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SERM. finful Course of Life, on this Suppofition, XIV. that we shall have Time to repent hereaf ter, and to make our Peace with God upon a Death-bed? For, granting the Suppofition, that we fhall have both Time and Will to repent (which feldom, very seldom, happens) how much Trouble and Anxiety of Mind will it coft us? How many Terrors of Confcience, how many Sighs and Tears, and, as the Apostle defcribes the 2 Cor. vii. Condition of a fincere Penitent, For, behold, this felf-fame Thing that ye forrowed after a godly Sort, what Carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what Clearing of your felves, yea, what Indignation, yea, what Fear, yea, what vehement Defire, yea, what Zeal, yea, what Revenge? This is the Condition of a

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Man who is roufed from the Bed of Security, and has a lively Senfe of his Sins imprinted upon his Confcience. How shall we accufe and condemn our own Folly, that we should do a Thing, which now we heartily wish were undone again, or that we never had done it; that we should grieve that Holy Spirit, and force him to withdraw himself from us, in whofe Society our Happiness doth confift, and in whofe Prefence there is Fulness of Joy? And would but the Sinner, for once, be wife and confider what the Confequence of

Things will be, it is impoffible that he SERM. fhould be fo defperately mad, and ftupidly XIV. foolish, as to continue in the Commiffion of any known Sin. For, did he lay the Pleasure of the most grateful and acceptable Luft in the one Scale, and in the other that Trouble and Anxiety of Mind which it will coft him, even in this World, if ever repented of, he would find the Difproportion fo great, that it would utterly discourage him from buying fo poor and tranfitory a Pleasure at fo dear a Rate. But, if the Punishment of Sin is fo great in this Life, how intolerable muft it needs be in the Life to come, where the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched? And where these Torments are not only infinitely more intenfe, but also equally eternal, as to their Duration, with that God who inflicts them? From which God of his infinite Mercy keep us all, for Jefus Chrift his Sake.

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SERM.
XV.

SERMON XV.

The Hazard and Folly of depriving ourselves wholly of the Influences of God's Holy Spirit.

T

1 THESS. V. 19.

Quench not the Spirit.

HERE is no Head of Divinity which is more frequently infifted on, by practical Writers, than that which treats of the Gifts and Graces of God's Holy Spirit; and yet there is none which is lefs underftood, or more grofly abused.

IF foberly confidered, and according to the Analogy of Faith, it yields excellent Matter of Inftruction and Edification, Comfort and Support; but if handled irreverently and prefumptuously, after the Manner of fome modern Enthusiasts, it

will only dazzle our Sight, and blind us SERM. into Error. XV.

THAT We may make the best Improvement of this Truth, let us follow the Example the Apostle has fet us, who, amongst many plain and pathetical Directions, has inferted this, contained in the Text, Quench not the Holy Spirit.

THAT we may have a clearer Notion of thefe Words, I fhall confider,

I. WHAT is meant by the Spirit.
II. WHAT by quenching the Spirit.

I. WHAT is meant by the Spirit. Now, amongst the many different Significations which are put upon this Word by the Penmen of the Holy Writ, these three are the most remarkable.

1. Spirit is taken for the first Person of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.

2. FOR the Gifts and Graces of God's Holy Spirit, whether they are those gratiæ gratis data, those wonderful Gifts which were bestowed upon the first Propagators of the Christian Faith; or else, those gratiæ gratum facientes, thofe divine Qualities and Endowments, which are wrought, by the Ministration of the Holy Spirit, in X 4

the

SERM. the Hearts and Souls of true Believers? XV. Or,

3. THE Word, Spirit, is taken for those holy Motives and Infpirations by which thefe Gifts and Graces are wrought in us, and are alfo daily cherifhed and in

creased.

By Spirit, in the Text, may be meant, either, or both the two laft of thefe, namely, the Gifts and Graces of God's Holy Spirit, as alfo, thofe Inspirations and Motions, by which they are wrought in the Souls of Men.

I COME to confider,

II. WHAT is meant by quenching the Spirit.

Now this is a figurative and metaphorical Expreffion, and feems to be a plain Allufion to thofe fiery Tongues which fat upon the Apostles, when they received the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost. And Fire is a very proper and fuitable Emblem to denote to us the Operations of the Holy Spirit, if we confider the several Qualities and Effects of it.

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I. IT is the Nature of Fire to burn and confume those Things which are the proper Fewel to it. Thus when the Holy Spirit enters into the Soul of a Man, and becomes the reigning and governing

Principle

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