Freedom Indeed, by J. W. H. Pritchard
"En vain on cherche par le moyen des richesses, du credit, de l'autorité, des dignités, de l'étude, et de la sagesse des philosophes, de s'affranchir de quelque assujetissement, et de quelque servitude; on ne travaille qu'a se faire de nouvelles chaines, quand le croeur n'est point delivré des liens de l'iniquité, et de l'esclavage des passions, par l'unique Libérateur, Jésus-Christ." -- Quesnel.
There is scarcely a poet who has not sung the praises of Liberty, or an orator who has not made it the subject of his warmest eulogiums. The very name is invested with a charm that a thousand splendid associations have combined to render most potent in awakening the slumbering energies of the soul, and rousing it to glorious achievements; so that when liberty is the watchword, every heart is expected to respond to the call, and he would be branded as a dastard who should be backward to enter the lists in her defence. It is probable that one reason why this simple word acts like a magic spell in kindling up the most thrilling emotions, is because it has been employed with such extensive latitude as to embrace within its meaning some of the noblest blessings and privileges that pertain to man. The poet and the philosopher, the peasant and the slave, are alike interested in liberty; and if the one attaches ideas to it which are unthought of by the other, it is because one word has been chosen to designate the dearest rights of the human race, in all conditions and relations, and under all the endlessly diversified circumstances attending upon our present existence.
Liberty, in the view of the philosopher, as we may infer from Aristotle's definition, consists in a man's living according to his own reason; in not being enslaved by the opinion of others, the prejudices of education, the false glare which dazzles the imagination and imposes upon the heart, and all those enthralling influences by which error and delusion are accustomed to maintain their domination over the mind, and at the same time that they lead it astray, trample upon its liberty, and debase and enfeeble its powers. No one, who is acquainted with the history of the progress of knowledge and science, need be told how long the human intellect was held in the veriest slavery, in consequence of the shackles imposed by ignorance and superstition; what baneful effects resulted from this thraldom; how many desperate struggles were made for freedom; and that among the illustrious individuals who not only sought to disentangle their own minds from the servile track prescribed by former ages, but also to open up to others the true path of science, the highest praise is due to the immortal Bacon. He that would enjoy this rational liberty must claim it for himself; let him assert and exercise his independence; and if he would prove that he belongs not to the servum pecus, let him cast away those fetters that would bind down the soul from an expansive search into all the regions of truth, and prevent the exercise of its right to judge on all subjects within the cognizance of the human mind.
Allied to the liberty of man, as a thinking being, is that which respects him as a creature accountable to the supreme moral Governor, and which has been usually termed liberty of conscience. And, -- but that the pen of history has recorded it in a thousand bloody persecutions, and in the expiring agonies of martyrs and confessors; and but that events in our own times add painful confirmation to the monstrous fact, and shew us that nothing is too vile for fallen humanity, we could scarcely believe that any one could ever dare to the presumption that usurps the sole and undivided prerogative of God, or presume to dictate to his fellow what religious creed he should embrace, what views he must entertain of his moral duties, and with what services he ought to approach his Maker! Happily the death-blow has been given to this species of slavery in our own country; but not until many a heart had been broken with suffering, and many a crime committed, over which the mantle of concealment shall never be thrown, that they may be held up to everlasting reproach and execration.
But the liberty which has been most frequently the theme of universal commendation is that which belongs to man as a member of civil society, and which claims for him an exemption from all unjust and oppressive conditions. For this, heroes have fought and patriots have bled; while mankind, who have reaped the fruits of their bravery, have not been sparing in rewarding them with the well-earned meed of praise. So long as the records of the past shall be preserved, their fame will live, and their names be transmitted down to posterity with eternal honour.
It appears, then, that liberty is defined and measured according to the nature and extent of the slavery which it destroys, and the peculiar character of those rights which it confirms; and must, therefore, be the greatest blessing to those who have suffered the most deeply under wrong, and been most degraded by their bondage. Now there is a form of slavery so atrocious and diabolical that language falters in expressing the villany in which it originated, the wickedness by which it is supported, and the tremendous evils that it inflicts; and to the disgrace and shame of humanity, it yet remains to be annihilated. How long shall the wrongs of Africa continue unredressed, and the groans of her captive sons be disregarded? Surely the time is come to remove the foulest stain that can attach itself to the character of a free and enlightened people; and if justice, and humanity, and even political expediency, deserve to be respected, the immediate emancipation of the Negro is already virtually decreed. It cannot be deferred; -- either the British Legislature, or the enslaved themselves, taught to know their power, and determined to vindicate their rights, and aided by that God who has declared himself to be the foe of the oppressor, will soon decide the question, whether these injured sufferers shall recover their station in society or not, and whether the myriads who have never refused to recognize the Negro as a brother, shall not at length have to hail him as restored to the rank and dignity of a free-man.
Surely if so many blessings are comprehended under the name of Liberty, we may admit that there *ought* to be a charm in the very sound, and that it is the term a man should choose to employ when he would point out that which he conceived to be the dearest and noblest portion he could possess.
"But there is yet a liberty, unsung
By poets, and by senators unpraised,
Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the powers
Of earth and hell confederate take away:
A liberty, which persecution, fraud,
Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind;
Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more.
'Tis liberty of heart derived from Heaven,
Bought with His blood who gave it to mankind,
And sealed with the same token. It is held
By charter, and that charter sanctioned sure,
By the unimpeachable and awful oath
And promise of a God. His other gifts
All bear the royal stamp that speaks them His,
And are august, -- but this transcends them all."
A man may be free in every sense but one, and yet be the very vilest slave. His reason may disdain the trammels of vulgar superstition, and be unconfined in the pursuit of worldly science, and yet his understanding may be enslaved by the depraved power of sinful prejudices and pursuits, so as to be incapable of unrestrained exercise in the sublime regions of heavenly Truth; he may be under no external control as to the manner in which he shall pay his homage and duty to the Almighty, and yet be witheld from that reasonable and willing service which God requires, by having a conscience blunted and seared by the unhallowed influence of bad passions and habits; no man may question his absolute right over his own person and property, nor hold over his head the lash of the oppressor; and yet his own lusts may tyrannize in his heart, Satan may hold him as his vassal, and lead him captive at his will; in short, notwithstanding his lofty boasts of freedom, he may, all the while, be the victim of such moral and spiritual bondage as shall fit him to be the wretched prey of remorse in this world, and unutterable misery in that which is to come. This is the slavery "of sin unto death," which is opposed to "the glorious liberty of the children of God."
The condition of man as a fallen creature, if viewed in the light of the Word of God, is one of extreme guilt, impotency, and wretchedness. A state of mind which is described as being "enmity against God" must necessarily lead to constant acts and habits of transgression. But there is no sin which does not expose to condemnation and death. Hence every man is under the sentence of that law which declares, "the soul that sinneth it shall die." He stands bound to the threatened punishment, and all the claims to favour and blessing, which he might otherwise have had in consequence of his original relation to God as his creature, have become justly forfeited. At the same time, the dominion of sinful propensities in the heart, and the repetition of sinful acts in the life, have induced a moral incapacity to all good, and the most degrading subjection to the powers of darkness. This is the representation which the Volume of Truth makes of our condition as sinners, but not without informing us, that, since death produces no essential change in the mind, and is only a removal from a state of trial to one of retribution, the evils that belong to the sinner in this world will cling to him in the future state, and in their unrestrained and accelerated influence produce the eternal torment of hell.
"The glorious liberty of the children of God," -- that Liberty wherewith the Son makes free, is the release of the soul from this awful situation. The believer in Jesus Christ is delivered from the obligation to everlasting punishment when his guilt is removed by the forgiveness of sin, and a ground of hope furnished by the declaration of acquittal pronounced in the Word of God. But coincident with a man's being justified by faith is the regeneration of the moral nature by the gracious work of the Spirit of God, which is nothing less than a sinner's rescue from the yoke of sin and his being endued with the moral capacity and desire to love and serve God, so as no longer to be held in degrading thraldom by a misguided judgment, vicious affections, and depraved habits; but possessed of an enlargedness of soul towards God, resulting from an unbounded confidence in his love and implicit subjection to his will. The consequence attending such a state and character is, that the regenerated believer becomes heir to all the privileges of the gospel, and to all the perfection and blessedness of Heaven.
The remorse of an accusing conscience, the self-inflicted lashes of a mind preying upon itself, the guilt and fear that cause the God of justice and holiness to be regarded as an inexorable tyrant, and the dreadful apprehensions with which the sinner looks forward to his judgment hereafter, constitute a bondage from which no power whatever can deliver us, but that which resides in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners. His blood can alone cleanse from sin; His death can alone furnish a ground of hope to the guilty; His promises are alone adequate to meet the situation and satisfy the mind of the victim of despair ; and His grace alone can avert the doom that hangs impending over the condemned sinner: and therefore He alone can "proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." He can make us free indeed, both from the sentence of death pronounced by the law of God and recognized by our own conscience, and from the direful forebodings of endless misery.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" -- the soul walks at large in the boundless regions of truth and goodness, and the wider its range and the less restricted its exercise, the higher is the degree of blessedness experienced. For the liberty of the children of God does not consist in being free from the government and service of God, but just the reverse, -- in willingly choosing it; it is not freedom from righteousness, but its perfection is measured by the degree of conformity to the rule of righteousness; it is not an exemption from obedience, but a man is the more free by how much the more freely and readily his obedience is rendered. "Liberior quò divinae gratiae subjectior."
The perfection of Christian liberty is only to be realized in Heaven, where every clog and hindrance by which the soul is now restrained will be left behind, and the free-born spirit, emancipated from every chain, shall have unbounded scope for its mightiest powers, its most ardent affections. This is beautifully represented by Howe, in his "Blessedness of the Righteous," where the following passage occurs. "The bird escaped from his line and stone, that resisted its vain and too feeble strugglings before; how pleasantly doth it range! with what joy doth it clap its wings and take its flight! A faint emblem of the joy wherewith that pleasant cheerful note shall one day be sung and chaunted forth. "Our soul is escaped, as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we are escaped." There is now no place for such a complaint, 'I would, but I cannot.' The blessed soul feels itself free from all confinement: nothing resists its will, as its will doth never resist the will of God. It knows no limits, no restraints; it is not tied up to this or that particular good; but expatiates freely in the immense, universal, all-comprehending goodness of God himself."
J. W. H. Pritchard.
Attercliffe.