Those, therefore, that are enemies of the dispensation of the gospel in the ministry, they are enemies to spiritual liberty ; and it is an argument that a man is in bondage to Satan when he is an enemy any way of the unfolding of the word of God. For it is an argument that he is licentious, that he will not be called to spiritual liberty, but live according to the flesh ; when he will not hear of the liberty of the Spirit, as you have some kind of men that account it a bondage, ' Let us break their bands, and cast away their cords,' Ps. ii. 3. Why should we be tied with the word and with these holy things ? It is better that we have no preaching, no order at all, but live every man as he would. Though they speak not so in words, yet their lives and profane carriage shew that they regard not outward liberties ; and that argueth that they are in spiritual bondage, and that they have no interest in spiritual liberty, because they are enemies of that whereby spiritual liberty is preserved.
Therefore the gospel is set out by that phrase, ' The kingdom of God.' Not only the kingdom of God set up in our hearts, the kingdom of the Spirit, but likewise where the gospel is preached, there is the kingdom of God. Why ? Because with the dispensation of divine truth Christ comes to rule in the heart ; by the outward kingdom comes the spiritual kingdom. They come under one name.
Therefore those that would have the spiritual kingdom of God, by grace and peace to rule in their hearts till they reign for ever in heaven, they must come by this door, by the ministry, by the outward ordinance. The ordinance brings them to grace ; and grace to glory. And it is a good and Bweet sign of a man spiritually set at liberty, brought out of the kingdom of Satan, and freed from the guilt of sin, and from the dominion of sin, which
* That is, ' teachers.'— G. X Cf. Exodus xxi. 6.— G.
t Qu. ' had sold ' ?— Ed.
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is broken in sanctification, when we can meekly and cheerfully submit to the ordinance of God, with a desire to have his spiritual thraldom dis- covered, and to have spiritual duties unfolded, and the riches of Christ laid open. When he hears these things with a taste and relish, and a love, it is a sign God loves his soul, and that he hath interest in spiritual liberty, because he can improve the charter of his soul so well. ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.'
And besides this liberty in this world, there is a liberty of glory, called 'the liberty of the sous of God,' Rom. viii. 21. The liberty of our bodies from corruption, the glorious liberty in heaven, when we shall be perfectly free. For, alas! in this world we are free to fight, not free from fight; and we are free, not from misery, but free from thraldom to misery. But then we shall be free from the encounter and encumbrance. * AH tears shall be wiped from our eyes,' Rev. vii. 17. We shall be fi"ee from all hurt of body, in sickness and the like, and free from all the remainders of sin in our souls : that is perfect liberty, perfect redemption, and perfect adop- tion, both of body and soul. And that we have by the Spirit too ; for where the Sphit of God is, there is that too in this world in the beginning of it. For, beloved, what is peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost ? Is it not the beginnings of heaven ? Is it not a grape of the heavenly Canaan ? Is it not the Spirit that we have here an earnest of that inheritance ? An earnest penn}' ; and an earnest is a piece of the bargain. It is never taken away, but is made up with the bargain. Therefore, when by the Spirit we have the beginnings of grace and comfort, we have the beginnings of that glorious liberty ; and it assures us of that glorious liberty as sure as we have the earnest. For God never repents of his bargain that he makes with his children. Grace in some sort is glory, as we see in the next verse ; because grace is the beginning of glory. It frees the soul from terror and subjection to sin, from the thraldom of sin. So the life of glory is begun in grace. We have the life of glory begun by the Spirit, this glorious life.
Use 1. If we have all these blessed liberties in this world and in that to come by the Spirit, then we should labour to have the S2)irlt of Christ, or else u-e have no liherty at all; and labour every day more and more to get this spiritual liberty in oui* consciences, to have our consciences assured by the Spirit that oiu* sins are forgiven, and to feel in our consciences a power to bring under sin that hath t3Tannized over us before. Let us every day more and more labour to find this spiritual liberty, and prize daily more the ordinances of God, sanctified to set us at liberty. Attend upon spiritual means, that God hath sanctified, wherein he will convey the Spirit. There were certain times wherein the angel came to stir the waters of the pool, John V. 3. So the Spirit of God stirs the waters of the word and ordi- nances, and makes them efiectual. Attend upon the ordinances of God, the communion of saints, &c., and the Spirit of God will slide into our souls in the use of holy means. There is no man but he finds experience of it. He finds himself raised above himself in the use of holy means. The more we know the gospel, the more we have of the Spirit ; and the more Spirit we have, the more liberty we enjoy. If we prize and value outward liberty, as indeed we do, and we are naturally moved to do it, how should we prize the charter of our spiritual liberty, the word of God, and the promises of salvation (whereby we come to Icnow all our liberty, where we have all the promises opened to us ; the promise of forgiveness of sins, of necessary grace ; the promise of comfort in all conditions whatsoever). Therefore