13. Signs of Spiritual Liberty
Signs of Spiritual Liberty
Use 2. Oh beloved, what a blessed condition it is to have this spiritual liberty! Do but see the blessed use and comfort of it in all conditions. For if a man hath the Spirit of God to set him at spiritual liberty, in all temptations, either to sin, he hath the Spirit of God to free him from temptation; or, if temptation catch hold on him for sin, he hath the Spirit of God to fly to, the blood of Christ, to shew that if he confess his sins and lay hold on Christ, he hath pardon of sin; and the blood of Christ ’speaks better things than the blood of Abel.’ It speaks mercy and peace. If he by faith sprinkle it upon his soul, if he know the liberty of justification, and make use of it: what a blessed liberty is this when we have sinned! In restraint of the outward man. If ever God restrain us to humble us, what a blessed thing is this, that the spirit is at liberty! and that is the best part of a man. A man may have a free conscience and mind, in a restrained condition; and a man may be restrained in a free state. In the guilt of sin, bound over to the wrath of God, and bound over to another evil day, a man in the greatest thraldom may have liberty. What a blessed condition is this! So in sickness, to consider that there is a glorious liberty of the sons of God, and a redemption of body, as well as of soul, that this base body of mine shall be like Christ’s glorious body; that there is a resurrection to glory—the resurrection will make amends for all these sicknesses and ills of body—what a comfort is it to think of the resurrection to glory! And so when death comes, to know that by the blood of Christ there is a liberty to enter into heaven; that Christ by his blood hath opened a passage to heaven. And so in all necessities, to think I have a liberty to the throne of grace; I am free of heaven; I am free of the company of saints in earth and in heaven too; I am free to have communion with God; I have a freedom in all the promises;—what a sweet thing is this, in all wants and necessities, to use a spiritual liberty, to have the ear of God, as a favourite in heaven! Not only to be free from the wrath of God, but to have his favour, to have his care in all our necessities: what a blessed liberty is this, that a man may go with boldness to the throne of grace by the Spirit of Christ!
Beloved, it is invaluable. There is not the least branch of this spiritual liberty but it is worth a thousand worlds. How should we value it, and bless God for giving Christ to work this blessed liberty; and for giving his Spirit to apply it to us more and more, and to set us more and more at spiritual liberty. For both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, all join in this spiritual liberty. The Father gives the Son, and he gives the Spirit; and all to set us free. It is a comfortable and blessed condition.
Use 3. But how shall we know whether we be set at liberty or no? Because all will pretend a liberty from the law and from the curse of God, and his wrath in justification? And though it be the foundation of all, I will not speak of that, but of that that always accompanies it, a liberty of holiness, a liberty to serve God, a liberty from bondage to lusts, and to Satan. Therefore,
(1.) Wheresoever the Spirit of God is, there is a liberty of holiness, to free us from the dominion of any one sin. We are freed ’to serve him in holiness all the days of our lives,’ Luke 1:75. Where the Spirit therefore is, it will free a man from thraldom to sin, even to any one sin. For the Spirit discovers to the soul the odiousness of the bondage. For a man to be a slave to Satan, who is his enemy, a cruel enemy, what an odious thing is this! Now whosoever is enthralled to any lust, is in thraldom to Satan by that lust. Therefore where this liberty is, there cannot be slavery to any one lust. Satan therefore cares not how many sins one leaves, if he live in any one sin; for he hath them in one sin, and can pull them in by one sin. As children when they have a bird, they can give it leave to fly, so it be in a string to pull it back again; so Satan hath men in a string, if they live in any one sin. The Spirit of Christ is not there, but Satan’s spirit, and he can pull them in when he will. The beast that runs away with a cord about him, he is catched by the cord again; so when we leave many sins, and yet notwithstanding carry his cords about us, he can pull us in when he lists. Such are prisoners at liberty more than others, but notwithstanding they are slaves to Satan by that, and where Satan keeps possession by one sin, and rules there, there is no liberty. For the spirit of sanctification where it is, is a counter-poison to the corruption of nature, and it is opposite to it, in all the powers of the soul. It suffers no corruption to get head.
(2.) Again, where this liberty from the Spirit is, there is not only a freedom from all gross sins, but likewise a blessed freedom to all duties, an enlargement of heart to duties. God’s people are a voluntary people. Those that are under grace, they are ’anointed by the Spirit,’ Psalms 89:20, and that spiritual anointment makes them nimble. Christian is nothing but anointed.* Now he that is truly anointed by the Spirit, is nimble, and quick, and active in that that is good in some degree and proportion. One use of anointing is to make the members nimble, and agile, and strong; so the Spirit of God is a spirit of cheerfulness and strength where it is. Therefore those that find some cheerfulness and strength to perform holy services, to hear the word, to pray to God, and to perform holy duties, it is a sign that this comes from the Spirit of God. The Spirit sets them at this liberty, because otherwise spiritual duties are as opposite to flesh and blood as fire and water. When we are drawn therefore to duties, as a bear to a stake, as we say, with foreign motives, for fear, or out of custom, with extrinsecal motives, and not from a new nature, this is not from the Spirit. This performance is not from the true liberty of the Spirit. For the liberty of the Spirit is, when actions come off naturally without force of fear or hope, or any extrinsecal motive. A child needs not extrinsecal motives to please his father. When he knows he is the child of a loving father, it is natural. So there is a new nature in those that have the Spirit of God to stir them up to duty, though God’s motives may help as the sweet encouragements and rewards. But the principal is to do things naturally, not for fear, or for giving content to this or that man.
Artificial things move from a principle without them, therefore they are artificial. Clocks and such things have weights that stir all the wheels they go by, and that move them; so it is with an artificial Christian that composeth himself to a course of religion. He moves with weights without him; he hath not an inward principle of the Spirit to make things natural to him, and to excite and make him do things naturally and sweetly. ’Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom;’ that is, a kind of natural freedom, not forced, not moved by any foreign extrinsecal motive.
(3.) Again, where the freedom of spirit is, there is a kind of courage against all opposition whatsoever, joined with a kind of light and strength of faith, breaking through all oppositions. A consideration of the excellent state I am in; of the vileness of the state we are moved to by opposition;—when the Spirit discovers these things with a kind of conviction, what is all opposition to a spiritual man? It adds but courage and strength to him to resist. The more opposition, the more courage he hath. In Acts 4:23, seq., when they had the Spirit of God, they opposed opposition; and the more they were opposed, the more they grew. They were cast in prison, and rejoiced; and the more they were imprisoned, the more courageous they were still. There is no setting against this wind, nor no quenching of this fire, by any human power, where it is true; for the Spirit of God, where it sets a man at liberty indeed, it gathers strength by opposition. See how the Spirit triumphed in the martyrs over all opposition, fire, and imprisonment, and all. The Spirit in them set them at liberty from such base fears, that it prevails in them over all. The Spirit of God, where it is, is a victorious Spirit. It frees the soul from base fears of any creature. ’If God be on our side, who shall be against us?’ Romans 8:33-34. It is said of St Stephen, that they could not withstand the Spirit by which he spake, Acts 6:10; and Christ promiseth a Spirit that all the enemies shall not be able to withstand: so those that are God’s children, in the time of opposition, when they understand themselves and that to which they stand, God gives them a Spirit against which all their enemies cannot stand. The Spirit of Christ in Stephen put such a glory upon him, that he looked as if he had been an angel, Acts 6:15; so the Spirit of liberty, where it is, it is with boldness, and strength, and courage against opposition. Those, therefore, that are awed with every petty thing for standing in a good cause, they have not the Spirit of Christ; for where that is, it frees men from these base fears, especially if the cause be God’s.
(4.) Again, where the Spirit of liberty is, it gives boldness with God himself, and thus it is known especially where it is: ’where the Spirit is, there is liberty.’ What to do? Even to go to God himself, that otherwise is a ’consuming fire,’ Hebrews 12:29. For the Spirit of Christ goes through the mediation of Christ to God. Christ, by his Spirit, leads us to God. He that hath not the Spirit of God cannot go to God with a spirit of boldness. Therefore, when a man is in affliction, in the time of temptation or great affliction, especially when there is opposition, he may best judge what he is in truth. When a man is in temptation, or opposition from the world, within or without, and can go boldly to God, and pour out his soul to God freely and boldly as to a father, this comes from the Spirit of liberty. Where the Spirit of Christ is not, though the parts be never so strong, or never so great, it will never do thus. Take another man, in the time of extremity, he sinks; but take a child of God in extremity, yet he hath a spirit to go to God, and to cry, Abba, Father; to go in a familiar manner to God. Saul was a mighty man. When he was in anguish, he could not go to God. Cain could not go to God. Judas, a man of great knowledge, he could not go to God. His heart was naught;* he had not the Spirit of Christ, but the spirit of the devil; and the spirit of bondage bound him over for his treason to hell and destruction; because he had not the Spirit to go to God, but accounted him his enemy; he had betrayed Christ. If he had said as much to God as he did to the scribes and Pharisees, he might have had mercy in the force of the thing. I speak not of the decree of God, but in the nature of the thing itself. If he had said so much to Christ and to God, he might have found mercy. So let a man be never so great a sinner, if he can go to God, and spread his soul, and lay open his sins with any remorse; if he can come, and open his soul in confession and in petition, and beg mercy of God in Christ, to shine as a Father upon his soul—this Spirit of liberty to go to God, it argues that the Spirit of Christ is there, because there is liberty to go to God. In Romans 8:26, speaking there of comfort in afflictions, this is one among the rest, ’that the children of God have the Spirit of God, to stir up sighs and groans.’ Now, where the Spirit of God stirs up sighs and groans, God understands the meaning of his own Spirit. There is the spirit of liberty, and there is; the spirit of sons; for a spirit of liberty is the spirit of a son. A man may know that he is the son of God, and a member of Christ; and that he hath the spirit of liberty in him, if he can, in affliction and trouble, sigh and groan to God in the name and mediation of Christ; for the Spirit stirs up groans and sighs: they come from the Spirit. That familiar boldness whereby we cry ’Abba, Father,’ it comes from sons. They only can cry so. This comes from the Spirit. If we be sons, then we have the Spirit, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. So, if we can go to God with a sweet familiarity,—Father, have mercy upon me, forgive me; look in the bowels of pity upon me,—this sweet boldness and familiarity, it comes from the spirit of liberty, and shews that we are sons, and not bastards. Your strong, rebellious, sturdy-hearted persons, who think to work out [of] their misery, out of the strength of parts and friends, &c., they die in despair. Their sorrows are too good for them. But when a broken soul goes to God in Christ with boldness, this opening of the soul to God, it is a sign of liberty, and of the liberty of sons, for this liberty here is the liberty of sons, of a spouse, of kings, of members of Christ: the sweetest liberty that can be imagined. It is the liberty that those sweet relations breed of a wife to the husband, and of loving subjects to their prince, and of children to their father. Here is a sweet liberty; and ’where the Spirit of God is, there is all this sweet liberty.’