2dly. What your condition and circumftances will be, if you fhall be fo unhappy as to drive that Holy Spirit from you.

3dly. I will fhew you what those things are which do most offend and grieve him.

Laftly; I will propofe to you a method of living, which will, by God's good bleffing, fecure you of his favour, and bring you to heaven.

I. And, firft, What your condition is while you continue under the government and protection of God's Holy Spirit.

Now, while you continue in covenant with God, you are reconciled to him by the death of bss fon. This frees the mind from fear of future evils. You are under his immediate protection; no temptation shall so far get the dominion over you as to feparate you from Chrift. If (as the apoftle fpeaks) God has fent his Spirit into your hearts, whereby you may call upon God as a father, then you know how tenderly concerned a father is for the welfare of his children. And these expreffions are made ufe of in the holy fcriptures to give us apprehenfions of God's favourable concern for his children and fervants.

To be more particular:

While you continue under the government of God, you are fecure from the danger of the great enemy of mankind, the devil, whose power, when God permits him to make use of it, is much greater than is generally thought

⚫ Rom. v. 1o.

of.

of. He did once get leave from God to try his force with Job, and you fee what a number of calamities fell upon the head of that good man.

And another inftance in the New Testament we have, which may convince us of the great power of the devil when he is let loofe to do what he pleafes: Two thousand swine were by him at once choaked in the fea, when Chrift permitted it fo to be; which being a fingle instance of any of our Saviour's miracles which were attended with fuch a seeming damage, it is most likely it was to convince the world of the great power of the devil to hurt the creatures of God, when God permits him fo to do, for the punishment of perverse mankind.

And now, pray confider, what a bleffing it is to be affured, that this enemy, with all his power, cannot injure you; and injure you he cannot, while the Holy Spirit of God governs you. He may tempt you to fin, and he may tempt others to feduce you, but then you may be at cafe with this fcripture in your heart; Greater is be that is in you, (that is, the Holy Spirit) than be that is in the world; that is, the devil,

And this brings us to confider another great advantage which the earneft of God's Spirit fecures to you. Man is born to trouble, as the fparks fly upward. Afflictions, diftempers of body and mind, great crosses, una

voidable

voidable calamities, befal all forts of men.This is an obfervation made by Solomon: for in that fenfe his words are; No man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before them. But though afflictions happen to all, yet they have a very different effect upon men, as they light upon the righteous or the wicked.

When afflictions and troubles befal a man whose heart is governed by the Spirit of God, they are so far from being a burthen to him, that he receives them thankfully, calls them a fatherly correction, is confident that they are defigned for his good, bears them therefore with patience, and grows better, and is really a gainer, by what the world calls misfortunes.

On the other hand; where the Spirit of God is abfent, when afflictions feize men, they are impatient, and fuffer more by that than by the calamity which caufed it; they afcribe all they fuffer to the malice of men, or to an ill-governed nature, or to chance, or to any thing but the true caufe; and, after all their fufferings, they are not one jot the better for what they have undergone.

Let any man judge whether of these two

have the better of it.

Laftly; The Spirit of God which is given you, has this happy effect upon you; you are hereby fealed unto the day of redemption; that is, to eternal happiness. You are not put into immediate poffeffion of heaven; but

Ecclef. ix. 1.

if

if the Holy Spirit dwell in your hearts, you are, fo long, as fure of heaven as thofe that are actually there. But then every man that has this hope purifies himself, keeps himself unfpotted from the world, and grieves not the Holy Spirit fo long, till he is forced to forfake his charge.

your con

II. And this brings us to the fecond particular, which was to confider, What dition will be if you should be fo unhappy as to grieve and drive that Holy Spirit from you. If I fhould only tell you, that then you will be left to yourselves, even that is a moft dreadful condition.

We look upon it as a great misfortune, when a young man who is born to a plentiful eftate comes to it, and is mafter of himself, before he has experience to govern either the one or the other; and we judge truly, and it happens accordingly, that an eftate to such a man is rather a curfe than a bleffing.

But fure, to be left to one's felf in a fpiritual sense, is a much greater misfortune, as much greater, as the foul is more valuable than the body or an eftate: And therefore every wife man heartily begs of God, Leave me not in the hands of my own counsel.

But though this is bad enough, yet this is not the worst of it. For when the Spirit of God forfakes us, the enemy of mankind takes the government of us; and then we fhall foon change our thoughts of things, our defires,

our

our actions; what afore-time we difliked, we fhall now esteem; what we had no inclination to, we shall now eagerly covet; and those actions which we have often condemned in others, we shall be guilty of ourselves.

That this is really true, and that fuch changes as these will certainly happen in every one of you, who fhall be fo unfortunate as to grieve the Holy Spirit fo long till he forfakes you; you may learn from what happens almost every day.

Do not you fee people that have been bred up in the Chriftian religion, and for some time have lived like orderly profeffors of christianity; do not you fee them become as careless as if there were neither religion, nor God, nor heaven, nor hell? Others become as much in love with wickedness as if they had had masters to have taught them.

Do you not fee people of the fame church, under the fame paftors and teachers, having the fame advantages of learning and parts, and yet fome live orderly and like good Chriftians, and others run wild, as if they had been bred amongst infidels?

What is the reafon of these strange differences? Why plainly this:-Those that suffer themselves to be governed by the Spirit of God, that continue to fear God, continue to be the children of God, and his fpirit watches over them for good; and they that drive him

away