And one thing give me leave to toucli, 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 endow- ment 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 free- dom ; for freedom it is a dowr}' 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 libert}' 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 suj^ernatural things.
First, The Spiiit 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 w'hen we have a new life, yet we cannot do particular actions without the exciting power of the Sj)irit 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 Spii'it of God therefore is not, there is no liberty to any supernatural action ; but ' -^here 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 per- fects 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, Ezek. xl. 19. Those phrases of Scripture are too weighty to fasten such a
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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.
Olij. 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 !
Ami. 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 not- withstanding 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 pre- serves 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.