94 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. VIII.
that gives that conscientious fear of sin, that awe of God in all our thoughts, actions, and ways, that careful and circumspect walking, that temperance in_things lawful, that abstinence from all appear- ance of evil, wherein they judge the greatest bondage on the earth to consist. But those who have received him,‘do know that the whole world doth lie in evil, and that all those unto whom spiritual liberty is a bondage are the servants and slaves of Satan.
(2.) It is obtained by the evidence of our justification before God, and the causes of it. This men were greatly in the dark unto under the first covenant, although all stable peace with God doth depend thereon; for it is in the gospel that “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith,’ Rom.i.17. Indeed “the righteousness of God without the law is witnessed by the law and the prophets,” Rom. iii. 21; that is, testimony is given to it in legal institutions and the promises recorded in the prophets. But these things were obscure unto them, who were to seek for what was intended under the veils and shadows of priests and sacrifices, atonements and expia- tions. But our justification before God, in all the causes of it, be- ing now fully revealed and made manifest, it hath a great influence into spiritual liberty and boldness.
(3.) By the spiritual light which is given to believers into the mystery of God in Christ. This the apostle affirms to haye been “hid in God from the beginning of the world,” Eph. 11. 9. It was contrived and prepared in the counsel and wisdom of God from all eternity. Some intimation was given of it in the first promise, and it was afterwards shadowed out by sundry legal institutions; but the depth, the glory, the beauty and fulness of it, were “hid in God,” in his mind and will, until it was fully revealed in the gospel. The saints under the old testament believed that they should be delivered by the promised Seed, that they should be saved for the Lord’s sake, that the Angel of the covenant would save them, yea, that the Lord himself would come to his temple; and they diligently inquired into - what was foresignified concerning “ the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” But all this while their thoughts and conceptions were exceedingly in the dark as to those glorious things which are made so plain in the new covenant, concerning the incar- nation, mediation, sufferings, and sacrifice of the Son of God,—con- cerning the way of God’s being in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Now as darkness gives fear, so light gives liberty.
(4.) We obtain this liberty by the opening of the way into the holiest, and the entrance we have thereby with boldness unto the throne of grace. This also the apostle insists upon peculiarly in sundry places of his ensuing discourses, as chap. ix. 8, x. 19-22: where it must be spoken to, if God permit, at large; for a great part of the liberty of the new testament doth consist herein.
VER. 6.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 95
(5.) By all the ordinances of gospel-worship. How the ordi- nances of worship under the old testament did lead the people into bondage hath been declared; but those of the new testament, through their plainness in signification, their immediate respect unto the Lord Christ, with their use and efficacy to guide believers in their communion with God, do all conduce unto our evangelical liberty. And of such importance is our liberty in this instance of it, that when the apostles saw it necessary, for the avoiding of offence and scandal, to continue the observance of one or two legal institu. tions, in abstinence from some things in themselves indifferent, they did it only for a season, and declared that it was only in case of scandal that they would allow this temporary abridgment of the liberty given us by the gospel.
12. They differ greatly with respect unto the dispensation and grant of the Holy Ghost. It is certain that God did grant the gift of the Holy Spirit under the old testament, and his operations dur- ing that season, as I have at large elsewhere declared;’ but it is no less certain, that there was always a promise of his more signal effu- sion upon the confirmation and establishment of the new covenant. See in particular that great promise to this purpose, Joel ii. 28, 29, as applied and expounded by the apostle Peter, Acts ii. 16-18. Yea, so sparing was the communication of the Holy Ghost under the old testament, compared with his effusion under the new, as that tho evangelist affirms that “the Holy Ghost was not yet, because hat Jesus was not yet glorified,’ John vii. 39; that is, he was not yet given in that manner as he was to be given upon the confirmation of the new covenant. And those of the church of the Hebrews who had received the doctrine of John, yet affirmed that “they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost” or no, Acts xix. 2; that is, any such gift and communication of him as was then proposed as the chief privilege of the gospel. Neither doth this con- cern only the plentiful effusion of him with respect unto those mira- culous gifts and operations wherewith the doctrine and establishment of the new covenant was testified unto and confirmed: however, that also gave a signal difference between the two covenants; for the first covenant was confirmed by dreadful appearances and operations,