TWO SERMONS Preached before the Queen-Dowager IN HER MAJESTY's CHAPEL AT .  
By the Reverend Father Dom. PHIL. ELLIS, Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congr. Preacher and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTY'S.  
Published by Her Majesty's Command.  
LONDON, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty for His Household and Chapel. 1686.   

A SERMON Preached before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER, On Easter-day, 1686.  Si consurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite. If you have risen again with Christ, seek those things which are above. 
INto this pathetic Exhortation the Apostle falls in his Epistle to the Colossians, ch. 3. v. 1. (Sacred Majesty): Into this seasonable Exhortation the Church breaks forth at the Entry of this Solemnity, in the first Mass, which we on the Vigil, the Primitive Christians celebrated at the first Point of the Natural Day. In these Words she communicates to her mourning Children the joyful News, that her Beloved was dead and is alive: Words which express not only the Reality, but also the Efficacy and Extent of our Lord's Resurrection; that the yearly Revolution of this Festival implies something more than our Blessed Master's glorious Rising from the Dead, that it carries us farther than a bare Memory of his Triumph, that it comprehends the Glory of the Members as well as of the Head, and celebrates our own Victory over Death, if indeed we are risen again with Christ.  
My Text therefore is an Argumentation founded upon two Suppositions; the one, of Faith; the other, touching Matter of Fact: Of Faith, That Christ is risen; the Fact, That we are actually risen with him; Si consurrexistis cum Christo. The one he supposes as a First Principle of our Religion, which falls not under dispute: The other needs a Confirmation, and is to be proved by something more evident than itself. The Proof of our Resurrection must be drawn from our diligent application to those things which are above (quae sursum sunt quaerite) or, as he expresses himself more clearly in the following Verse, from setting our affections on heavenly things (quae sursum sunt sapite); from leading a supernatural Life, and weaning of our Hearts from all that is below, & non quae super terram. But there can be no Resurrection to a New Life, unless by way of necessary Disposition there be a Death to the Old: To rise again therefore, we must first die; Death being the Medium or Boundary between these two Lives, this of the World, and the other according to God. For since they are incompatible, and, in some manner, contradictory, the one must cease to be, before the other can exist; and by consequence, the Presence of the one, must demonstrate the Destruction of the other. Wherefore, that we are risen again with Christ, is evinced by our being dead to the World; and this doubly proved; first, by the Affirmative, seeking those things which are above; and then by the Negative, not setting our affections on things below.  
My Text thus expounded, divides itself, and calls upon me to speak a Word to each of these Resurrections, that of Christ, and this of the Christian, which jointly compose the Subject of our present Joy, and consequently are the fittest Subject of the present Discourse, and of Your Royal and Favourable Attention. But when I reflect, that St. Ambrose, 
Ambr. lib. 3. de Virg. versus Med.  and after him the whole Current of Divines, piously suppose the Blessed Mother of our Lord first saw his Resurrection, both saw it first, and was the first who believed it; it being most agreeable to Reason, and a natural Consequence of Affection, that so loving a Parent should receive the first Visit from so loving a Son; that she who most eminently shared in the Pangs of his Death, when the Sword of Sorrow pierced her Heart, should taste the First-fruits of his returning to Life: Let us, before we proceed, beg her Intercession, that I may speak of this great Mystery as one who is risen again with Christ; and you attend unto my Words, as they who seek the things which are above. AVE MARIA.  

If you are risen again with Christ, seek the things which are above, etc.  
OF all the Mysteries of our Holy Religion, the Resurrection of Christ is the Principal; because it is the highest Proof of his Divinity, the greatest of his Miracles, the chiefest Instance of his Veracity, the Earnest of his Promises, and the Foundation of all our Hope. And upon this Consideration St. Ambrose calls it the Cornerstone and Basis of Faith, primum & maximum Fidei Fundamentum. His Conception and Nativity were but the remote Preparations to it; His Life and Doctrine, the Means; His Death and Passion, the immediate Dispositions: But his rising the third day according to the Flesh, was the ultimate End of his coming, as being the first in Intention, and the last in Execution. In this consists the Strength, the Meaning and Intent of the Apostle's Assertion, 
Rom. 4.25.  That Jesus Christ was delivered for our Sins, and rose again for our Justification. For, as the Church sings in the Office of Yesterday, Nihil nobis nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset. The Excellence of our Being had availed us nothing, if a Redemption had not restored us to the End of our Creation, forfeited by Sin; so a Redemption itself would not have answered our Necessities, if a Resurrection had not perfected and crowned the Work of our Justification.  
But as it naturally follows, the further the Consequence draws from the First Principle, the obscurer it grows; the deeper the Water is, the further we are from discerning the Bottom; the greater the Miracle, the less comprehensible: so we find the Mystery of the Resurrection to be the most profound, and consequently the most obscure and difficult of all our Credends. For how inexplicable soever the Heathen Philosophers judged the Immortality of the Soul, they could not deny but the Light of Nature discovered it to be reasonable: But all their Application, Enquiry, and force of Reason, fell so short of the Resurrection of the Body, that while they admitted the one, they derided the other as impossible, as chimerical, as the Dreams of Simple, or the Reveries of Frantic Men. Thus when St. Paul, Acts 17. had discoursed the Point to the most Learned of them, they called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Babbler, or Disperser of ridiculous Novelties; too others he seemed to be a setter forth of new Gods: And when he came to this Point in his Discourse on Mars-hill, before that celebrated Bench, high quidem irridebant, some mocked, ver. 32. Neither did Festus, when he had heard the same Apostle upon that Subject, conceive a better Opinion of him, than of a Madman, venting the wild Fancies of a disturbed Brain; Insanis Paul; Paul, thou talkest like one distracted. Nay, the Apostles themselves, after so many clear Predictions to prepare their Minds to the Belief of this Mystery, when the Women brought the Relation of Matter of Fact, that Christ was truly risen, putabant deliramenta quae dicebantur, thought they were , and fancied Apparitions, till they believed them. So hard is it for Reason to allow a Return from the Privation to the Habit, from Death to Life.  
Yet the Son of God proposing a Religion to Men, would have us act like Men, when we assent unto it. Indeed, to exercise our Humility, and to found a Merit in Believing, he requires our Assent to things above, but never contrary to Reason. And therefore to render our Service Reasonable, 
Rom. 12.1.  he has not left us destitute of Arguments to evince this dark and profound Mystery; such Arguments, as no Rational Person, without ceasing to be so, can reject; because they are sufficient, because they are the highest the Subject Matter will admit. And such are all those Apparitions recorded by the Four Evangelists, showing himself alive after his Passion, 
Acts 1.3.  in multis argumentis, says St. Luke, by many Arguments; or, as the Vulgar Translation has it, by many infallible Proofs; that is, unquestionable Instances; For in Matters of Fact, an Instance of the thing asserted, is the highest Proof, and that which found'st a Rational Conviction. Should we withhold our Assent, in expectation of a stronger Motive, we should never embrace any Revealed Truth, we should never credit any History or Account of things distant or past; because we should require a farther Evidence than the Thing proposed can afford, than the nature of Credibility can bear. And in this appears the Unreasonableness, and, at the bottom, the Infidelity of such as, under pretence of Wit or Precaution, before they will render to the Articles of Faith, call for the Evidence either of Demonstration or Sense, both which equally exclude Faith, which is, according to the Apostle, 
Heb. 11.1.  the Evidence, that is, a Conviction of the Being of such things as do not appear. Had these Modern Sadducees been present at the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord, they would certainly have remained as incredulous as the old, who even amidst Prodigies and Miracles asked for a Sign: For when their Eyes had been Witnesses to the Life of his Body, they must still have submitted to the Belief of his Divinity, which neither fell under the Verge of Sense, nor risen so high as Demonstration in this Case, tho' it created as great a Certainty as either, but from a less Evidence: And we that behold neither the one nor the other, are as much obliged in Reason to believe both, upon the Credit of the Apostles, the Testimony of the Scriptures, and of the Church which delivers them.  
Thus without entering the Monument with Peter and John; without any ocular Testimony, or so much as enquiring into a Possibility of a Resurrection, we are guarded from Error in our Belief; our Holy Faith is abundantly attested; the submission of our Understandings and the firmness of our Assent to this dark and inexplicable Mystery, are warranted to be a Reasonable Service. For the greater Obscurity of any one Article does leave no more place for doubt, than the Clearest Point of our Religion; since we do not believe This upon a different Evidence from the other, but both jointly upon the Attestation of such Works as never any one did, that is, 
John 15.24.  which could not be perpetrated by any Power less than Divine.  
Thus we find a sure footing for our Hope, knowing, that he who raised up our Lord Jesus, 
2 Cor. 4.14.  will also raise us up by Jesus; since the Resurrection of Jesus is not only the Meritorious Cause of ours, but also the Efficient and Exemplar. For, as the same Apostle argues, 
Philip. 3.21.  as we have born the Image of the Earthly, we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly. As he took our Nature upon him, and died to assimilate himself to us in a Mortal Condition; so he risen again, 
Philip. 3.21.  that he might reform our vile and corruptible Body, and render it like his own Glorious Body. By Dying, he merited our Resurrection; by Rising in Glory, he gave us a Pattern of our future Happiness; and by assuming us into a Participation of his Brightness and Immortality, he is the Cause Efficient of our Resurrection. This Consideration obviates all Questions which a limited Understanding might start as to the Possibility of it, and stops the Mouth of the Animal Man, who does not comprehend the Power of God; and of corrupt Nature, which is ever ready to speak perverse things. For, as it is evident, we made not ourselves, but, to find the Original of our Being, we must ascend to a First Cause, which could have nothing distinct from itself coexistent to itself: so is it clearly inferred, all things were made by him, and extracted out of a mere Nothing. 
Aug. Ser. 91. de Verb. Apost.  Now St. Augustin inquires, Which you take to be the greater Miracle, the commanding us to be and live out of Nothing, or the restoring us to Life, who already had a Being, tho' we ceased to live? Doubtless, replies he in the name of every reasonable Creature, it is more to make that which was not, than to repair that which was: Utique plus est facere quod nunquam fuit, quam reparare quod fuerit. And I ask you, adds the Father, why he cannot raise us after we are turned into Dust, who, if we were reduced into Nothing, could give us a Being?  
But, blessed be God, I stand not here at the Bar, to be called in question by you touching the Hope and Resurrection of the Dead. I appear in this Chair to preach the Faith you have already submitted to; for, so we preach, and so you have believed. I come here chief to declare to you the Extent of this Article of our Creed, how far it carries us, to what it does oblige us. How far it carries us, that we die to the old Life; To what it does oblige us, that we walk before him in newness of Life. For two things are required, says the Master of our Schools, to perfect the Justification of an Offender; the Remission of the Sin, and the Amendment of the Sinner. The Sin was blotted out by the effusion of Christ's precious Blood upon the Cross: The Amendment of our Lives was merited, was supposed, but not effected by his Resurrection. The Merits of his Death are applied to us in our Baptism, where we promise to enter upon a New Life; but this Promise is fulfilled by acting consequently to it. The Church answered for our Dying with Christ, before we were capable of knowing what we engaged for; but this Engagement is to be made good after we arrive to use of Reason, by approving ourselves to be a New Creature, in the suitable Conformity of our Lives, and seeking those things which are above: Your Attention, and my Second Part.  
IN the preceding Chapter of this Epistle to the Colossians, the Holy Apostle delivers an excellent Moral upon the Principal Mysteries of our Redemption, and shows how they are applied to us, and expressed in us; as, a spiritual Circumcision, 
Col. 2.10.11.12.  by putting off the Body of Sin, signified by the Circumcision of Christ; a dying and being buried with him in the Waters of Baptism, imported by the shedding his precious Blood, and laying his dead Body in the Monument; that we are quickened and revived together with him; and continues, Let no man judge you in part of the Holy Day; 

In parte diei festi.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   for so the vulgar Latin and the Greek have it, where the common Translation reads, in respect of the Holy Day. I know the sense of the Letter, according to the general Interpretation, is, Let no one condemn you for neglecting to observe the Jewish Festivals or Ceremonies. But some Expositors understand it to be spoken in a larger and more spiritual sense, and by way of Caveat, that we should not flatter ourselves as if we had performed the Obligations of this Day, for the purpose, by devoutly meditating upon the Resurrection of Christ, (which is only one Part of the present Solemnity) without proceeding to the other, to solemnize our own Rising again from the Death of Sin, which is the Second Part, the Fruit and End of the other. But whether you allow of this Interpretation or no, at least this is fidelis sermo, a faithful Saying, an unquestionable Truth, If we be dead with him, 
2 Tim. 2.11.  we shall also live with him. Die therefore we must, not only a natural Death, which is the Punishment of Sin, but also a spiritual one, which is the Death of Sin. We incurred the fatal Sentence of returning into Earth, by seeking those things which are upon Earth; we revive into a Spiritual Life, by seeking those things which are in Heaven. The one consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body; the other, in the Union of the Soul with Christ, 
2 Cor. 4.11.  that the Life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal Flesh, as the Apostle speaks; that our Conversation even in this World may be so pure, our Actions so spiritual, and our Affections so fixed upon things above, as to express a lively Similitude of our Lord's Resurrection.  
Wherefore the Holy Fathers observe a threefold Analogy or Resemblance between the Resurrection of Ch●●st, and that of a Christian. The first arises from the Cause of his Resurrection, which the Apostle tells us was the Operation of God, or the Omnipotent Hand of the Divinity reuniting the Blessed Soul of Jesus to his dead Body, and not permitting his Holy One to see Corruption. Thus a Soul once dead to God, can never by its own Strength, for it has none; by its own Endeavours or Performances, which are inanimate; or by the practice of Moral Virtues, which are dead in themselves, re-enter into the Life of Grace, without the merciful Assistance, miraculous Operation, and the Change of the Hand of the most High, whose sole Prerogative it is to command Light to shine out of Darkness, 
2 Cor. 4.6.  as well to repair what has once ceased to be, as to make what never was before. This is a Fundamental Truth, and as it were a First Principle of Christian Religion, delivered by Jesus Christ, declared and frequently urged by the Doctor of the Gentiles, and repeated by the Holy Ghost in many Councils, and at last in that of Trent; where it is decreed, 
Conc. Trid. Sess. 6. Can. 1. de Justificat.  to the condemnation of Modern Pelagianism, and to vindicate the Church's Doctrine from the Calumnies or Mistakes of those who still misrepresent it, That whosoever asserts, Man, by his own Works, perpetrated either by the Strength of Nature, or by the Assistance of the Law, may be justified without the Grace of God through Jesus Christ, Anathema, Let him be accursed. By declaring the Insufficiency of Nature to a Good and Justifying Life, she condemns those Men who think they may be saved by leading only a Moral Life, according to the Dictamen of Reason, without the Practice of Religion. By excluding the Old Law, she censures the Judaizing Christian, w●● places it in equal Balance with the New, or at least thinks this not sufficient, without the Observance of the other. And lastly, By establishing the Necessity of Grace to perform every Good and Virtuous Action, she warns us not to presume or rely upon our own Merits; she directs us whither we are to lift up our Eyes, whence we are to expect our Salvation; and points him out, who gives Birth to our good Desires, Warmth to our Affections, and Life to our Actions; both the Velle & Perficere, 
Philip. 2.13.  the Will to rise again, and the Execution of it, by seeking those things which are above.  
This is the Second Analogy of our Resurrection with that of Christ, the Proof and Experiment that we are risen from Death to Life. For as we cannot distinguish an Animate from an Inanimate Body, but by the Palpitation of the Heart, Pulse of the Artery, Heaving of the Lungs, or the Exercise of some sensible Faculty; so cannot we discern a Soul informed with the Life of Grace, from another which is deprived of it, but by such Operations as are proper to that Life, as the Restraint of our Appetites, a Command of our Passions, a Modesty in our Behaviour, a Veracity in our Words, a Sincerity in our Deal, a Relieving the Poor, assisting the Distressed, embracing and doing good to our Enemies. These are the Authentic Proofs of a Real Resurrection, and a lively Resemblance of Jesus Christ's Surrexit Dominus vere; Our Lord is truly risen. And how did he make it out he was truly risen? Multis Argumentis, says St. Luke, By many Arguments, many infallible Proofs. And wherein did these consist, but in appearing often to his Disciples, showing the Marks of his Death, eating and drinking in their Presence, 
Acts 1.3.  and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. In like manner, 
Matth. 5.16.  if our light so shine before men, that they see our good works, we express the Resemblance of a Glorified Body, Donum Claritatis. 
2 Cor. 4.10.  If we carry about the Mortification of Jesus in our Bodies, we copy out the Marks and Stigmata of his Passion. If we stand firm and unshaken in the midst of Persecution, we become a lively Representation of his Impassibility, Donum Impassibilitatis. 
Psal. 118.32.  If we run with delight the way of his Commandments, when Charity has enlarged our Hearts, and even the Lets and Impediments we meet with in the Service of God are so far from retarding the Course of our Virtue, that, on the contrary, they inflame our Zeal, and furnish new Matter to provoke and heighten our Courage, we imitate the Third Quality of his Glorified Body, Donum Agilitatis. In fine, If whether we eat or drink, 
1 Cor. 10.31.  or whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God, as the Apostle advises; if our Discourses and Familiar Entertainments savour of those things which are above, and, at least indirectly, appertain to the kingdom of God, these are Arguments we are truly risen with Christ, being of their own nature such Proofs of a Spiritual Life, of a Spiritual Resurrection from the Death of Sin, as the Exercise of the Animal Functions and Rational Powers are a Demonstration of the Continuance or Reviviscence of the Natural.  

2 Cor. 11.23.  We read, That the Spirit of Darkness sometimes transfigures himself into an Angel of Light; sometimes takes a Body of Air, which the deluded Sense cannot distinguish from a Solid and Real one; and sometimes as Artfully moves a Solid, but Dead Body, as if it were Alive. Both Sacred and Profane History offer innumerable Proofs of these Slights of Satan: I shall instance only in the Second, which is most for my purpose. 
1 Sam. 28.15  Thus the Witch of Endor is said in the First of Kings to have raised Samuel, whose own Words seem to prove it a real Resurrection; Quare inquietasti me ut suscitarer? Why hast thou disquieted me to raise me up? Yet St. Augustin assures us, Samuel did not rise again in his own, but only in a fictitious and imaginary, or at most in an aereal Body. And through these Slights and Delusions of Satan it happens that many seem to rise again with Christ, who in effect rise only with Samuel. If we regard their Promises and Protestations, Sin shall never reign any more in their mortal Body; their Eyes are opened to see and bewail their past Transgressions; they have recovered their Speech, to declare at the Feet of their Confessor those vicious Habits and secret Crimes which so long had been locked up in Silence, and lay putrifying in their Breasts; at the Voice of Christ they issue like so many Lazarus' from their Monuments, and run to embrace their Life in the Holy Communion. And after all this, who can doubt but their Resurrection is real, and they are truly risen again with Christ? But if you keep your Eye a little upon them, you shall see them still playing about the Flames which had scorched them before; you shall see them frequenting the same licentious Company which gave them their Death, wantoning upon the same Brink of the Precipice whence they so lately fell; like Ghosts, still hover about their Graves and Places of Burial; in fine, not advanced one step farther off the imminent Dangers and immediate Occasions of Sin. And after all this, who can doubt but their Resurrection was only in the Air, imaginary, or Fictitious, a Stratagem of the Devil to delude them, and to amuse their Confessors; while St. Paul's Declaration touching the State of the Widow, is verified in every Soul, She that liveth in pleasures, 
1 Tim. 5.6.  is dead while she liveth.  
Haec praecipe, says the Great Apostle; teach, command, urge, and inculeate this Doctrine. For the Resurrection of a Soul, cries St. Bernard, is not so easy a thing as you imagine, it is a great and wonderful Sacrament, magnum prorsus & mirabile Sacramentum animae suscitatio: Great in reference to the Power of God; and Wonderful as to the Disposition requisite in the Sinner. To break the Triple Cord of a threefold Concupiscence; to destroy all vicious Habits Root and Branch; to lay violent Hands upon our own Hearts, and tear from our Breasts what is as dear to us as Life, and almost as deeply engrafted as Nature; to turn the Stream of our Affections, to hate our own Souls, which we so tenderly cherish and indulge; to love and embrace a Penitential Life, of which we have so great an abhorrence, to which we carry such a strange aversion and antipathy: Ah! Christian, this is not the work of a few Hours Recollection; this is not the Fruit of a few superficial Tears, which dry and vanish as they fall; this is not the Effect of a Sigh, which passes with the Wind; or of a hasty Resolution, which is forgot almost as soon as made; this is not the Violence that takes Heaven, which does not yield upon every faint or false Attack. These indeed are Circumstances which ever attend a true Resurrection; but they are not infallible Proofs: They are common to a Real and a Fictitious one: They may be indeed the first Dawnings of a New Life, but are too often only a gaudy Spectre, a mere outside, and an amusing Apparition, So true is that terrible Assertion of the Holy Bishop of Barcelona, 
S. Pacian. Ep. 3. ad Synphr.  Paucorum est labor qui vere resurgunt, Few there are who truly rise again, because few will take the pains to extricate themselves from the Snares of Sin, and remove every Occasion, as far as in them lies, of relapsing into it, after the Example of the Holy King Josias, 
2 Kings 23.  who not only broke down the Idols, banished the Artificers, demolished the Altars, but also cut down the Groves, to efface even the Memory of Idolatry, lest the Convenience of committing the same Crime might be an Invitation to commit it. Yet this work of estranging ourselves from the Dangers of Sin, tho' attended with so many Difficulties, is but a remote disposition to a Spiritual Resurrection, a removens prohibens; there are others and nearer required, not only to the Introducing, but also to the Nourishment and Preservation of the New Life.  
This is the Third Analogy the Holy Fathers observe between the Resurrection of Christ and that of a Christian, viz. the Duration and Perpetuity of it, intimated by the Apostle, when he tells us, Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more. 
Rom. 6.9.  By which words, not only a feigned, but also a failing Repentance is struck out of the Book of Life. And this Admonition is particularly addressed to you of the Household of Faith, who after a sincere and unfeigned sorrow of Heart, after a clear and undisguised Enumeration of all your Sins by Confession of Mouth, after a serious Endeavour to apply to yourselves the Satisfactions of Christ by the exercise of Good Works, use violence upon your Hearts, in exterminating ill Habits, and avoiding those Occasions which formerly prevailed upon you, and, in fine, are truly risen again; but, alas! are not risen again with Christ. For after you have set your hand to the Blow, you look back upon the Ease and Pleasure of the World; after you have been feasted with the Bread of Angels, your Hearts return into Egypt; you remit of your primitive Fervour, you slacken in your Devotions, you inquire into a corrupted Moral, and hunt after Cases to dispense with your Resolutions; you harken to the Language of the World, till you are insensibly seized with the Infection, it gains every day upon you, preys upon the Life of the Spirit, and at last wholly consumes it. Thus the very Means of your Salvation corrupt into the Occasions of your farther Misery, and your rising again serves only to plunge you deeper into Death, by adding to the weight of your former Commissions a heavy Ingratitude, a sacrilegious Abuse of Divine Grace, a Contempt of Mercy, a Rebellion against the Light, an evacuating the Death of Christ, and frustrating his Resurrection of its chiefest End, that rising from Death with him, you should die no more.  
And herein consists the difference between the Resurrection of the Body, and that of the Soul. Both the one and the other are the Effects of a Supernatural and Divine Power: But the one always supposes a Perpetuity and Settled state; the other is subject to Decay, and of its own nature does not exclude Corruption and Mortality. Thus the Sunamite's Child at the Prayer of Elizaeus, the Dead Man at the touch of his Bones, Lazarus and others at the Voice of Christ, and they who at his Death came forth of their opened Sepulchers, were restored to Life, but to a dying Life, they lived to die again. But the Spiritual Life communicated to a Soul by the Grace of Jesus Christ, is invested, as far as concerns the Operation of the Agent, with Immortality, and has impressed upon it a Resemblance of his Resurrection, a Jam non moritur. She is commanded to cherish and perpetuate that Life, which nothing can corrupt, unless she lay murdering Hands upon herself, and by consenting to Sin, fall a Victim to it.  
But can any one who believes in earnest the Advantage and Excellence of this Supernatural Life, who has ever tasted the ineffable Comforts of a Spiritual Resurrection with and in Christ, be so careless of the Advantage, so insensible of the Excellence, so forgetful of the Comforts, as to lavish them away upon every slight occasion, as to exchange them for every gaudy Trifle, as to wound and destroy this Life at the persuasion of a Passion, or for the gratifying a Concupiscence, or for the indulging an Appetite? If one did not find this practically true, in speculation one would pronounce it impossible; Impossible that the Reasonable Creature should persecute its own Happiness, run counter to its own Desires, and contrive its own Destruction, contrary to the Dictamen of Reason, to the Impressions of Faith, and even to the Inclinations of Nature. And whosoever considers with how many Tears, Alms-deeds, and Mortifications, with what Assiduity in Prayer, Modesty of Behaviour, and Earnestness to hear the Word of God, we have spent this Holy and Penitential Season, in order to prepare ourselves to rise again with Jesus Christ in this Day of his Triumph over Death, will certainly conclude, that we are truly dead, 
Rom. 6.2.  and our Life hidden with Christ in God; that being thus dead to Sin, quomodo adhuc, vivemus in illo? how is it possible we should harbour a Thought of living any longer in that wretched Condition? Yet this time of Penance is no sooner elapsed, than we begin to provide Matter for a new Repentance: We take the Reins off our Senses and Passions, and turn them lose to rove and wanton as before, as if Sensuality were the Object of the Church's Indulgence; as if Luxury, Excess, misspending our Time, superfluous Entertainments, and other Practices which are at all times unlawful, were not at the most Holy of Times more Criminal. It seems the Tide of our Vices was only stemmed for Forty days, and now the Sluices are pulled up, to let them roll in their old Channels with more impetuosity than before. We hear the Church's Invitations to rejoice and to be merry, her Exultemus' and Alleluia's; we presently catch the Sound, and like the Carnal Jew think it relates to Flesh and Blood; we presently unbend the Mind, and impart the happy News to every Passion and Concupiscence.  
But who would have imagined that Relaxations of our Manners could be thought by Mankind the fittest Expressions and most unfeigned Testimonies of their Rejoicing at the Resurrection of Christ? But since the World will have it so, I am contented, provided it be made appear, that these are Arguments and Signs of our Rising again with Christ. For our Lord reassumed his Sacred Body, that we might rise in Spirit with him, and in Flesh after him. Our Resurrection then is the principal End of His, and by consequence those Actions which demonstrate us to be truly risen again with him, are the only proper Means to express our Joy, to celebrate his Triumph. And I hope we are now agreed, that these consist in seeking those things which are above, in setting our affections on heavenly things, in transcending all Human Considerations, in leaving the World far below us, and contemning its Vanities, Honours, and Riches, as much as we abhor its Vices and Corruptions. 
1 Cor. 15.50.  As for Flesh and Blood, their Inclinations and Concupiscences, which can never possess the Kingdom of God, they become more than ever our mortal Enemies; we have a new Obligation to persecute and detest them, a fresh Provocation to distress and mortify them, because they hinder us from enjoying the Liberty of the Children of God, they are a Clog upon the Heart, a Damp upon the Spirits, they check the Flight of the Soul, and lure her down when she is upon the Wing to have her Conversation in Heaven. 
Philip. 3.2.   
And since this is your Belief, but your Practice so contrary, has not the Apostle as much reason to expostulate with you, as he had with the Galatians, Sic stulti estis, ut cum spiritu caeperitis, 
Gal. 3.3.  carne consummemini? Are you become so foolish, as to end in the Flesh, after you have begun in the Spirit? Tanta passi estis sine causa? 
v. 4.  Have you so long bridled your Appetites, and denied your Senses even their lawful Satisfactions, to let them break out at Easter, like a Vapour from some Hollow of the Earth, more unruly, furious, and destructive than they could have been, had you not penned them in and confined them? Have you suffered so many things in vain? shed so many Tears without Fruit? given so many Alms to no End? In vain, without Fruit, and to no end indeed, unless these happy Beginnings are crowned with an answerable Perseverance, unless you died to Sin to rise again with Jesus Christ, and are risen again to die no more. Which God of his Infinite Mercy, etc.   
The End of the First Sermon.   

A SERMON Preached before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER, On Whitsunday, 1686.  Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum, Ephes. 4.30. Grieve not the Holy Ghost. 
AS the Children of Israel (Most Sacred Majesty) received the Law Fifty days after the Paschal Lamb was Sacrificed, in Memory and Thanksgiving for their Miraculous Deliverance from the Egyptian Slavery; so the Church of Christ, in the fullness of time, and after that mysterious number of Days elapsed from the Sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb, who takes away the Sins of the World, is established by the solemn publication of a New Covenant, a Covenant of Grace. But to express the Analogy and Relation between the one and the other, the Shadow and the Substance, the Law and the Consummation of the Law; to insinuate the same Spirit of God, who dictated the First, to be also the Author of the Second, both are delivered upon the Mount, both in Fire, both with Sound and Majesty. But as perfect Charity casts out Fear: so the Law of Perfection is distinguished from the Imperfect, by introducing Charity in the place of Fear, a gentle lambent Fire in lieu of Thunder and Lightning; by changing Mount Sina, the Region of Terror, for Jerusalem, the Vision of Peace; a frightful Desert, for the Place of Prayer, the Ministry of an Angel, for the immediate Presence of the Holy Ghost. The first was written in Tables of Stone, the latter, 
2 Cor. 3.3.  says the Apostle, in the fleshly Tables of our Hearts; the one was attended with all the Circumstances of Terror, and repeated Menaces of Death, and all little enough to make a stiffnecked People bend their Shoulders to a Heavy and Galling Yoke; but the other, as gentle in the Declaration as easy in the Execution, is published with the appearance of fiery Tongues, Emblems of Softness and Eloquence, Hieroglyphics of Light and Charity, to express its Efficacy, not by Constraint, but Insinuation; not by Compulsion, but Persuasion; as Fire is the most bright, most piercing, and most active of the Elements, and the Tongue the most tender in Substance, the most easy in Operation, yet the most powerful of all our Faculties. In a word, the first was delivered in Smoke and Clouds, to signify its Property, Imperfection, Obscurity, Darkness, or, at the best, a Cloud which was to break up and disperse, umbra futurorum, 
Colos. 2.17.  a Shadow which was to pass away; the second, under the Symbol of Wind, pure, open, cleansing, to show the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as requisite to clear the Soul from the Corruption or Contagion of Sin, as the Wind is to purify the Air, and the Air is to refresh the Body; and therefore his Divine Presence is sometimes called a Blast of Wind, as the Spouse in the Canticles, 
Cant. 4.16.  Veni Auster perfla hortum & fluent aromata; sometimes a Breath of Air, tanquam Spiritus aurae lenis; sometimes Spiraculum vitae, the breathing of Life; and generally a Spirit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only in reference to his Eternal Procession from the Father and the Son by way of Spiration, or reciprocal breathing of Love, but also in order to his Operations ad extra, working himself into the Soul by insensible ways, giving her Action and Motion, as the material Air does the Lungs, and the animal Spirits every part of the Body: Spiritus Sanctus vita spirituum, sensificans, vivificans, says Richard of St. Victor. 
Richard. de S. Vict. l. 6. de Trin.  Wherefore our Blessed Master, who on this Day fulfilled his Promise of sending the Holy Spirit, compares it, John 3.8. to the Elementary, which bloweth where it lists, whose sound we hear, but cannot tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit: By which last Words he applies the Comparison, as if he had said, You are to believe the Influence of this Spirit, as necessary to beget and perpetuate the Life of the Soul, as you experience the other is to the Life and Welfare of Nature; and as he that hinders the Air from passing into his Lungs, must immediately be stifled, or soon burnt up with interior Heat; so he that checks the entrance of the Holy Ghost, whose Property is to allay the Heat of Concupiscence with the nobler and gentler warmth of a Spiritual Love, to assuage the Passions, to cool and moderate the Affections; or he that ejects him out of his Heart after he is entered, is said to contristate, to grieve the Holy Ghost, and frustrate the end of his Coming; Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum.  
This Consideration carried me upon these Words of the Apostle, and pointed them out as a proper Theme equally fitted to the Sanctity and Solemnity of the Time, to the Necessities and Capacity of every Hearer; and as the most important Advice can be given Christians (who have already received, and are supposed to possess the delightful Presence of the Holy Ghost) to cherish that gentle Flame, to treat the Divine Guest as becomes the Children of Light; not only not to expel him out of their Hearts by any criminal Action or Consent; but not so much as to give him the least Offence, by remitting of the Devotion they feel, or pious Resolutions they make at this Holy Time. Nolite contristare, etc. But to maintain the Interests of this Holy Spirit, we must have his Assistance, the Power of Persuasion being one of those Gifts of Tongues which descend from above, and which is obtained by the same Disposition the Apostles were in perseverantes in oratione, by continuing in Prayer; and if you would learn the Method, the Evangelist delivers it in two words, Cum Maria; the Blessed Virgin is the Pattern; the Holy Ghost found her in the same posture at his second Coming, as he did in the first, when the Angel saluted her, AVE MARIA.  

Grieve not the Holy Ghost.  
THE Essential Joy which God possesses within himself, and which is Himself, places him above the reach of Grief; but not above our Attempts to afflict him: His Immortal Godhead and Power may secure his Being, but not our Obedience; we are as ready to take up Arms against him, as if we could dethrone him at our Pleasure. His Majesty and Justice may strike a Sinner with Amazement and Terror, but not always with that Fear which works a stable Repentance. Thus his Love, and Mercy, and Glory, which establish his Beatitude; his Glory, that no Evil can approach him; his Love and Mercy, that he would pass by the Injury, if any such could be done him, exempt him from a possibility of grieving; and yet we grieve him, that is, we are as criminal and injurious to him, as if he were susceptible of our ill usage. For tho' every Sin be levelled at the Whole Trinity, the Undivided Godhead against which it is committed, yet the Holy Ghost, to whom the Work of our Conversion is appropriated, is said to be the Principal Object of the Injury, as implying a horrible Contempt of his Favours, Spritui gratiae contumeliam facientes. 
Heb. 10.23.  Our Faith teaches us to consider the Holy Ghost in two different States in reference to Human Nature; the one, as hover over us, and desiring to enter into the Heart of Man, which belongs to him upon so many Titles; the other, as striving to keep possession of it, which to maintain, he has been so liberal of his Graces and Inspirations, of his Gifts and Promises, and even of himself; Spiritus qui datus est nobis: In each of these Circumstances we may displease and contristate him; First, If we refuse him admittance when he demands it: And secondly, If we oblige him 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 ware 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 expulsed, 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 Traitor and Rebel he vouchsafes to call his Spouse, to put her in mind of what she was before she lost her Honour, 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 procured 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 reduced the Holy Ghost; we shut our Hearts upon him, and while there is a Passion within to gratify, a Concupiscence to indulge, we are insensible to his Impulses, and deaf to his Voice; and has not he reason to be offended and grieved at such a Treatment? If we may gather the vehemency of his Affection from his earnest Desires and passionate Solicitations to be admitted, we may guests 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 obliged to treat with the Sword in his Hand, to change his Entreaties into Menaces, and threaten Punishments where he promised 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 signify, that he will leave no Method untried, 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 Ardours 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 Vapour; 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-edged Sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit, and of the Joints and Marrow, and is a discerner, an avenger of the thoughts and intents of the Heart; for all things are naked to, and easily conquered 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 does 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 endeavours to repair the Ruins, and consecrate it again with his Presence. To obtain which desired End, he does 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 Solicitations 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 solicits 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-entering 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 injured by an ungrateful and disobedient Child. He is not only troubled at his Miscarriages, but is far more afflicted that he is obliged 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 perplexed, 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 Judgement 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. 'Tis a Punishment, and the severest of Punishments, because a dereliction of God: 'Tis 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 offered us? There is the Crime; and are not we justly sentenced to it for our so long continued 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 breathed into our Hearts? There's the Punishment: And what more just than that our own Measures should be turned 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.  nun & 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 applied all my healing Graces, comforting Inspirations and sovereign Restoratives; neither Oil 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 opened the Gates to him, received him honourably, treated him friendly, and reciprocally received unspeakable Instances of his Affection? This is the next thing I have to consider: Be pleased to accompany me with your Hearts, as well as with your Attention.  
Whether to be repulsed from the Heart of Man, or expulsed 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 discussed by Divines; but I suppose in the Practice an indifferent Judgement 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 enforce 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 chased 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 ourselves so nearly touched, and so vehemently exasperated, when an Intruder comes to thrust us out of doors, and seize 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. Does not a long Prescription justify 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 redeemed us, but also because he has Rights to us peculiar to himself, by the Love he bears us, by the sanctifying Grace he has bestowed 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 sealed by him, because you have received 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 destroyed but by its Contrary, the Characteristical Form must be indelible, says the Master of our Schools, as having nothing contrary to itself. 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 marked as his Living Temples, according to the Custom of all Religions, that engrave on the Frontispiece of their Temples, or in the most eminent Part of them, Hieroglyphics 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 worshipped 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 turned 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 fulsome Pleasures of this World, for a Lust or an Ambition; to be exchanged 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 ruin yourselves, or that you wrong no Body but yourselves; 'tis 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 treasured up the Riches of his Goodness, where he had made the Repository of his Graces. Is it strange than he conceives so high a displeasure at such ill Usage, that he breathes 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 grieved 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 does 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 soliciting admittance; and by consenting to Sin, he declares his Judgement, and shows 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, 'tis 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 'tis a Contempt of Comparison. If a Wife suffer that Conjugal Affection to die, which Nature and Religion oblige her to cherish towards her Husband, 'tis a horrible Injury, 'tis 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 expressed, beyond all comparison, and chases Anger into Desperation 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 forced to plead his Right before a corrupted Judge, the  of Man; while the Heart, an unfaithful Spouse, is not only consenting to his Banishment, but also before his Face abandons herself into the Embraces of a foul Adulterer, the professed 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 herself) follows her, with the Tears and unspeakable Groans of her Mother the Church, begs of her to return, more to herself, 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 join 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 does 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 concerned in your Conversion, but two Consents required to the thoro' Amendment of your Life, the Holy Ghosts, and your own. And I hope, from what I have discoursed, 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 offered you, which you ought to have sued for with flaming Sighs and unexpressible Groans, gemitibus inenarrabilibus? Is it not Crime enough to have hitherto resisted his Inspirations, stopped your Ears against his Calls, rejected his Counsels, and trampled 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 continued Neglect is a Contempt, and a Contempt of the Holy Ghost is that Basphemy which pronounces Sentence upon itself, the fatal Recede à nobis, Depart from us for ever. Yes, hardhearted Sinner, cruel to thyself and to thy God; God will obey the Voice of Man, who would never hearken to the Voice of God; he will departed from thee for ever. For the Scripture often warns us, that there is a certain number of Sins, which, filled 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 summed 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 warned, that he who appeared 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 issued from his Mouth, Death and Destruction walked before him, a Torrent of Fire streamed from his enraged Countenance, and flaming Eyes, to consume his Enemies.  
2. But above all, you that have already received the Holy Ghost, Nolite contristare, do not grieve him, do not extinguish those Divine Flames he has raised in your Hearts: Consider what a Happiness it is to be his Temple; give him not the displeasure to see himself chased from that Place, whence his Access had chased 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, etc.   
FINIS.