2. For those that have been sealed bi/ the Spirit, and yet not sofidhj as to silence all doubts about their estate: those should, out of that beginning of comfort which they feel, study to be pliable to the Spirit for further increase. The Spirit sealeth by degrees. As our care of pleasing the Spirit increaseth, so our comfort increaseth : our light will increase as the morning light unto the perfect day. Yielding to the Spirit in one holy motion will cause him to lead us to another, and so on forwards until we be more deeply acquainted with the whole counsel of God concerning our salvation. Otherwise, if we give way to any contrary lust, darkness will grow upon our spirits unawares, and we shall be left in an unsettled condi- tion, as those that travel in the twihght, that cannot perfectly find out their way. We shall be on and otf, not daring to yield wholly to our lusts, because of a work of grace begun ; nor yield wholly to the Spirit, because we have let some unruly affection get too much strength in us ; and so our spirits are without comfort, and our profession without glory.
We shall lie open to Satan if he be let loose to winnow our faith ; for if our state come to be questioned we have nothing to allege but the truth of our graces, and if we have not used the Spirit well we shall not have power to allege them, nor to look upon any grace wrought in us, but upon those lusts and sins whereby we have grieved the Spirit ; they will be set in order before us, and so stare us in the face, that we cannot but fix our thoughts upon them. And Satan will not lose such an advantage, but will tempt us to call the work of grace in question, which though it be a true work, yet, for want of light of the Spirit to discern it, we cannot see it to our com- fort ; whereas, if the Spirit would witness unto us the truth of our state and the sincerity of our graces, we should be able to hold our own, and those temptations will vanish.
3. For those that the Hohj Spirit hath set a clearer and stronger stamp upon, that do not question their condition, they of all others should not grieve the Spirit.
(1.) A Spirit of ingenuiti/-- will hinder them, and stir up a shame in them to requite so ill such a friend. Nothing so ingenuous as grace. What is commendable in nature is in greater perfection in grace. How doth the conscience of unkindness to a friend that hath deserved well of us trouble our spirits, that we know not with what face to look upon him ? And will not unkindness to the Spirit make us ashamed to lift up our face to heaven ?
(2.) Benefits are bonds, and the greater favour the stronger obligation. Now what greater favour is there than for the Spirit to renew us according to the image of God our glorious Saviour, who carried the image of Satan before ? And by this to appropriate us unto God, to be laid up in his treasure, as carrying his stamp ; and by this to be separated from the vile condition of the world, although we carry in us the seeds of the same corruption that the worst doth, differing nothing from them but in God's free grace and the fruits of it ; for God to esteem so of us, that have no worthi- ness of our own, but altogether persons not worthy to be loved, as to make * That is, ' ingenuousness.' — G.
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our unworthiness a foil to set out the freeness of his love in making us worthy, whom he found not so ; for the Spirit by sealing of us to secure us in the midst of all spiritual dangers, and to hide us as his secret ones, that that evil one should not touch us to hurt us : these, as they arc favours of an high nature, the more care they require to walk worthy of them. We cannot but forget ourselves, before we yield to anything against that dignity the Spirit hath sealed us to.
(3.) Nature, helped tcith ordinary education, moveth every man to carry himself answerable to his condition : a magistrate as a magistrate, a subject as a subject, a child as a child ; and we think it disgraceful to do otherwise. And shall that which is disgraceful to nature not be much more disgraceful to nature renewed and advanced by the Spirit ? And indeed, as we should not, so we cannot grieve the Spirit so far forth as we are renewed, 1 John iii. 9. Our new nature will not suffer us to dissemble, to be worldly, to be carnal, as the world is. We cannot but study holiness, we cannot but be for God and his truth, we cannot but express what we are and whose we are.
It is impossible a man should care for heaven, that doth not care for the beginnings of heaven. He cannot be said to care for full redemption and glory, that doth not care for the Spirit of grace. Fulness of grace is the best thing in glory. Other things, as peace and joy and the like, they are but the shiniugs forth of this fulness of grace in glory.