(4.) In a word, any sin against conscience grieves the Spirit of God, and hinders spiritual liberty, because ' where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.' Would we preserve liberty, we must preserve the Spirit. If we sin against conscience, we hinder liberty every way. We hinder our liberty to good duties. When a man sins against conscience he is dead to good actions. Conscience tells him, Why do you go about it, you have done this and that ? He is shackled in his performances ; he cannot go so naturally to prayer and to hearing. Conscience lays a clog upon him.',
[1.] He is shacJded, injyrayer especially ; he hath not liberty to the throne of grace. How dares he look to heaven, when he hath grieved the Spirit of God, and broken the peace of his conscience ? What communion hatii he with God ? So it hinders peace with God. A man cannot look Christ in the face. As a man, when he hath wronged another man, he is ashamed to look on him, so the soul when it hath run into sins against conscience, it is ashamed to look on Christ, and to go to God again. There- fore any sin against conscience grieves the Spirit, and hinders all sweet liberty that was before. It takes away the degree of it.
[2.] It hinders boldness with men, for what makes a man courageous in his dealings with men ? A clear conscience. Let it be the stoutest man in the world, let him maintain any lust against conscience, it will make him so far a slave ; for when it comes to the crossing of that lust once, then you shall see he will even betray all his former stoutness and strength. If a man be covet- ous and ambitious, he may be stout for a time, but when he comes to be crossed it will take away all liberty that a man hath, to cherish any sin.
In a word, to preserve this liberty, let us go to Christ, from whom we have this liberty ; complain to him. When we find any corruption stirring, go to the Lord in the words of St Austin, and say, ' Now, Lord, free me from my necessities.'* I cannot serve thee as I should do, nor as I would do. ,1 am enthralled to sin, but I would do better. I cannot do so well as I would ; free me from my necessities. Complain of our corruptions to God. As the woman in the law, when she complained if she were assaulted, she saved her life by complaining, Deut. xxii. 25-27, so let us complain to Christ if we find violence offered to us by our corruptions. I cannot by my own strength set myself at liberty from this corruption. Lord, give me thy Spirit to do it. Set me more and more at liberty from my former bondage, and from this that hath enthralled me. So complain to Christ, and desire him to do his office. Lord, thy office is ' to dissolve the works of the devil,' 1 John iii. 8. And go to the Spirit. It is the office of the Holy Ghost to free us, to be a Spirit of liberty. Now desire Christ and the Holy Ghost to do their office of setting us at spiritual liberty. And this we must do in the use of means and avoiding of occasions, and then it will be efficacious to preserve that spiritual liberty as will tell our consciences that we are no hypocrites ; and that will end in a glorious liberty in the life to come.
* Cf. Note a.— G.
238 EXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
And let this bo a comfort to all poor struggling and striving Christians that are not yet set at perfect liberty from their lusts and corruptions ; that it is the office of the Spirit of Christ as the King of the church ; it is his office by his Spirit to purge the church perfectly, to make it a glorious spouse. At last he will do his own office. And besides this liberty of grace joined ^yith conflict in this world, there is another liberty of glory, when I shall be freed from all oppositions without, and from all conflict and corruption within. It is called * the liberty of the sons of God,' Rom, viii. 21, and those that look not more and more for the gracious liberty to be free from passions and corruptions here, they must not look for the glorious liberty in heaven. But those that live a conflicting life, and pray to Christ more and more for the Spirit of liberty to set up a liberty in us, these may look for the liberty of the Son of God, that will be ere long, Avhen we shall be out of reach, and free from corruption ; when the Spirit of God shall be all in all. Now our lusts will not sufler the Spirit to be all in all, but in heaven he shall ; there shall be nothing to rise against him. This that hath been spoken shall suffice for that 17th verse, ' The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.* I proceed to the next verse, which I purpose to dwell more on.