, they strike at the foundation of all government and all happiness, in this light, simple impiety rises into an evil which nothing less than infinite can measure. Sin, the offence against God ; is the deepest guilt that can darken the character of man ; the most heinous wrong which the universe knows. It is with infinite reason that the " First and the great commandment" requires pieti/ to God ; and that, in the eye of the divine law, no virtue, no goodness, nothing but entire and damning corruption is attributed to beings destitute of piety to God. Nor does it appear that the perdi- tion to which divine justice dooms the incorrigibly wicked, is at all worse, even for the wjpked themselves, than it would be to sweep away the divine, laws ; or, which is the same thing, to sweep away their awful sanctions. And these laws are " holy, just, and good." No upright, pure- minded being can possibly feel that they infringe upon his liberty. They forbid nothing in which he desires to be allowed ; they re- quire nothing from which he would desire to be excused. Does any one of you think it essential to his freedom, that he be allowed to lie, to deceive, and to defraud ? Does your idea of liber- ty involve a notion that you ought to be allowed to be revengeful and malicious, a slanderer, a thief, or a murderer,'? Does your notion of liberty demand a freedom to contemn God ? to blaspheme his holy name ? to scoif at his authority, to set at nought his laws 1 Is your heart so disposed, that you feel your liberty infringed upon by the prohibition of such things ? Would you use the liberty, if the prohibition were removed ? Have you no love, no virtue, does no- thing but the terror of Hell deter you from the perpretration of such wrongs? Would you feel freer and happier, if such things were i^slerated in the government of God ? Who wants a liberty to hate the truth* to hate righteousness, and to be impious ? ^ Who is it that finds it essential to his happiness, to have such a license permanent and universal 1 Miserable man ! Is there nothing that can give full loose to the feelings of your heart, but to hate, and to destroy aU righteousness ; to destroy the laws, and overturn the very throne of God ? Is this your freedom ! Is this your good ? It is even so, " The carnal mind is enmity against God. Wonder not that there are laws ! Wonder not that there is a hell ! And what do our " Free-thinkers^^ want? The liberty of think- ing that falsehood is truth, and truth is falsehood — that truths proved by demonstration are doubtful, if they threaten evil to. evil-doers? Do they want a freedom to think that two and two are not four ; that there are no seas ji or mountains upon the earth ; that the worlds do not move ; that in the machinery of the heavens, asd ir? the beauties|> ' of the earth there are no tokens of the knowledge and'powlr, ancL skill, and taste, and §podness of the Creator ? freedom to think that 46 . THE NATIONAL PREACHER. there is no right, there is no wrong, there is no truth, no error, no reason, in the universe ? ^ '.'• , For my part, I know not what free thinking is, save to be free to love and pursue the truth ; I know not what freedoin is, but to lov^^ and obey the Lord. If it were forbidden to love truth, to hate falsehood, to be grateful, to be kind, to follow the dictates of reason, or to live at peace with our own conscience, this would be an in- fringement upon liberty. If it were required of us to blaspheme the adorable name of God. or to be undutiful to him as our sovereign; this would be tyranny. It would be hard living under a government which should forbid us to love God or our neighbor. But to require what is right, and to forbid what is wrong, is no curtailment of lib- erty, unless, indeed, some one should wish a liberty to be an enemy of all righteousness, and a child of the devil. But this is not liberty. It is not a change from bondage to freedom, but from freedSm to bondage. " Know ye not, that his servants ye are to whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" The desires of an evil heart are now the masters of the soul that has thought it freedom to break away from the government of God. He is " sold under sin ;" " led captive by Satan at his will." He is not free to love and obey the truth. His imperious lusts will not allow him to follow his own better judgment. He often struggles with his appetites, like a captive who would have liberty or death ; — but they drag him along, force him into warfare with his conscience and with God, make his soul a cage for every unclean bird, and final- ., ly compel him to sacrifice honor, integrity, life, and his very"salvation, to a bondage from which he shall not be free till he dies, nor while eternity endures. He is in " the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." «. We have now looked at these things sufiicientlv to have formed proper ideas of the nature of true freedom. II.' The liberty wherewith Christ maketh free is true FREEDOM. He brings us under the government of law, but it is " the perfect law of liberty :" liberty to love man and to love God ; liberty to follow the dictates of reason and of eonscience ; liberty to pursue our highest dignity, and our highest good ; entire freedom to trample under our feet every fetter of vice, and every bond of Satan, and of sin. Fol- ^ low his instflfictipns, and every veil of prejudice and error shall be remold fisvery delusion, every snare shall be revealed. He will ^teach us how to break every yoke, and how to^anquish every enemy. " Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." He Tyill bring us into the " glorious Ijjjerty of the children of God ;" and y|t the chiMren of God a-re under law. Heaven itself is under law. The law that reigns there is perfect. Obedience is perfect. All disobedience is excluded. Every desire is conformed to the law. This is t^ue fre^om ; this is-^erfect liberty. More particularly, the way in which the Son of God makes us free is this : — 1. He opens the prison doors. We were already condemned ; convitts shut up, without the possibility qf escape, to be brought forth only to execution. The world was but a prison. Ascend to heaven, make our bed in hell, dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, it wasfsimpossible to flee from the presence of an oflended God. It would be impossible to escape his notice amid the convulsions of the last day. The earth would melt with fervent heat ; the heavens would pass %way with a great noise ; but the eye of God would be upon every guilty soul, and he could by no means escape. The pity of all created beings could not save him. No cries, no tears could dis- pose the Judge to reverse or abate his heavy sentence. But " Christ hath redeemed its from, the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.^^ He came " to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Fellow, sinner, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free iHdeed ; if not, there is no other arm that can save ; there is no other redemption for your soul. 2. He breaks our fetters. By his spirit, he slays the sins that have kept us in bondage. We are no longer to be led captive at the will of Satan. We are to be no longer the servants of sin. We feel that a heavy load is taken off. As a man who Ma been pinioned for years, feels relieved when his manacles are broken, so tb^soul that has been delivered from the dominion of sin feels light,^d in the'possession of a freedom of which it had formed no conception before. 3. He SETS us FREE ; by creating in us a new heart ; and re- newing in us a right spirit. Now we loathe the bondage which we loved. Now we understand the excellency of his laws ; now we love them. Now we " hunger and thirst after righteousness." We feel that we shall be satisfied when we §re completely renewed after the image of him who created us, and made completely holy. The laws of Christ are no restraint to us now ; we love the things which tlje law requires ; we abhor the things which it io^^id^ We want,, no other liberty. We should abhor ourselves if we coiffil usse any ■ qfher liberty. . •* i So Christ makes fr#e ; not by annulling law ; not by lowering rfow?i|tWb demands of lavv^ qjpt by disarming the |aw ; but by re- deeniihg us from its curse ; by disposing ns to love ri^hteoj^snegs and SDontaneously to pursue the path which the law requires. , Our rea- son, our conscience; our inclination.- all agree wil^the law. We are delivered from the misgivings, ij^e self-cond*nnatipg, and the fears of them that are in bondage to sin. £ut, 4. He admits its to the glorious franchise of the " sons of God.'^ " The servant abideth not in the house forever." The servant of sin is not to abide in this earthly house of God forever ; much less in that building of God eternal ia the heavens. As an undutiful and wicked servant is to be turned away in disgrace and sorrow ; so the sinner is to be driven away from the preselice of God# The time of retribution will come ; " and they shall gather out' of his kingdom all them that offend, and them that work iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." " But the Son abideth forever." They whom Christ maketh free are henceforth privilged with the franchise of sons. They are to abide in the house of their father. They shall go no more out. They shall receivB an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Oh the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free ! Oh the eternal chains and darkness reserved for them who wear the diiins of sin upon the earth ! Dying fellow ■sinner, wilt thou be released from bondage ? Wilt thou be delivered from condemnation ? Wilt thou be saved from everlasting captivity in an eternal prison ? Wilt thou be enfranchised with the glorious, liberty of the children of God ? Christ can make you free. He died for you. tIc has compassion on you. Come to him: come in all ^mai' pollution ; come with all your guilt and chains upon you ; onljnKtme, repenting and believing, and you shall be set free. REMONSTRANCE AND COJTPLAINT ASSOCIATION OF FAIRFIELD WEST, HARTFORD CENTRAL ASSOCIATION: TOGETHER WITH THE REPLY OF THE HARTFORD CENTRAL ASSOCIATION. PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF FAIRFIELD WEST. NEW YORK : S. W. BENEDICT, No. 16 SPRUCE STREET. 1850. MINUTES