to quit his Hold after we have peaceably admitted him and tasted the Comforts of his Presence The Refusal is the Injury the Sin of Obstinacy the Exclusion that of Contempt Two most execrable Crimes and high Provocations the Apostle admonishes us to be aware of and to enforce his Admonition shall make the Two Parts of this Discourse First The Refusal to admit him by which I do not understand as if he were locally distant or absent from the Heart of Man for he is essentially every where by the Immensity of his Nature and as necessarily in the Heart of a Sinner as in that of a Saint because in him we live we move and have our being But this Distance implies only a Moral Separation consisting in the privation of Grace by which he resides and dwells in us after a peculiar and more excellent manner But no sooner do we consent to a Mortal Sin than we violently thrust him out of doors and dispossess him of this latter and better kind of Inhabitation while he like an unwearied Lover returns as calmly as if it were his first Approach as if he had never been expuls'd and courts the Soul with such melting Expressions as would reduce any Heart but that of a Sinner for it is not a peculiar Dialect to his Beloved in the Canticles but his common Language to every revolted Heart Aperi mihi soror mea sponsa mea Cant. 5.2 Open to me my Sister my Spouse Prodigious The unfaithful Servant he calls Sister the Traytor and Rebel he vouchsafes to call his Spouse to put her in mind of what she was before she lost her Honor and forfeited those glorious Titles which he continues to give her that he may provoke her to Repentance that he may restore her Innocence These Instances or knocking at the door as the Holy Spirit styles them himself in the Revelations in the Council of Trent he calls the Motions of Grace nondum inhabitantis that has not yet procur'd entrance but is laying Siege to the Gates and trying all the Avenues and Passages to get in Such is the State Beloved Christians to which most of us have reduc'd the Holy Ghost we shut our Hearts upon him and while there is a Passion within to gratifie a Concupiscence to indulge we are insensible to his Impulses and deaf to his Voice and has not he reason to be offended and griev'd at such a Treatment If we may gather the vehemency of his Affection from his earnest Desires and passionate Sollicitations to be admitted we may guess at the Malice and Impiety of our Refusal by his so deeply resenting it that God who is Charity the God of all Consolation is oblig'd to treat with the Sword in his Hand to change his Entreaties into Menaces and threaten Punishments where he promis'd Rewards Wherefore says a Learned Writer his Eternal Wisdom could invent no Emblem so proper and so expressive of his ardent Desires to penetrate into the Heart of Man as that of a Tongue and Fire both piercing both irresistible but in several kinds to signifie that he will leave no Method untry'd no way unattempted if the more gentle Assaults of the Tongue Promises Endearments Expostulations and Persuasions cannot prevail he will set upon us with all the Flames of his Indignation and eternal Ardors of his Divine Nature Dominus Deus tuus ignis consumens est Deut. 4.14 Your God is a consuming Fire in comparison of which the Fury and Rage of our Elementary is but a glaring and harmless Vapor the destroying and penetrating Lightning but a gentle and cooling Blast the rending and dreadful Thunder is but a friendly Address and soft Embrace But thy God is a consuming Fire that is Heb. 4.12 in the Apostle's Exposition The Word of God or the Holy Ghost speaking in our Hearts is quick and powerful sharper than a two-edg'd Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and is a discerner an avenger of the thoughts and intents of the Heart for all things are naked to and easily conquer'd by his Eyes Et interficiet impium Spiritu oris sui illustratione adventus sui 2 Thes 2.8 says he elsewhere if he cannot destroy the Wickedness of the Man with the Breath of his victorious Grace he will destroy the wicked Man with the Glory of his Presence and Terror of his Approaches But this Attempt of the Holy Ghost to reduce a stubborn Heart is not to be understood of Force or Constraint for he do's not desire to possess it by Necessity but by Submission he comes upon it in spiritu vehementi with Vehemence but not with Violence which takes away our Liberty for he esteems it the greatest Victory to make us yield while we remain able to resist He has a tender Compassion for the most rebellious Sinner and in despite of all Provocations Acts of Hostility and defacing the Beauty of a Heart he had been so long adorning the Print of his Finger still remaining upon the Creature and the indelible Character of his Sacrament upon the Christian he acknowledges the Work of his Hands he remembers it was his Temple he endeavors to repair the Ruins and consecrate it again with his Presence To obtain which desir'd End he do's not think it either beneath his Majesty or derogatory to his Power to capitulate with the Soul whose concurring Assent is requisite to her own Happiness to sue to her to use Sollicitations and Persuasions according to the Sense the Master of our Schools and other Divines give to the Words of St. Paul Postulat pro nobis Rom. 8.26 he asks not only for us but also of us to be readmitted into our Hearts ubique petit ab omnibus recipi says the Angelical Doctor comparing this Divine Lover to the Sun who not only offers his Light to the Eyes of all the World but also darts it upon them and with the Points of his Rays sollicits them to open and let in the Day Petit ab omnibus recipi From whence I make two Inferences worthy your serious Consideration The first That the greatest exterior Glory the Holy Ghost is capable of the only Joy he takes ad extra out of himself is to find us yielding to his Desires acquiescing to his Motions and re-entring into the State of Grace The second That a Refusal on this occasion irritates him to the highest degree and of its own nature is such a Subject of Grief as a loving Parent feels when he sees himself disrespected and injur'd by an ungrateful and disobedient Child He is not only troubled at his Miscarriages but is far more afflicted that he is oblig'd to punish him for them foreseeing that his Disobedience will bring him to an unhappy End In like manner the Holy Ghost is said to grieve when we not only abuse his Patience contemn his Love and reject his Comforts but also draw upon our Heads
his just Severity while he foresees the Punishment he is going to inflict upon his Children will not amend them for the Crime is irremissible the Punishment is unavoidable the Crime a Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Matt. 12.31 and the Punishment never to repent of it non remittetur Indeed Divines are much perplex'd and can hardly agree in what this Blasphemy consists which so much exasperates the Spirit of God and turns the Meekness of the Dove into the implacable Fury of the Lion St. Augustin whose Judgment is of greatest weight supposes it to be final Impenitency as being the last and at the same time the Punishment of all other Crimes 'T is a Punishment and the severest of Punishments because a dereliction of God 'T is a Sin or a Circumstance of Sin because it renders all the preceding unpardonable But how come we to plunge into this bottomless Abyss of Misery unless by refusing Grace when it is offer'd us There is the Crime and are not we justly sentenc'd to it for our so long continu'd Resistances against the Divine Impulses so frequent Contempts of Calls from Heaven in Sermons Advices Examples Duties of Piety Occasions of Charity presented to us good Books put into our Hands Remorses started in our Consciences Convictions rising in our Understanding and holy Desires breath'd into our Hearts There 's the Punishment And what more just than that our own Measures should be turn'd against us that there should be a resemblance between the Chastisement and the Offence as Contempt was the Crime so Contempt should be the Condemnation The Sinner contemns God and God revenges himself by contemning him the usual proceeding of slighted Love qui spernis Isa 33.1 nonne ipse sperneris He applies his Mercy in quality of a Physician to heal the Soul but sometimes he must in like manner exercise his Justice by giving her over when her State is desperate Jer. 51.9 Curavimus Babylonem non est sanata To cure thee O wretched Creature to whom a Life spent in Disorders and Confusion has merited the Style of Babylon to cure thee I have apply'd all my healing Graces comforting Inspirations and sovereign Restoratives neither Oyl nor Wine neither gentler nor sharper Remedies neither Prosperity nor Persecution have been wanting to thy Wounds sed non est sanata but thou art not because thou wilt not be cured Derelinquamus eam thou art past recovery I will leave thee to the Cogitations of thy own Heart in manu consilii tui I will visit thee no more I will call thee no more I will quite forget thee I will not so much as be angry with thee any more auferetur zelus meus à te Ezech. 16.42 quiescam nec irascar amplius Now tell me Christian if such as refuse to give the Holy Ghost entrance into their Hearts so heavily contristate him how grievously do they offend who thrust him violently out of their Hearts after they had readily open'd the Gates to him receiv'd him honourably treated him friendly and reciprocally receiv'd unspeakable Instances of his Affection This is the next thing I have to consider Be pleas'd to accompany me with your Hearts as well as with your Attention Whether to be repuls'd from the Heart of Man or expuls'd out of it be the greater Affront to the Holy Ghost and the more deserving Subject of his Displeasure may be a question in the Theory and is discuss'd by Divines but I suppose in the Practice an indifferent Judgment may determine For as right Reason esteems it an Injury of a higher nature and far more provoking to treat a Man ill in his Presence than in his absence because it adds the greatest Impudence to the Indignity so the first Crime a Person in the State of Grace commits becomes incomparably more injurious by that Circumstance I might inforce this with the ordinary Topick of Ingratitude which stains it still deeper But I pass by these Two Reasons so considerable had I time to urge them to come to a Third drawn from the Injury God suffers upon the account he is chas'd from a Place he held by so full and undisputed a Possession and which belongs to him by an unquestionable Tenure and so many warrantable Titles Elegit Israel in possessionem sibi Psal 134.4 He has chosen Israel for his possession says the Royal Advocate of Heaven Now do we find our selves so nearly touch'd and so vehemently exasperated when an Intruder comes to thrust us out of doors and seise on our Inheritance and shall we allow no Resentment to the Holy Spirit when he is wrongfully and contumeliously ejected out of his Habitation for he dwells in the midst of us out of his Temple for you are the Temples of the Holy Ghost out of his Empire for the Kingdom of God is within you out of the Seat of his Pleasure for his Delights are to be with the Sons of Men Do we not suffer any one to dispute our Right to what we have made with our own Hands Such is the Heart of Man to the Holy Ghost Do we not account it as abfurd as impudent to demand whether the thing be ours which we have bought Such is the Heart of Man to the Holy Ghost Do's not a long Prescription justifie a Tenure and long Possession create a Title Such is the Holy Ghosts to the Heart of Man For he lays claim to it not only because he is the Spirit of God the Father who created us of God the Son who redeem'd us but also because he has Rights to us peculiar to himself by the Love he bears us by the sanctifying Grace he has bestow'd upon us This is what the Apostle seems to point at when immediately after he had exhorted the Ephesians in the words of my Text not to grieve the Holy Spirit he adds for a Reason in quo signati estis because you are seal'd by him because you have receiv'd his Character as Men use to imprint their Arms or Mark upon such things they esteem most precious and would not have usurped or violated by any foreign Hand Signati estis The Holy Ghost impresses himself upon our Hearts in every Sacrament I shall instance only in two Baptism and Penance In Baptism he imprints such a Character upon the Soul as neither Time nor Eternity can deface neither Violence nor Sin can raze out for since nothing is destroy'd but by its Contrary the Characteristical Form must be indelible says the Master of our Schools as having nothing contrary to it self The Sacrament of Penance leaves not indeed such an immortal Impress behind it but plains out all the Tracts of Sin and imprints upon the Level an habitual Love which is the Seal of the Spirit and which our Blessed Saviour makes a distinctive Character between his Friends and his Enemies In quo signati estis we are mark'd as his Living Temples according to the Custom of all Religions that
ingrave on the Frontispiece of their Temples or in the most eminent Part of them Hieroglyphicks of the Divinity they adore And do you not know says the Apostle that you are the Temples of the Living God Your Heart is the Sanctuary where the Father is worshipp'd in Spirit and Truth Charity is the Priest Faith and Hope are the Assistants Penance and Prayer are the Sacrifices And tell me now ungrateful Christian after so full so free so long and solemn a Possession to be turn'd out all on a sudden in a moment as soon as a Mortal Sin can be committed and this to make way for his mortal Enemy to be sold for the fulsom Pleasures of this World for a Lust or an Ambition to be exchang'd for the amusing Trifles Vanities and Riches is it not the highest Injustice and most foul and abominable Sacrilege An Injustice because you prodigally cast away what belongs to another Non estis vestri Do not think you have power to ruine your selves or that you wrong no Body but your selves 't is a vulgar Saying and a vulgar Mistake You are not your own A Sacrilege because you rob the Temple of the Holy Ghost where he had treasur'd up the Riches of his Goodness where he had made the Repository of his Graces Is it strange then he conceives so high a displeasure at such ill Usage that he breaths out such lamentable Complaints by the Mouth of the Prophet Afflixerunt Spiritum Sancti ejus Isa 63.10 They have afflicted his Holy Spirit they have griev'd his very Soul not only for the Injustice not only for the Sacrilege nor only for the Expulsion but much more for the aggravating Circumstance the Contempt For tho' every Sin be injurious to the Holy Ghost and of what nature soever involves a Contempt of his Divinity by disobeying his Commands an undervaluing his Person by banishing him our Company and a scorn of his Gifts by casting them from us yet every considering Man will grant the first Capital Offence a sanctified Soul commits is big with a particular Contempt and Slighting of the Divine Spirit because it not only thrusts him out of his Possession but do's it to introduce the Spirit of Pride of Luxury of Ambition of Covetousness and the like in his place By which the Sinner declares that he sets a lower Value on Jesus Christ than the most trivial Satisfaction of the World For whether he makes a distinct Reflection on it or no it is certain he virtually compares the Good Spirit which is in possession of his Heart with the Evil one which is solliciting admittance and by consenting to Sin he declares his Judgment and shews which is preferable in his esteem There is no sort of Contempt like that of Comparison which not only despises a Man but to increase the Confusion and Affront first sets another in competition with him and then gives that other the advantage over him Which Proceeding tho' ever odious in two Cases is most abominable in the Rights of Sovereignty and in the Interests of Love If a People should depose their Prince they would commit the foulest the most unjust and most unchristian Action in the World but if they stop there 't is only an absolute Contempt But if the giddy Multitude proceed to a new Election and put up the mortal Enemy of their Lawful Sovereign then 't is a Contempt of Comparison If a Wife suffer that Conjugal Affection to die which Nature and Religion oblige her to cherish towards her Husband 't is a horrible Injury 't is a Contempt for there can be no Indifferency in that Case But if she turn her Affections upon a Stranger the sworn Enemy of her Lawful Spouse such a Preference heightens the Affront beyond all that can be express'd beyond all comparison and chases Anger into Desparation and Fury Now what Resentment Passion raises in Men Justice kindles in the Holy Ghost for he enters a Soul in both these Qualities as Sovereign to make it the Seat of his Empire regnum Dei intra vos est and as a Spouse to contract with it the nearest and most sacred Alliance Sponsabo te mihi in sempiteruum Yet every idle Pretender every rebellious Appetite or unruly Passion is admitted to dispute his Title while the Owner is forc'd to plead his Right before a corrupted Judge the Free-will of Man while the Heart an unfaithful Spouse is not only consenting to his Banishment but also before his Face abandons her self into the Embraces of a foul Adulterer the profess'd Enemy of her rightful Lord preferring the momentary Pleasures of this World before the eternal Caresses of his Favour But he bewailing her Loss more than his own when the losing of him is indeed the losing her self follows her with the Tears and unspeakable Groans of her Mother the Church begs of her to return more to her self than to him Redite peccatores ad cor and is contristated that she will neither believe nor prevent her endless and unconsolable Sorrow Si cognovisses tu And what do you now expect Christians but that to close up this Discourse I joyn my Voice to that of the Holy Ghost and become his Advocate who pleads for himself to your Heart and that I beg of you once with my Lips what he do's every moment by his Grace Nolite contristare For his and your own sake have pity upon your own Souls and cease to grieve the Holy Ghost 1. If you have not yet given him entrance by a faithful Obedience to his Call hear his Voice even this day harden your Hearts no longer put an end to your Reluctances and Resistance There are but two Wills concern'd in your Conversion but two Consents requir'd to the thoro ' Amendment of your Life the Holy Ghost's and your own And I hope from what I have discours'd you are very well satisfied that the Holy Ghost wishes nothing so earnestly desires nothing so passionately demands nothing so instantly And do you deliberate upon the matter Do you entertain the Motion so coldly Is your Salvation in your own Hands and you stand demurring whether you shall accept of it Is that freely offer'd you which you ought to have su'd for with flaming Sighs and unexpressible Groans gemitibus inenarrabilibus Is it not Crime enough to have hitherto resisted his Inspirations stopp'd your Ears against his Calls rejected his Counsels and trampl'd upon his Commandments Will you continue in Rebellion till there is no Mercy left for you Will you seal up your Ears till the Invitation is past Will you not render to his Counsels till it be too late nor acknowledge his Commandments till you are lost for ever Will you send back his comfortable Venite's Come to me with the Language of the wicked Recede à nobis Depart from us and force him to that bitter Retaliation Recedite à me Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire And this you do while you continue to neglect his repeated Instances and Calls for a continu'd Neglect is a Contempt and a Contempt of the Holy Ghost is that Basphemy which pronounces Sentence upon it self the fatal Recede à nobis Depart from us for ever Yes hard-hearted Sinner cruel to thy self and to thy God God will obey the Voice of Man who would never hearken to the Voice of God he will depart from thee for ever For the Scripture often warns us that there is a certain number of Sins which fill'd up chase him away irrevocably that there is a certain number of Calls which being rejected You shall call says he and I will not hear and there is a certain number of Graces summ'd up and recorded by the Hand of Justice after which no more are given or at least so imperfect and weak as they leave the Soul in a moral impossibility to break her Chains or shake off her evil Habits Perhaps this is the last Opportunity shall ever be presented you perhaps this is the last time you shall ever hear the Holy Ghost speaking to your Hearts the last and peremptory Term of Grace beyond which it shall never be extended and on acceptance of which depends your eternal Predestination or Reprobation Perhaps this is your last Pentecost and remember you are warn'd that he who appear'd to day in the shape of Fiery Tongues to express how ardently he desires your Conversion will one day appear in that terrifying Posture the Prophets beheld him when a flaming Sword issu'd from his Mouth Death and Destruction walked before him a Torrent of Fire stream'd from his enrag'd Countenance and flaming Eyes to consume his Enemies 2. But above all you that have already receiv'd the Holy Ghost Nolite contristare do not grieve him do not extinguish those Divine Flames he has rais'd in your Hearts Consider what a Happiness it is to be his Temple give him not the displeasure to see himself chas'd from that Place whence his Access had chas'd so many evil and tyrannical Spirits and where he desires to dwell in this Life by his Grace that we may dwell for ever in his Glory Which I beseech c. FINIS