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great a sinner, if ho can go to God, and spi'cad 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 Rom. viii. 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 o\^ti 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 libert}^ of sons, for this liberty here is the liberty of sous, 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.'
There are three degrees that a man is in, that is in the way to heaven.
[1.] The state of nature, when he cares neither for heaven nor hell in a manner, so he may have sensual nature pleased, and go on without fear or wit,* without grace, nay, without the principles of natui-e, so he may satisfy himself in a course of sin. That is the worst state, the state of nature.
[2.] But God, if he belong to him, will not suifer him to be in this sottish and brutish condition long, hut hrbujs him under the law ; that is, he sets his own corrupt nature before him, he shews him the course of his life, and then he is afraid of God : ' Depart from me, I am a sinner ;' as Adam he ran from God when he had sinned, that was sweet to him before ; so a brute man, when he is awakened with conscience of sin, considering that there is but a step between him and hell, and considering what a God he hath to deal with, and that after death there is eternal damnation, — when the Spirit of God hath convinced him of this, then he is in a state of fear, and when he is in this state, he is unfit to have Hberty to run to God. He useth all his power to shift from God all he can, and hates God, and wisheth there were no God, and trembles at the very thought of God, and of death, &c.
[3.] Oh, but if a man belong to God, God will not leave him in this condition (and though this be better than the first, it is better that a man * That is, ' wisdom' = knowledge.— G.
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wcro out of liis wits almost, tlian to be senseless as a block) ; tbcre Is auother condition spoken of here, that is, oj liherUj : when God by his Spirit discovers to him in Christ forgiveness of sins, the gracious face of God ready to receive him, * Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden,' Mat. xi. 28, saith Christ ; and ' where sin hath abounded, grace more abounds,' Rom. v. 20 ; when a man hears this still sweet voice of the gospel, he begins then to take comfort to himself, then he goes to God freely. Now all in this state of freedom, take them at the worst, they have boldness to go to God. David in his extremity, he runs to God. David trusted in the Lord his God. When he was at his wits' end, what doth Saul in his extremity ? He runs to his sword's point. Judges ix. 54, seq. Take a man under nature, or under the law, in extremity, the greater wit he hath, the more he entangleth himself. His wit serves to entangle him, to weave a web of his own despair. But take a gracious man, that is acquainted with God in Christ, in such a man there is a liberty to go to God at the lowest ; for he hath the Spirit of Christ in him. What did the Spirit in Christ himself direct him to do at the lowest ? ' 0 my God, my God,' Mark xv. 34. In the deepest desertion, yet * my God.' There was a liberty to go to God. So take a Christian that hath the same Spirit in him, as indeed he hath, ' My God' still. He owns God and knows him in all extremit}^