09. Christians rule their lusts

Christians rule their lusts

Again, by the Spirit of Christ in sanctification we are made kings, to rule over our own lusts in some measure; not kings to be freed altogether from them, but kings to strive against them. It is a liberty to fight, and in fighting to overcome at last. When the Israelites had a promise that God would give their enemies into their hands, the meaning was not that he would give them without fighting a blow, but I will give them into your hands. You shall fight; and be of good comfort, in fighting you shall overcome. So this liberty of sanctification, it is not a liberty that we should have no combat with our corruptions, but a gracious liberty to keep them under, till by subduing them by little and little, we get a perfect victory. What greater encouragement can a man have to fight against his enemy, than when he is sure of the victory before he fights, of final victory! You see then how the Spirit brings a liberty into the soul. It brings us out of that cursed kingdom of Satan and sin. It brings us out of the curse of God and the law in justification; and it brings us from the dominion and tyranny of sin, by a spirit of sanctification. But this is not all that is in liberty; for the Spirit doth not only free us from all that is ill, from sin, but from that that follows it. There is some ill that follows, as fear and terrors of conscience, &c. They follow sin and death and wrath, and such like, the subjection to these. Now, where the Spirit of God is, it frees from the ill consequents, from the tail that follows sin. Where the Spirit is, it frees us from fear; for the same Spirit that tells us in justification that God is appeased, the same Spirit frees us from the fear of damnation and death and judgment; from the terrors of an evil conscience. Being ’sprinkled with the blood of Christ,’ 1 Peter 1:2, we are freed from fear. And it frees not only from the fear of ill things, but it shews immunity and freedom to good. Liberty implies here two things: a freedom from ill, from a cursed condition, and likewise a liberty to a better; a liberty from ill, and to good. We must take it in the just latitude, because the benefits of Christ are complete, not only privative but positive; not only to free us from ill, but to confer all good to us, as much as our nature is capable of. As much as these souls of ours are capable of, they shall be made free and glorious and happy in heaven, God will leave no part of the soul unfilled, no corner of the soul empty. By little and little he doeth it, as we shall see in the next verse. When we are called out of Satan’s kingdom we are not only called out of that cursed state, but we are made free of a better kingdom; we are made the members of Christ; we are enfranchised. And so in justification we are not only freed from damnation, from the justice and wrath of God, but likewise we can implead* our righteousness whereby we have title to heaven, which is a blessed privilege and prerogative. We are not only free from the curse of the law, but likewise we have other gracious prerogatives and privileges. We are not only freed from the dominion of sin, but we are likewise set at liberty by the Spirit to do that that is good. We have a voluntary free spirit to serve God with as great cheerfulness as we served our lusts before; and as we are freed from the rigour and curse of the law, so we have prerogatives to good answerable. We are now by the Spirit set at liberty to delight in the law, to make the law our counsellor, to make the word of God our counsellor. That that terrified and affrighted us before, now it is our direction. Even as he that was a severe schoolmaster to one in his under years, after, when he comes to years, becomes a wise tutor to guide and direct him; so the law that terrified and whipped us when we were in bondage, till we be in Christ,—it scares us to Christ,—that law after comes to be a tutor, to tell us this we shall do, to counsel us, and say this is the best way; and we come to delight in those truths, when they are discovered to us in the inward man. And the more we know, the more we would know, because we would please God every day better. So that besides freedom from that that is ill, and the consequents of ill, there is a blessed immunity and prerogative and privilege. That is meant here by liberty. For God’s works are complete. We must know when he delivers from ill he advanceth to good. His works are full works always. He doth not things by halves. Therefore we have through Christ, and by the Spirit, not only freedom from that that is ill, but advancement to all that is comfortable and graciously good. And one thing give me leave to touch, which though it be more subtle, yet it is useful, that the text puts me to speak of. ’Where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty’ of the inward man, liberty of judgment, and liberty of will. Where the Spirit of God is not, there is no liberty, no free will. A little to touch upon that. That which we call free will, it is either taken for a natural power and endowment that God hath put upon the soul, and so the will is alway free in earth and in hell. The devil’s will is free so, free to evil. There is the natural freedom; for freedom it is a dowry upon the will, invested upon the will, that God never takes from it. To do it freely, that is, upon reason that it sees, be it good or evil, so I mean not freedom; but I take freedom for ability and strength to that that is good. For any liberty and ability to that that is good is only from the Spirit; and the defence of Luther’s and others (b), that wrote of this freedom, is sound and good, that the will of man is slavish altogether, without the Spirit of God. ’Where the Spirit is there is liberty:’ liberty as it is taken for power and ability to do good. In a word, there is alway a liberty of the subject, of the person; a liberty of the understanding, but not of the object, to this or to that thing. A liberty to supernatural objects comes from supernatural principles. Nothing moves above its own sphere; nothing is acted above its own activity, that God hath put into it. Now a natural man can do nothing but naturally; for nothing can work above itself, by its own strength, no more than a beast can work according to the principles of a man. Therefore the soul of man hath no liberty at all to that which is spiritually good, without a supernatural principle, that raiseth it above itself, and puts it into the rank of supernatural things.

First, The Spirit of God puts a new life into the soul of a man; and then when he hath done that, it preserves that life against all opposition; and together with preserving that life, it applies that inward life and power it hath put into it to particular works. For when we have a new life, yet we cannot do particular actions without the exciting power of the Spirit of God. The Spirit stirs up to every particular thing, when the soul would be quiet of itself. The moving comes from the Spirit of God. As every particular moving in the body comes from the soul, so the Spirit it puts a new life, it applies that life, it applies the soul to every action. Where the Spirit of God therefore is not, there is no liberty to any supernatural action; but ’where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.’ It follows both negatively and affirmatively. There is a liberty of will to that that is good. So then this riseth from hence, again, that where the Spirit of God is efficacious and effectual in his working, there it robs not the soul of liberty, but perfects that liberty.

You have some divines, too many indeed, that hold that the Holy Ghost only works by way of persuasion upon the soul, and by way of moving, as it were, without; but he doth not enter into the soul, nor alter and change the soul; he doth not work upon the soul as an inward worker, but only as an outward entreater and persuader and allurer, propounding objects, and with objects persuasions and allurements. This is too shallow a conceit for so deep a business as this; for the Spirit works more deeply than so. It puts a new life into the soul; it takes away the stony heart and gives a fleshly heart, Ezekiel 40:19. Those phrases of Scripture are too weighty to fasten such a shallow sense upon them, only as to entreat them to be converted, as a man would entreat a stone to be warm, and to come out of its place. He might entreat long enough. But the Spirit with that speech, it puts a new life and power, and then acts and stirs that power to all that is good.

Obj. Oh, say they, which is their main objection, here is a prejudice to the liberty of the will! This is to overthrow the nature of man!

Ans. Oh, by no means! This is no prejudice to the liberty of the will; for the Spirit of God is so wise an agent that he works upon the soul, preserving the principles of a man. It alters the judgment by presenting greater reasons, and further light than it saw before; and then it alters the will, that we will contrary to that we did before, by presenting to the will greater reasons to be good than ever it had to be ill before. Then the soul chooseth freely of its own will any thing, when it doth it upon discovery of light and reason, with advisement and reason. Then the soul doth things freely, when it doth them upon the designment of reason, when judgment tells me this is good. Now when the Spirit changeth the soul, it presents such strong reasons to come out of that cursed estate I am in, and to come to the blessed estate in Christ, that the will presently follows that that the understanding presents as the chief good of all. Here the freedom is preserved, because the will is so stirred by the Holy Ghost, as that it stirs itself, being stirred by the Holy Ghost; and upon this ground it sees a better good. So that grace takes not away liberty. No; it stablisheth liberty. Though we hold that in effectual grace the Spirit of God works upon the soul throughly, yet notwithstanding we preserve liberty, because we say that the soul works of its own principles, notwithstanding grace; because the Spirit of God acts and leads the soul according to the nature of the soul. The Spirit of God preserves things in the manner of doing of things. It is the manner of doing of the reasonable creature, to do things freely. Therefore the Spirit working upon the soul, it preserves that modus, though it work effectually upon the soul; and the more effectually it works upon the soul, the more* the soul is; because it seeth reason to do good. Therefore the more we give to the Spirit in the question of grace and nature, the more we stablish liberty, and prejudice it not. Where these three or four rules are observed, there liberty is preserved, though there be a mighty working of the Holy Spirit; as,