12. Uses

Uses

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 Spirit of Christ, or else we have no liberty at all; and labour every day more and more to get this spiritual liberty in our consciences, to have our consciences assured by the Spirit that our sins are forgiven, and to feel in our consciences a power to bring under sin that hath tyrannized 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 5:3. So the Spirit of God stirs the waters of the word and ordinances, and makes them effectual. 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 know 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 let us every day labour to grow farther and farther both in the knowledge and in the taste and feeling of this spiritual liberty.