(2.) Again, where this liberty from the Spirit is, there is not'only a free- dom fi'om all gross sins, but likewise a blessed freedom to all duties, an enlargement of heart to ditties. God's people are a voluntary people. Those that are under grace, they are ' anointed by the Spirit,' Ps. Ixxxix. 20, and that spiritual anointment makes theui 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. There- fore those that find some cheerfulness and strength to perform holy ser- vices, 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, v,'ith 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 encour- agements 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 Jdiid of courage against all opposition ichatsoever, joined with a kind of light and strength of * That is, as Christ is = anointed, so Christian. — G.
232 EXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
Jaith, hrcaldnr) through all oppositions. A consideration of tlie 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 iv. 23, scq., 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 fi'om 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 ?' Eom. viii. 33, 34. It is said of St Stephen, that they could not withstand the Spirit by which he spake. Acts vi. 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 vi. 15 ; so the Spirit of liberty, where it is, it is with boldness, and strength, and courage against opposition. Those, there- fore, 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 holdness with God him- self, 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,' Heb. xii. 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 afiliction, 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 * That is, ' naughty'=wicked. — G.