Twenty-fourth Day. Of false liberty

I. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Cor, iii. 17. The love of liberty is one of the most dangerous passions of the mind; and it happens with this, as with the rest of the passions, it deceives those who follow it; and instead of true lihcrty, it reduces them to the hardest and most infamous servitude: for what else can we call the life of worldly men? What do they endure to obtain and preserve the good opinion of those whom at the same time they despise? What trouble , liave they to stifle those passions which they would control and gratify those which they would indulge, to hide their inward vexations, and save appearances? Is this the liberty we are so fond of, and winch we are so unwilling to sacrifice to God? Where is this liberty to be found? I perceive nothing but constraint, but base and unworthy subjection, but a wretched necessity of disguising ourselves; we refuse ourselves to God, who is willing to receive us that we may be saved, and we give ourselves up to the world, which can only enslave and ruin us.

II. It is thought the men of the world do nothing but what pleases them, because they have a relish for the passions they indulge; but those who think thus, do not consider the irksomeness, the loathings and disappointments, inseparable from a pursuit of pleasure; and the many contradictions and mortifications which attend the greatest preferments. The outside appears pleasing, but within is vexation and disquiet. Men think freedom consists in depending on no one but one's self; this is an extravagant mistake; there is no such state, there is no condition wherein a man does not depend on many others, wherein he is not more obliged to follow their fancies than his own. All the commerce of life is a perpetual constraint to the laws of goodbreeding and the necessity of humouring others; and, besides, our own passions are the worst of tyrants, if you obey them but by halves; a perpetual strife and contest exists within; and if you entirely give up yourself to them it is horrid to think to what extremities they will lead. May God preserve us from that fatal slavery, which the mad presumption of man calls liberty! Liberty is to be found only in him. ' His truth shall set us free/' and make us experience;, that to serve him is to reign.