SERMON V
the sin of grieving the holy spirit.
"and grieve not the holy spirit of god." Eph. iv. 30.
Grief, as well as all other affections of the human heart which we find applied in the Scriptures to the Spirit of God, must necessarily be understood in a metaphorical sense. It especially refers to his mode of acting towards those who resist his influences, reject his kind offers, and not to any inward feeling which the term implies when it relates to finite man. With the course generally pursued by one who from just cause has been grieved at the conduct of another, we are perfectly familiar. Between this course and the conduct of the Spirit towards man in certain cases a comparison is here instituted.
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