ferent Significations, and are used to quite different Purposes, tho' common Readers make no Distinction between them. I will give you a fhort Account of each of them, the rather, becaufe hereby we may rectify fome popular Miftakes in these Matters.

1. And first as to that Phrafe of refifting the Spirit, fo far as we can judge of the Senfe of it by the Context, it is fpoke with respect to those who wickedly oppofe the Truth of God, when it is declared to them. They are faid to refift the Holy Ghoft, who obftinately ftand out against those Means that the Spirit of God makes Ufe of for the converting them to the true Religion. Thus St. Stephen, in the feventh of the As, tells v. 51. the unbelieving Jews, Ye fiiff-necked, fays he, and uncircumcifed in Heart and Ears, ye do always refift the Holy Ghoft; as your Fathers did, fo do ye. How was it now that their Fathers refifted the Holy Ghoft? Why that we may learn from what follows: They perfecuted and flew the Prophets whom God fent to them from Time to Time to declare his Will to them. And how was it that they, the Children, viz. the prefent Generation, refifted the Holy Ghoft? Why in that, notwithstanding the powerful Miracles that Jefus Chrift and his Apoftles wrought among them by the Spirit, they fill continued Infidels and Oppofers of the Gofpel: This was their refifting the Spirit: From whence we may gather, that it is not every VOL. V. Dif

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Difobedience or Non-compliance with a good Motion that is made in our Souls, that may be called a refifting of the Spirit: But it must be a wilful, perverfe, obftinate oppofing of God's Truth that doth deferve that Name.

2. In the fecond Place, as for blafpheming or fpeaking against the Holy Ghoft, that is a Degree higher than this, for it implies not only the not being convinced by the Miracles that were wrought for the Proof of Christ's Religion; but further, by flandering or calumniating the Spirit by which they were wrought, faying, That he was Mark 3. not the Spirit of God, but Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils. This was the Sin of the Pharifees, and it appeared fo heinous in the Eyes of our Saviour, that he declares, that whofoever shall blafpheme against the 29, 30. Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal Damnation, because they faid he hath an unclean Spirit. So that without doubt that famous Sin, which we call the Sin against the Holy Ghost, and which is looked upon as unpardonable, is nothing else but our attributing the Miracles of Chrift to the Power of the Devil. From whence we may judge whether any of thofe People among us, who are apt to fancy they have committed that Sin, can poffibly be guilty of it.

Mark 3.

3. As to the Phrafe of quenching the Spirit, we meet with it among the Precepts

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and Advices that St. Paul gives to the Thef falonians: Quench not the Spirit, defpife not Ep.1.c.5. Prophecyings. It is plain he fpeaks this of v.19. those who were already Chriftians; but yet not with respect to the fanctifying Gifts of the Spirit of God, which all Chriftians were Partakers of, but with refpect to the extraordinary miraculous Effufions of the Spirit, which were given to fome Christians in those Days. The Meaning of the Precept is, that they who had thefe extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit conferr'd upon them, fhould be very careful that they did not lose them, that they did not die in them. He useth this Term of quenching, because the Holy Spirit is in Scripture called a Fire; and when he came upon the Apoftles, he came in the Likeness of Fire. And accordingly, as he here talks of quenching the Spirit, fo he elsewhere speaks of firring up the Spirit; 2 Tim. 1 alluding in both Expreffions to the Notion of Fire Certain it is, as a Fire must be ftirred up and recruited, otherwife it will in a little Time be extinguish'd, fo it was with thofe extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit in thofe Days. The Men that had them were concerned to be wonderfully careful in the Exercise of them; never to let them lie idle and unemployed in their Hands; nor to make use of them to any selfish worldly Purpose. It concerned them likewife to be frequent in Prayer; to be ftrict and severe in their Lives; to mind the Caufe of God. above

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above all Things, otherwife God would withdraw thofe Affiftances of the Spirit from them. The Spirit would perfectly be extinguifhed in them, and they wholly lofe 'the Power of working Miracles, and speaking Languages, which before they were endowed with. This is the Meaning of quenching the Spirit; which being fo, we cannot but take Notice how impertinently this Phrase is used by a great many in our Days. A Man that addreffes himself to God in a Form of Prayer, and doth not use his extemporary Faculty, is, by fome Sort of People among us, faid to quench the Spirit. But certainly this is quite wide of the Expreffion as St. Paul used it; unless we could make it appear, that every one who talks to God in a fudden extemporary Way, without Premeditation, was fupernaturally and immediately infpired from Heaven fo to do, and was as much acted by the Divine Spirit as the Apoftles were in their miraculous Performances; which, for my Part, I think it a hard Matter to believe of any Pretenders to Infpiration among us.

4. As for the last Phrafe, that of grieving the Spirit, which we here meet with in my Text, I come now in the last place to confider it. And I conceive that this Phrafe is not used with respect to those who are Infidels, as the Terms of refifting the Spirit, and blafpheming the Spirit, are used; nor with refpect to the miraculous extraordinary

Effects,

Effects, which were vifible in many Places and Perfons in the first Times of Chriftianity; which the Term of quenching the Spirit doth refer to; but it is a Precept given to those who have already taken the Profeffion of Chriftianity upon themselves; and it is spoken with refpect to the fanctifying Gifts and Graces of the Spirit, viz. thofe Communications of the Spirit which were not peculiar to the first Times, but common to all Believers to the World's End. The Spirit of God is here confidered as a Guest that hath taken up his Lodging in our Hearts; at leaft, as one that defires to be our Gueft; as having acquired a Right and Title to us, by virtue of the Contract and Covenant we made with God in our Baptifm, and undertaking the Vows of Chriftianity. And under this Notion of a Guest or Lodger we are bound not to grieve him, not to afflict him, or make him fad (for fo the Original un λven fignifies) Ne contriftate Spiritum, fays the Vulgar Latin very properly. That is, to be careful that we give him no Offence, not to do any Thing that fhall difplease him, or by any unkind Ufage of ours make him weary of his Habitation, and give him Occafion to remove from us. His Meaning is for evermore to dwell with us; as indeed he is the very Principle of the Life of a Chriftian, and we cannot live as Chriftians without him. It is not more neceffary to the conftituting

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