The issues of grieving the Spirit will prove very dangerous, for the Spirit may justly leave us to our own spirits and deceitful hearts, which, as they are arch-flatterers, so will prove arch-traitors to us, and so let in a worse guest into our souls. The ill spirit is always ready presently to take possession, who, by joining with the stream of our corruptions, may please us for a time, but will destroy us for ever.
When we grieve the good Spirit of God, and cause him to leave us, our soul is left as a hell ; for what is hell but the absence of God in his favour and mercy ?
Again, We cannot grieve the Spirit of God in doing anything against it hut it }riU grieve us aijain, and, being a Spirit, may fill our spirits with that grief that may make our conditions a kind of hell upon earth. Few repro- bates feel those terrors here that the godl}^ oft do by their bold adventui'es ; for besides the terrors of the natural conscience, ihej have the Spirit to set them on, and that Spiiit which had so well deserved of them before, which cannot but increase the horror and shame. In hell itself this will be the bitterest torment, to think of Tefusing mercy, mercy pressed and oSered with all love. A careless spirit oft proves ' a wounded spirit,' and that, ' who can bear ? ' Prov. sviii. 14, until he that wouudeth healeth again, by giving grace to afilict ourselves, and wait his good time to take pity of us. That which we say of conscience is true. It is our best friend, and our worst enemy. If a man's conscience be his friend, it will make all friendly to him (/). It will make God his friend, affliction his friend; nothing can sit at the heart to grieve him. But if a man's conscience turn his enemy, there need no other enemies be sought out. He hath enow in his own heart, his own tormenting conscience tearing itself. This may be as truly said of the Spirit of God, who is above conscience. If we make him not our best friend, we are sure to have him our worst enemy, that sets all other enemies upon us. Displeasure is as the person is. 'It is a fearful thing to iiiW into the hands of the Hving God,' Heb. x. 31. ' Who knows the power of his wrath ? ' Ps. xc. 11. It is a powerful wrath. No crea- ture hath power over the spirit immediately, but this Spirit of spirits, who can fill the soul, the whole soul, and every corner of it. Being adequate to the soul, as large as the soul and larger, he can fill it with wrath that shall burn to hell ; and who shall take off the wrath of God when the Spirit of God sets it on once ?
Quest. AVhence is it that we grieve the Spirit ?
Alls. Because there is a cursed principle in us, always active, which is not perfectly subdued in this life. Death is the accomplishment of morti- * That is, ' turn aside.'— G t Cf. Exodus xiv. 25.— G.
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fication ; but while we arc here, this corruption in us will alway be working. ' The flesh lusteth against the Spirit,' Gal. v. 17. The flesh is an active busy thing. It bestirs itself. Now, when contraries are so near as the flesh and Spirit, in the same soul, they must needs thwart and grieve one another continually.
Quest. It may be demanded how far forth a child of God may grieve the Spirit, and yet remain the child of God ?
Ans. In answer to this know, that we must not judge of sin by the matter in u'hich, but by the spirit from tvhich, sin is committed. There is no sin so gross but the saints of God may fall into it ; but yet the child of God is hindered by a contrary law of the Spirit from yielding full consent before, or taking full delight in a sin, or allowing or persisting after. And though, in regard of ingratitude, the sin of a godly man admits of a greater aggra- vation than the sin of others, yet setting that aside, the sin itself of a godly man is less, for his temptations be stronger, and Satan's malice more eager against him, and his resistance of sin greater, all which doth abate the heinousness of the guilt. The more resistance from within argues a stronger party from within in the godly ; the force of sin is broken from within. Take a godly man at the worst, there is some work of the Spirit in him, that in some measure is answerable to the counsels and motions of the Spirit without him. The Holy Spirit hath some hold in him, by which he doth recover him. A wicked man proceeds from grieving to quenching, and from quenching to resisting. The Spirit hath no party, no side in him ; and therefore, when the Spirit is gone, farewell. They are glad that then they can follow their pleasures and sins without check.
Sometimes God leads his children to heaven through some foul way, by which he lets them see what need they have of washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ, which otherwise perhaps they would not so much value, when they grieve the Spirit, and the Spirit thereupon grieves them, and that grief proves medicinal. The grief which sin breeds, consumes the sin that bred it. We are in covenant with so wise and powerful a God, that over- rules even sin itself to serve his purpose in bringing his to heaven. They have that in them whereby they hate the sin they do, and love the good- ness they do not ; whereas others hate the good in some respects they do, and love the ill which they dare not commit. Howsoever they are drawn into sin, yet they will never break the conjugal bond betwixt Christ and their souls, so far as that sin should reign in them as a commanding lord, they will not forsake their oath of allegiance to serve willingly a contrary king. They may presume sometimes upon Christ, thinking they have a balm ready to cure the wound again, — as some, to shew the virtue of their oils, do :make wounds in themselves, — the deceitfulness of sin seducing them. But God ever chastiseth this boldness, and taketh such a course with them, that it ends in taking the greater shame to themselves, and by so much as they have been more presumptuous. The loss of comfort, and the sense of sorrow they feel, makes them say from experience, that there is nothing gotten by sin, and that it proves bitterness in the end.