In that very act, the Spirit is grieved; and, in that act of grief, subduced: neither can we ever expect comfort in the sense of his return, or hope to have his face shine upon us again, till we have won him to us, and recovered his favour, by an unfeigned repentance.

Is there any of us, therefore, that hath grieved and estranged the Holy Spirit from us, by any known offence? it must cost us warm water, ere we can recover him and the light of his countenance upon us. Neither let us be sparing of our tears to this purpose. Let no Antinomian stop the floodgates of our eyes. Let no Popish Doctor prevail to the abatement of this holy sorrow.

Those men,

out of a profession of much outward rigour and austerity, do, underhand, by their doctrine slacken the reins of true penitence to their clients. Contritio una vel remissa, &c. “One easy contrition is able to blot out any sin, if never so heinous;" saith their learned Cardinal Toleth: and their Jesuit Maldonate, to the same effect, Ad perfectionem Pænitentia, &c. "To the perfection of penitence is required only a slight kind of inward sorrow." Wherein I cannot better resemble them, than to timorous or indulgent chirurgeons, that think to pleasure the patient, in not searching the wound to the bottom: for which kindness, they shall receive little thank at the last for the wound hereupon festers within, and must cost double time and pain in the cure; whereas those solid Divines, that experimentally know what belongs to the healing of a sinning soul, go thorough-stitch to work. Insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmin taxeth it as too much rigour in Luther, Calvin, and Chemnitius, that they require Magnam animi concussionem; "A great concussion of soul," and a sharp and vehement contrition of the penitent. For us, let us not be niggardly of our sorrow; but, in these cases, go mourning all the day long. See how the Spirit of God expresses, Zech. xii. 10: They shall mourn, as one that mourneth for his only son; and shall be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. This is a repentance, never to be repented of: Blessed are they, that thus mourn; for they shall be comforted.

(3.) This aversion is Punishment enough alone; and, if it should be total and final, as it is not to God's own children, it were the worst piece of hell: for the punishment of loss, is justly defined worse, than that of sense; but, withal, it is attended, as there is good cause, with sensible demonstrations of God's anger, and the smart of the offender. My wounds stink and are corrupted, because of my foolishness; saith the Psalmist, Psalm xxxviii. 5. I am weary of my groaning; Psalm vi. 6. And, if the most righteous cannot avoid this sore hand of the Almighty, where shall wilful sinners appear? These effects of God's displeasure, then, are such, as are worth trembling at.

It is true, as that wise Pagan said, a speech worthy to be written in letters of gold and that which I doubt not shall be in the Day of Judgment laid in the dish of many millions of professed Christians, Si omnes Deos hominesque celare possimus, nihil avarè,

nihil injustè, nihil libidinosè, nihil incontinenter faciendum; "That if we could hide our actions from God and men, yet we may do nothing covetously, nothing unjustly, nothing lustfully, nothing incontinently."

A

Who would not be ashamed, to hear this fall from a Heathen; when he sees how many Christians live? But it is most true. good man dare not sin, though there were no hell: but, that holy and wise God, that knows how sturdy and headstrong natures he hath to do withal, finds it necessary to let men feel, that he hath store of thunderbolts for sinners; that he hath magazines of judgments, and, after all, a hell of torments for the rebellious: and, indeed, we cannot but yield it most just, that it should be so. If but an equal do grieve and vex us, we are ready to give him his own, with advantage; and if an inferior, we fall upon him with hand and tongue, and are apt to crush him to nothing; and even that worm, when he is trodden on, will be turning again: how can we, or why should we think, that the Great and Holy God will be vexed by us, and pocket up all our indignities? If a gnat or flea do but sting thee, thou wilt kill it, and thinkest it good justice; yet there is some proportion betwixt these creatures and thee: but what art thou, Silly Nothing, to the Infinite?

We, men, have devised varieties of punishments for those that offend our laws.

Artaxerxes his decree mentions four sorts; Death, Banishment, Confiscation, Imprisonment; Ezra vii. 26: and, which perhaps you will wonder at, commits the managing of justice in the execution of them all, to Ezra the priest.

The Romans, as Tully tells us, had eight several kinds of punishments for their delinquents; Forfeiture, Bonds, Stripes, Retaliation, Shame, Exile, Servitude, and Death. God hath all these double over; and a thousand others. For the first, which is Forfeiture, here is the forfeiture of no less than all; Take from him the pound, saith the master concerning the unfaithful servant; Luke xix. 24. For the second, Bonds, here are the most dreadful bonds that can be, even everlasting chains of darkness; Jude 6. For Stripes, here are many stripes for the knowing and not doing servant; Luke xii. 47. For Retaliation, it is here just and home, It is just with God to render tribulation to those that trouble you; 2 Thess. i. 6. For Shame, -here is confusion of face; Dan. ix. 8. For Exile, here is an everlasting banishment from the presence of God; Matth. xxv. 41. For Servitude, here is the most odious bondage, sold under sin; Rom. vii. 14. For Death, here is a double death, a temporal and eternal. These, and more than can be expressed are the consequents of God's displeasure.

If thou lovest thyself therefore, take heed, above all things, of grieving thy God with thy sins; and, if thou hast done so, hasten thy reconciliation agree with thine adversary in the way, else tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil: thy grieving of him shall end in weeping, and wailing, and gnashing; for our God is a consuming fire.

And here now, that I may turn your thoughts a little aside from a personal to a national grieving of God's Spirit, I am fallen upon the grounds of those heavy judgments, under which we have lain thus long; groaning and gasping; to the pity and astonishment of our late envying neighbourhood: even the destroying, and devouring sword. Alas, my Beloved! we have grieved our good God by our heinous sins of all sorts; and now we do justly feel the heavy effects of his displeasure: we have warred against heaven with our iniquities; and now it is just with God, to raise up war against us, in our own bowels. It was the motto, that was wont to be written upon the Scottish coin, as the emblem of their Thistle, Nemo me impunè lacesset; "None shall scape free, that provokes me." Surely, it is a word, that well fits the Omnipotent and Eternal Justice and Power of Heaven. We have provoked that to wrath; and, therefore, could not hope to avoid a fearful judgment. Woe to me! we have made ourselves enemies to God, by our rebellious sins; Therefore, thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies; Isaiah i. 24.

Three things there are, that aggravate the deep unkindness, that God hath taken at our thus grieving of him: his Endearments, our Engagements, his Expectation.

Were we a people, that God had no whit promerited by his Favours, that he had done nothing for us more than for the savage nations of the world, surely the God of Heaven had not taken it so deeply to heart: but now, that he hath been more kind to us than to any nation under heaven, how doth he call heaven and earth to record of the justness of his high regret! Hear, O Heaven, and hearken, O Earth; for the Lord himself hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me; Isaiah i. 2: and excellently Jeremiah ii. 31. O generation, see the word of the Lord: have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? therefore it follows, Behold, I will plead with thee;

verse 35.

Neither are his endearments of us, more than our Engagements to him for what nation in all the world hath made a more glorious profession of the name of God, than this of ours? What Church under the cope of heaven hath been more famous and flourishing? Had we not pretended to holiness and purity of religion even beyond others, the unkindness had been the less: now, our unanswerableness calls God to the highest protestation of his offence; Be astonished, O Heavens, and be horribly afraid; be ye very deso late, saith the Lord; for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters, and have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water; Jer. ii. 11, 12. And, who is so blind as my servant? Isaiah xlii. 19.

Now, according to his endearments and our engagements, hath been his just Expectation of an answerable carriage of us towards him. The husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart; but, where he hath gooded, and ploughed, and eared, and sown, why

should not he look for a harvest? And this disappointment is a just heightener of his grief; What could I have done more for my vineyard, that I have not done? I looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and I will lay it waste; Isaiah v. 4, 5. Woe is me! we do not hear, but feel God making his fearful word good upon us. I need not tell you what we suffer. The word of Isaiah is fulfilled here; It shall be a vexation only to understand the report; Isaiah xxviii. 19. Alas! we know it too well, what rivers of blood, what piles of carcases are to be seen on all sides.

Would God I could as easily tell you of the Remedy! And why can I not do so? Doubtless, there is a remedy no less certain, than our suffering; if we had but the grace to use it. Too long, alas! too long have we driven off the applying of our redress: yet, even still, there is balm in Gilead; still there is hope, yea assurance of help, if we will not be wanting to ourselves. We have grieved our God to the height: oh, that we could resolve to make our peace with our provoked God, at the last. Excellent is that of Isaiah xxvii. 5: Let him take hold of my strength, and make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. Oh, that we could take hold of our strong Helper, who is mighty to save; that we would lay hold on the strength of his marvellous mercies! Oh, that we could take Benhadad's course here! As they said of the king of Israel, much more may I say of the God of Israel, He is a merciful God; let us put sackcloth upon our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go to the God of Israel, and say, Thy servants say, I pray thee let us live; 1 Kings xx. 32. Oh, that it could grieve us thoroughly, that we have grieved so good a God! that we could, by a sound and serious humiliation and hearty repentance, reconcile ourselves to that offended Majesty! We should yet live to praise him for his merciful deliverance, and for the happy restoraation of our peace: which God, for his mercy's sake, vouchsafe to grant us!

Thus much for the grieving of the Holy Spirit in Himself, by way of Allusion to Human Affection.

2. Now follows that grievance, which, by way of SYMPATHY, he feels in his Saints.

Anselm, Aquinas, Estius, and other later Interpreters have justly construed one branch of this offence of the Holy Spirit to be, when, through our lewd, despiteful words or actions, we grieve and scandalize those saints and servants of God, in whom that Holy Spirit dwells.

It is true, as Zanchius observes well, that it is no thank to a wicked man, that the Spirit of God is not grieved by him, even in person: he doth what he can to vex him: the impossibility is in the impassibleness of the Spirit of God, not in the will of the agent. But although not in himself, yet in his faithful ones, he may and doth grieve him. They are the Receptacles of the Holy Ghost,

which he so possesses and takes up, that the injuries and affronts done to them are felt and acknowledged by him: as when an enemy offers to burn, or pull down, or strip and plunder the house, the master or owner takes the violence as done to himself. We are the temples, the houses, wherein it pleaseth the Spirit of God to dwell. What is done to us, is done to him in us. He challengeth, as our actions (the Spirit of God prays in us; Rom. vii. 26:) so our passions also: he is grieved in our grief. Such an interest hath God in his, that, as Christ, the Second Person in the Trinity, could say to Saul, Why persecutest thou me? so the Holy Ghost appropriates our injuries to himself: If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye, saith St. Peter, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part, he is evil spoken of; but, on your part, he is glorified; 1 Pet. iv. 14. Lo, the Holy Spirit is glorified by our sufferings, and is evil spoken of in our reproaches: the word is ẞhaoyueira, is blasphemed; so as, it is a fearful thing to think of, to speak contumelious words against God's children, is, by the Apostle's own determination, no better than a kind of blaspheming the Holy Ghost.

See, then, and consider, ye Malicious and Uncharitable Men: your wrongs reach further, than ye are aware of. Ye suffer your tongues to run riot, in bitter scoffs, in spiteful slanders, in injurious raylings against those, that are truly conscionable: ye think ye gall none but men, worse than yourselves; but ye shall find, that ye have opened your mouths against heaven.

I speak not for those, that are mere outsides and visors of Christianity; making a shew of Godliness, and denying the power of it in their lives. I take no protection of them: God shall give them their portion with hypocrites. But, if he be a true child of God, one that hath the true fear of God planted in his heart, and one that desires to be approved to God in all his ways, though perhaps he differ in judgment and be of another profession from thee in some collateral matters, as the God of Heaven stands not upon such points; let him, I say, be one of God's dear and secret ones whom thou revilest and persecutest, the Spirit of God feels the indignities that are offered to such a one; and will let thee feel, that he feels them: make as slight as you will of scandalizing and wronging a good man, there is a good God that will pay you for it.

What a heavy complaint is that, which the Apostle makes to his Corinthians, concerning himself and his fellows! I think, saith he, that God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men; 1 Cor. iv. 9: and verse 13; We are made as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things unto this day. Alas! if this were the condition of the blessed Apostles to be thus vilified, why should it seem strange to us, their unworthy successors and disciples, if we be thought fit for nothing, but to be cast upon the dunghill? But these reproaches, however we may take coolly and calmly, as that Stoic Philosopher did, who, whilst he was discoursing of