05. How the Spirit worketh liberty

How the Spirit worketh liberty

Now this liberty is wrought by Christ and applied by the Spirit. What Christ works he makes it ours by his Spirit, which takes all from Christ. As Christ doth all by the Spirit, so the Spirit takes all from Christ. All the comfort it hath is from reasons taken from Christ, from grounds from Christ, and doctrines from Christ, but yet both have their efficacy—Christ as the meritorious cause, and the Spirit as the applying cause. The Spirit discovers the state of bondage we are in by nature, and it discovers withal a more excellent condition; and as it discovers, so likewise the Spirit of God brings us to this state, by working faith in that that Christ hath done for us. Christ hath freed us by his death from the curse of the law, from the wrath of God, from death and damnation, and the like. Now whatsoever Christ hath done the Spirit works faith, to make this our own by uniting us to Christ. When Christ and we are one, his sufferings are ours, and his victory is ours, all is ours. Then the Spirit persuading us of the love of God, and Christ redeeming us from that cursed slavery we were in, that Spirit, it works love in us, and other graces whereby the dominion of sin is broken more and more, and we are set at liberty by the Spirit.

Now the Spirit doth not work liberty properly originally, but Christ is the grand redeemer. But Christ redeemeth two ways.