That attribute the Spirit delights in is that of holiness, which our cor- rupt nature least delights in and most opposeth.* Holiness is the glory
* In margin here, ' Holiness not onlj an attribnte in God, but the excellency of all his attributes. He is holy in mercy, injustice, in goodness, &c.' — G.
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and crown of all otlier excellency, without which they are neither good in themselves, nor comfortable to us. It implies a freedom from all impurity, and a perfect hatred of it ; an absolute perfection of all that is excellent. What is it then to grieve such an Holy Spirit, before whom the heavens themselves are impure, and not only the devils tremble, but the angels cover their faces ? What shall we think then of them which do not only neglect, but despise, yea, oppose this holiness, and endure anything else ? What is hated in the world with keen and perfect hatred but holiness, * without which yet we shall never see God,' Heb. xii. 14, nor enter into that pure place into which we all profess a desire to enter ? There was planted in man by nature a desire of holiness, and a desire of happiness. The desire of happiness is left still in us, but for holiness, which is the perfection of the image of God in us, is both lost, and the desire of it extinguished ; and that men might the better drive it out of the world under a form and show of it, they oppose the truth of it, and that with the greater success, because under that great colour the devil -and his vicar carry all their devilish policies under a show of holiness. We see in popery, everything is holy with them but that which should be holy, the truth of God and the expression of it. The Man of Sin himself must have no worse title than ' His Holiness.' A show of devised holiness pleaseth man's nature well enough, as being glorious for appearance, and useful for ends. But the truth of it being cross to the whole corrupt nature of man, will never be entertained until nature be new moulded by his Holy Spirit in the use of holy means, sanctified b}" himself for that end. It is this that makes a man a saint, and civil virtues to be graces ; which raiseth things that are otherwise common to an higher degree of excellency. This is that to a Christian which reason is to a man. It gives him a being and a beauty different from all other. It makes every action we do in obedience to God a service, and puts a religious respect upon all our actions, directing them to the highest end.
Now that which the apostle dissuades from is from grieving so holy a Spirit. These truths are presupposed.
First, That the Holy Ghost is not in us personaUtj as the second person is in Christ man, for then the Holy Ghost and we should make one person ; nor is the Holy Ghost in us essentially only, for so he is in all creatures ; nor yet is in us only by stirring up holy motions, but he is in us mystically, and as temples dedicated to himself. Christ's human nature is the first temple wherein the Spirit dwells, and then we become temples by union with him. The difference betwixt his being in Christ and us, is, that the Spirit dwells in Christ in a fuller measure, by reason that as a head he is to convey spirit into all his members. Secondly, the Spirit is in Christ entirely without anything to oppose. The Spirit always finds something in us that is not his own, but ready to cross him. Thirdly, the Spirit is in us derivatively from Christ. As a fountain we receive grace at second hand, answerable to grace in him. The Holy Ghost was in Adam before his fall immediately, but now he is in Christ first, and then for Christ in us, as members of that body whereof Christ is the head. And it is well for us that he dwells first in Christ, and then in us. For from this it is that his communion with us is inseparable, as it is from Christ himself, with whom the Spirit makes us one. The Holy Spirit dwells in those that are Christ's after another manner than in others in whom he is in, in some sort by common gifts, but in his own he is in them as holy, and as making them holy ; as the soul is in the whole body in regard of divers operations, but in
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the head only as it unclci'standcth, and from thence ruleth the whole body. So the Holy Ghost is iu his in regard of more noble operations, and his person is together with his working, though not personally. And though the whole man be the temple of the Holy Ghost, yet the soul especially ; and in the soul the vcr}' spirit of our minds, as most suitable to him, being a Spirit. Whence the apostle wishes ' the grace of Christ to be with our spirits,' 2 Tim. iv. 22. The best of spirits delight most in the best of us, which is our spirits. In the temple the further they went all was more holy, till they came to the holy of holies. So in a Christian the most inward part, the spirit, is, as it were, the 'holj'^ of holies,' where incense is offered to God continually,* What a mercy is this, that he that hath the heaven of heavens to dwell in will make a dungeon to be a temple, a prison to be a paradise, yea, an hell to be an heaven. Next to the love of Christ in taking our nature and dwelling iu it, we may wonder at the love of the Holy Ghost, that will take up his residence in such defiled souls.