VIII. THE HOLY SPIRIT.





IT is the Spirit of God, even the Holy Ghost that convinceth us of
sin, and so of our damnable state because of sin.

Therefore the Spirit of God, when he worketh in the heart as a
spirit of bondage, doeth it by working in us by the law, for by the
law is the knowledge of sin. Rom. 6: 20. And he in this his working
is properly called a spirit of bondage; because by the law he shows
us that indeed we are in bondage to the law, the devil, and death
and danmation.

He is called in his working the spirit of bondage, because he here
also holds us--to wit, in this sight and sense of our bondage
state--so long as it is meet we should be so held; which to some of
the saints is a longer, and to some a shorter time. Paul was held in
it three days and three nights, but the jailer and the three
thousand, so far as can be gathered, not above an hour; but some in
these later times are so held for days and months, if not for years.
But I say, let the time be longer or shorter, it is the Spirit of
God that holdeth him under this yoke, and it is good that a man