The Oberlin Evangelist

December 18, 1839

Lecture XXII.

GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT--No. 2

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

Let me continue with this subject where I ended my last message.

20. Refusing or neglecting to confess your sins grieves the Holy Spirit. God has said, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy”. (Proverbs 28:13) And Christ said, “He who humbles himself shall be exalted”, (Matt 23:12) and again, “if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matt 5:23-24) You cannot forsake sin without confessing it. Since you can’t repent without forsaking sin and you can’t forsake sin without confessing it, it follows that without confession there is no salvation. It is not enough to only confess your secret sins, that is, sins committed only against God and only God knows about them. But, you must also confess to your fellow men sins committed against them. Refusing or neglecting to confess our sins to those we offend is to cover sin, in which case God tells us that we will not prosper.

Many people seem to be afraid to confess their sin, or to allow others to confess their sins, because their confession might damage religion. But, this is so far from being true, that I doubt whether a situation ever occurred in which a full and frank confession of sin committed against a human being was not more honorable than dishonorable to Jesus Christ. The more aggravated the circumstances and the deeper the shame of the person who confesses, the more striking and honorable is the contrast between the spirit of Christ and the spirit of the world. I heard that a certain minister in New England, in the transaction of business with an infidel lawyer, was thrown off his guard, and displayed a spirit of anger that led the infidel lawyer to boast, after he left, that he had always believed that the minister was a hypocrite. No doubt, the easy way out would have concealed the confession, for fear it would hurt religion.

I have often heard doubts expressed by wise and good people, concerning the appropriateness of confessing sins against our fellow men, which reveals the truth to the world and even to the Church. But, with the clear declarations of the Bible on this subject what right do we have to talk about whether it is appropriate or not, as if we are wiser than God concerning the results of doing what He requires? Let me tell you, that the easy way out would have concealed the crimes of such people as Moses, David, the Patriarchs, and the disciples and Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. But God recorded these crimes so that we could read and know about them. And who does not see and has not felt that the very fact that the inspired writers recorded their own and each other’s faults is a most unequivocal demonstration of their honest humility and Christ-like spirit?

21. Refusing to forsake your sins grieves the Holy Spirit. I have said, that there is no forsaking sin without confession. I will now say, that there is no forsaking sin without restitution, where you have the power to make restitution. Certainly, the person who steals your money does not forsake that sin as long as he keeps it in his pocket, and refuses to return it. There is and can be no forsaking sin until everything has been done, that the situation allows, to repair whatever damage has been done by that sin to God or man. It is not enough to resolve not to sin anymore. Although confession is necessary, confession is only a part of your duty. You must make restitution as well as confession, and until you do that, God cannot and has no right to forgive you.

Many individuals do a lot of confessing, while they continue their abominable course of conduct. Now remember, God never said, that he who merely confesses his sins will find mercy, but he who “confesses and forsakes them shall find mercy”. (Proverbs 28:13) Now, do some of you stare at me as if I expect, and God expects, that you will really forsake your sins and sin no more? God demands and expects this of you. Your confessions, if you will not forsake your sins, are an utter abomination. Do you hear that Deacon pray? Perhaps this is the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time he has confessed his lukewarmness, unbelief, and worldly-mindedness without a shadow of a reformation. What do you mean, deacon? Are you insulting God by trying to palm off your confessions on your Maker? They are shallow hypocritical confessions. Where is the reformation! Suppose your neighbors and those indebted to you should attempt to satisfy you by confessing to you, instead of walking right up to do what they are supposed to do. How long do you think they will impose on you? How long will you allow them to insult you with such confessions as these? Can’t you see that your confessions, under the same circumstances, are among your greatest sins? Now, the next time you confess, why don’t you tell God the truth, and when you have finished confessing, say, “Oh God, I pray that You accept these confessions instead of my reformation, because, to tell the truth, I don’t seriously intend to reform.” You would be shocked to say that, and those around you would be shocked to hear that. But, who does not know that this is the exact truth, and nothing but hypocrisy prevents you from seeing it and saying it out loud! Oh, from how many prayer meetings and prayer closets is the Spirit of God completely grieved away by all kinds of confessions, without any forsaking of sin at all?

22. Every kind and degree of self-indulgence that is inconsistent with life, health, and piety, grieves the Holy Spirit. Some make a god of their belly; and it is astonishing and lamentable to see to what an extent they indulge in the flesh, to the ruin of their soul. Even professing Christians allow themselves to be slaves to their appetite. They don’t even have enough religion to control their bodies or to mortify their flesh. They don’t even have enough religion to exercise as much dominion over their appetites, lusts, and passions as the heathen philosopher exercises. Some men use tobacco and complain that the habit is so strong and overpowering that they can’t abstain from its use. Others use alcohol in some of its forms, and others still use tea and coffee and fashionable narcotics so much, that they permanently damage their health, and still persuade themselves that these things are essential to their health. And if they feel tired, and weak, and experience a temporary loss of appetite when they try to abstain from them, they imagine that they can’t do without them. They don’t understand that these very symptoms of withdrawal that they complain about; demonstrate that they are permanently damaging their health. Why do you have headaches when you stop drinking coffee? It is because you have damaged your body by drinking it so much. It is astonishing to see the amount of self-indulgence in the Church today. Professing Christians even practice things that are harmful to both their bodies and souls. Whole families dedicate themselves to gratifying their appetites. Looking for things to eat that tastes good takes up a large part of their time, occupies a large portion of their thoughts, and seems to be the principal goal that they live for.

23. Trying to excuse your sins grieves the Holy Spirit. It is very common to see people racking their brains to find excuses for their sins. Some say that they are unable to do any better than they are doing. Others blame their peculiar circumstances. And others claim that they are depending on the Spirit of God. In short, a proud heart will use almost any excuse to evade the force of truth, to appease their consciences, and to avoid giving their hearts to the Lord. Please understand and remember that a spirit that apologizes for sin is not only one of the most hideous forms of iniquity in the sight of God, but it is the most hardening and self-destroying process that one can pursue. And the more you resort to using excuses and apologies for your sins, the more you harden yourselves in those sins, grieve the Holy Spirit, and render your salvation impossible.

24. Procrastination grieves the Holy Spirit. God requires you to humble yourself before Him right now. Every attitude you take, that defers obedience to some future time, directly disobeys and provokes God. It is amazing to see how people cherish the spirit of procrastination. Many pretend to be waiting for God’s time, as if God, in spite of all His requirements, isn’t ready to have them do their duty. One of the greatest delusions under which men labor is that, at some future time, it will be more convenient for them to attend to the claims of God than right now. If you could visit hell today, and ask among the millions of its suffering inhabitants, how they ended up there, the answer, in almost every situation would be “procrastination ruined my soul. I never intended to die in my sins. I always intended to repent at some time in the future.” Millions will tell you that they had planned, from time to time, to attend to the salvation of their souls, but they continued to put it off until death plunged his arrow into their hearts and they went to hell.

25. Giving wrong instructions to those who are under conviction grieves the Holy Spirit. Giving wrong instructions to professing Christians who are seeking sanctification, also grieves the Holy Spirit. Many give instructions that oppose the influences of the Spirit, and so they grieve the Holy Spirit away from themselves and from those they are instructing. Remember that you accept a fearful responsibility when you attempt to help the Holy Spirit while you are conducting the sinner through the labyrinth of his own delusions to bring him to an acquaintance with Christ. If you tell him one thing while the Holy Spirit tells him another thing, you will probably ruin his soul, if you don’t ruin your own soul also.

26. Taking sides against God always grieves the Holy Spirit. “Take heed”, said Gamaliel, “lest you even be found to fight against God”. (Acts 5:35-39) I have already said, that through prejudice, many persons get committed on the wrong side of some important question, and thereby, they damage their own souls as well as the cause of God. Many individuals, because of personal friendship or personal dislike will take sides against the truth, and plunge their souls into impenetrable darkness. Whenever a question comes up that concerns the character or conduct of an intimate friend, or a relative on the one hand, or some enemy on the other hand, be on your guard lest personal feelings influence you, and you find yourself taking sides against the truth. Beware lest you shut your eyes against the light, and allow yourself to be deluded and drawn into an attitude where God will not go with you. God will have no sympathy with your wrong feelings, nor will He side with you in any of your prejudices. His soul is infinitely upright and honest, and the moment you depart from the same state of mind, your fellowship with Him ceases, and a dark cloud hangs between you and the mercy seat. Will you not examine yourselves and see whether something of this kind has not shut you out from God’s presence?

27. Remaining in willful ignorance on any important subject grieves the Holy Spirit. It is amazing to see how many there are who refuse to come to the light on some of the most important subjects that have ever agitated the Church or the world. How many thousands of professing Christians will not examine such subjects as the abolition of slavery, moral reform, sanctification, and physiology? They seem to remain, not in accidental, but in willful ignorance in the midst of all the light that pours around them. It is amazing to see the extent that ignorance prevails on so many important questions. It is especially amazing to witness the resistance that so many clearly display when these subjects are brought up.

28. All lack of sincerity in examining important questions also grieves the Holy Spirit.

29. Indulging in feelings of contempt for particular persons or their opinions grieves the Holy Spirit. All contemptuous expressions, and all attempts to put down by ridicule, persons, opinions, or practices that we feel opposed to, grieves the Holy Spirit. By this, I don’t mean that you can’t treat anything ridiculous according to its true nature; but you can’t treat serious and important subjects with contempt or ridicule without grieving the Holy Spirit. Some people tend to treat subjects like dress, tight clothing, dietetics, and other very important subjects, with contempt and ridicule. I cannot believe that any person who indulges in this can enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit. These certainly are feelings with which the Spirit of God can have no sympathy or fellowship whatever.

30. Directly resisting the truth whenever it personally applies to you grieves the Holy Spirit. To general truth, or to particular truth, or to almost any truth that has no direct bearing on you, you won’t oppose. But, when you perceive that the truth applies to you, you demonstrate the spirit of the Pharisees when they exclaimed, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach (insult) us also”. (Luke 11:42- 47)

31. Justifying resistance to the truth on the ground that it is personal grieves the Holy Spirit. I have already said that my purpose in preaching is to be as personal as I can, consistently with the general purpose of preaching to a popular audience, and as far as possible to “give to everyone his portion in due season.” (Luke 12:42) Now, if any of you want to complain when I point out the particular way you are grieving the Holy Spirit, or because you think that I know you should be rebuked for your particular sin, you are completely unreasonable. Yes, I intend to preach about the particular sins of the persons whom I address. Preaching can do you no good unless you feel that it is personal and that I am talking to you. I plan to speak in love, but with all plainness, and address myself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Therefore, I won’t feel convicted of having done anything wrong, if you complain that what I said personally applies to one of you. I wish that I could address you in such a way that every person felt that I was telling him everything he ever did. I am emphasizing this because there seems to be a universal impression that preaching should not be personal, and consequently a kind of public sympathy arises as soon as someone complains that the preaching personally applies to him. Many people today, pierced by an arrow of truth, instead of repenting before God, go around complaining about it as if they were just abused. They consider themselves persecuted instead of being seriously called on to repent. They spend their time trying to repel their injury rather than confessing and forsaking their fault. By this, I don’t mean to justify harsh and abusive language or any unreasonable attacks on the character or conduct of individuals or groups of people either public or private. But I do mean to say, that if your faults are pointed out in love, if the reproof is not more public than your sin or the nature of the situation demands, you have no right to complain. You will certainly grieve the Spirit of God if you do not accept the reproof with a thankful heart.

32. Neglecting the Lord’s solemn visitations and strivings, and attending to other things, grieves the Holy Spirit. Christ is represented as standing at the door of the heart and knocking, and in another place as waiting until his “head is wet with the dew”. (Song of Solomon 5:2) It is often truly shocking to see how little attention is paid to the manifested presence and agency of the Holy Spirit in families who claim that they are religious. When they are aware that He is striving with some member of the family, and has come to their house on the solemn errand of eternal salvation, they behave with so little seriousness and pay so little attention to His awful presence and majesty, it is as if He were only a servant of servants. Sometimes even the very individual with whom He is striving and with whom He has taken up a solemn work to bring him to repent, will neglect to follow His directions, and do almost anything to draw his attention away from the great subject of his own salvation.

33. Allowing your thoughts and time to be swallowed up in business, amusements, or anything else, until the question of your unqualified submission to God has faded away, grieves the Holy Spirit. No doubt, many individuals have grieved the Spirit completely away by engaging in their business or amusement, just at the time when their eternal destiny is in the balance.

34. Yielding to the fear of men rather than the fear of God grieves the Holy Spirit. How many ministers have grieved the Spirit completely away by fearing men so much that they don’t tell them the whole counsel of God. Perhaps, the Spirit is pressing some of you to faithfully discharge your duty in warning and reproving those around you. However, you dare not do it for fear of their ill will, and in the greatness of your unbelief, instead of admitting to yourself the real reason for your negligence, you persuade yourself that faithfulness on your part would do no good.

35. Standing out against any reform grieves the Holy Spirit. The world must be reformed in almost everything before it will be right. And unselfish love is waking up to push reform into many departments that disturbs the slumbers, and severely runs across the lusts, the self-indulgence, the pride, and wickedness of both the Church and the world. Therefore, there is the greatest danger that these efforts at reformation will catch you indulging in some form of sin, and sternly rebuke you. Now, I beg you to be on your guard lest you commit yourself against any manner or degree of reform demanded by the state of the world. As the spirit of reform continues to increase, your danger will increase. I fear that hundreds of thousands have already made shipwreck of what little spirituality they had, by allowing themselves to be thrown into a state of opposition to the reforms of the day.

These are some of the ways that grieve the Holy Spirit. Let these serve to direct your thoughts to a thorough investigation concerning whether, in these or in other respects, you are grieving the Holy Spirit.

III. What are the consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit?

1. One of the consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit is that He will abandon you. If you continue to grieve the Holy Spirit, you can expect Him to abandon you forever. God’s Spirit will not always strive with man. He gave up the Israelites because they vexed and grieved His Spirit. He abandoned the old world for the same reason. The Holy Spirit abandoned many individuals, families, and nations, in every age throughout world history because they grieved Him.

2. Spiritual blindness is a consequence of grieving the Holy Spirit. This follows from the absence of the Spirit’s influences. Men are naturally blind and deaf to all the great truths that should sanctify their souls. You have the eyes to see and the ears to hear if you were willing, but “having eyes you see not, and ears, you hear not”. (Matt 13:15) When you are unwilling to retain God in your knowledge you blind your own eyes, deafen your own ears, and harden your own hearts. Once the Spirit of God gives you up, your blindness, although it is voluntary, is as certain and eternal as your existence.

3. A conscience that acts as if it was seared with a hot iron is another result of grieving the Spirit. This will naturally follow from your great spiritual blindness. A silent or seared conscience is a state of mind that you should dread with all your heart. For if you silence its voice, you can go on securely crying peace and safety until sudden destruction comes on you. It is an unspeakable blessing to have a quick and tender conscience. A conscience that will enforce the slightest obligation with great power is a tremendous blessing. Nevertheless, you should avoid anything that will silence your conscience and hush its warning voice.

4. If God abandons you because you have persisted in some sin, you will become the confirmed and complete slave of that sin. If it is some vile indulgence in some form of intemperance; perhaps the love of money, the love of pleasure, any form of passion, or infidelity or error, in short whatever sin you have persevered in until God has given you up or the Holy Spirit has departed from you, that sin becomes your master. It will chain you like a slave and rule over you with a rod of iron. It will impose its galling yoke on you until you become filled with your own ways. I cannot tell you how many situations like these have come under my own observation, where people have tempted God by indulging in some form of sin, until God has given them up to its reigning power; and then how feeble are all their efforts to overcome it. Their resolutions are as yielding as air. Every breath of temptation carries them away. And once they find themselves totally weak, helpless, and swept away by temptation like a flood, they completely give up, and drive furiously to destruction.

5. If the Holy Spirit abandons you, you can expect God to “send strong delusions on you that you should believe a lie, that you may be condemned because you did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness”. (2 Thess 2:11-12) The Bible says that a “distressing spirit from the Lord troubled Saul” (1 Samuel 16:14) and that the Lord allowed a “lying spirit” to deceive Ahab to his own destruction. Anyone who grieves the Holy Spirit, who hides away from the light, does not receive the truth, but has pleasure in some form of unrighteousness. It is remarkable to see the many different ways the providences of God will help a person in this state forward towards some fatal delusion. Pagan books or lecturers, Universalist ministers or publications, wicked companions and associates, and often times the prince of hell, is allowed to delude and lead such a soul into impenetrable darkness, and destructive delusion.

6. Self-disgrace may be, and often is, a consequence of being abandoned by the Holy Spirit. It is remarkable to see when an individual has grieved the Holy Spirit, how blind he is concerning the light in which his conduct is and will be viewed by those around him. If this is your situation, you will probably go into hell step by step. First, you indulge in treating the things of God lightly. Next, you will acquire an irritable spirit, and show that you have no control over your frame of mind. Then, a spirit of worldly-mindedness may develop. Next, a spirit of licentiousness may be plainly discerned by those around you. Then some form of intemperance may gain control over you. Then a spirit of exaggeration and perhaps a lying spirit may take possession of your soul. Thus, in the midst of your blindness you wander on until you find yourself deeply disgraced in the eyes of men, and forever lost in the eye of God.

7. You may be left to inflict the deepest disgrace on your family and friends and perhaps ruin many over whom you have influence. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” (I Cor 5:6) People naturally have great influence over each other; and with great ease “evil communications corrupt good manners” because wicked example so agrees with the corrupt state of the human heart. It is very easy to influence individuals to sin, because they are already so inclined to sin. A slight amount of temptation therefore may lead those around you to follow your example, until all of you together, finally sink into the depths of hell.

8. If you are a professing Christian, and the Holy Spirit leaves you, you will greatly wound and dishonor Christ.

9. God may turn you over to Satan to be led captive at his will. I have already referred to the case of Saul and Ahab, who were given up to Satan because of their wickedness. Paul speaks about having delivered a certain man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, (See 1 Cor 5:5) and often, when the Spirit of God has left a person, Satan takes full possession of his or her heart. Christ seems to teach this in the following passage. “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” (Matt 12:43-45) Now here Christ clearly teaches that when the Holy Spirit has left a person, his heart is like a room swept and garnished waiting to entertain the devil, and we can expect the devil to take possession and to exert over him at least seven times more influence than ever before.

10. If the Holy Spirit leaves you, you can expect to become very insensitive and blind concerning the state of your own soul. You may think that you are engaged in religion, and you may mistake the silence of your conscience for the peace of God, and the absence of all concern about your soul for a good hope through grace. I know this often happens. I have seen cases where people seem to have the most undoubting assurance that they are in a gracious state, when their temper and conduct manifest everything else but the Spirit of Christ. Christ represents some as being in such a state of delusion that they carry their false hopes and delusions to the very throne of God. He represents them as saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” But, hear his answer. “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’.” (Matt 7:22-23)

11. If the Holy Spirit leaves you, you will have no heart to offer prevailing prayer, and if you attempt to pray, you will find that your mouth is shut, and if opened it will only be opened to mock God. In fact, instead of being benefited you are only hardened by engaging in prayer.

12. You will become worse and worse if God abandons you. This may be true of you and you don’t see it, and yet if you will be honest with yourselves, if any of you have grieved the Holy Spirit away, by comparing your recent with your former experience, you may see that you are becoming worse and worse.

13. If the Spirit leaves you, your damnation is certain. God has said, “Woe to them when I depart from them”. (Hosea 9:12) If left to yourself, remember that you are as certain of being lost as if you had already been in hell for a thousand years.

14. If the Spirit abandons you, all things will work together for your destruction. The very means that should make you better will make you worse. The efforts that God makes to save those around you will only confirm you in your sins. In short, all of God’s providences, with all the influences of His grace that surrounds you will only be stumbling blocks to your poor blinded soul. The Sabbath with its cheerful light and solemn stillness will rise on you to harden your heart. The sound of the Church bell, the voice of the living preacher, the song of praise, everything in the sanctuary, everything within and without yourself, will conspire to work out for you an exceeding great and eternal weight of damnation.

REMARKS.

1. To grieve the Holy Spirit is great presumption. Every moment you persist in grieving the Holy Spirit, you increase your danger of being given up forever. Remember there is a point, beyond which God’s forbearance will no longer be a virtue. As long suffering as He is, He can bear with you no longer than is consistent with the public good. The children of Israel repeatedly grieved the Holy Spirit in the wilderness until they came to the borders of the Promised Land, and were commanded to go in and possess the land. They began to murmur in unbelief and they refused to enter. This one act of rebellion, added to all those rebellious acts that preceded it, was too much for God’s forbearance. And God lifted up His hand and took a solemn oath “that they should not enter into His rest”. Therefore, take heed lest you sin once too much. Aren’t you convinced from what I have already said that you have often grieved the Holy Spirit? Haven’t you grieved the Holy Spirit in many of the ways I have mentioned as well as in innumerable ways I have not mentioned? Now, do you dare to do it again? If you do it again, you may discover that you have grieved the Spirit once too much to be forgiven.

2. From this subject you can see the great forbearance of God. How many of you have grieved the Holy Spirit for days, or months, or perhaps for years! How remarkable that God should spare you. He sent His ministers, His written word, His providences, and it didn’t do any good. Finally, He came by his own Spirit, and you have abused Him in a thousand ways. Perhaps, even now you are indulging in some sin that grieves Him almost beyond endurance. If you persist, you do it at the peril of your soul.

3. You now can see how to account for the blindness of great multitudes of professing Christians. Many of you can see how to account for your own hardness and blindness of mind, both you who are in and you who are out of the Church.

4. Can you see why so many people often pray for the influences of the Holy Spirit and yet don’t receive His influences? It’s usually because they have grieved Him away!

5. Many, who pray for the Holy Spirit, are continually grieving Him by indulging in some lust or neglecting to do some duty, or, in some way, doing this or indulging in that which is so offensive to the Holy Spirit that He will not abide with them.

6. You can see from this subject, that the Holy Spirit, when He comes to many, is like the “wayfaring man that stays only for a night”. (Jeremiah 14:8) His visits are short and far between. The fact is, their lives, their behavior, and their habits are such, that for them to dwell with God or He with them is out of the question.

7. Many ministers seem to have grieved Him away. Their ministry seems to be completely barren. They preach, pray, and perform other duties without unction, and of course without success. And while they continue their round of efforts, it is plain to the spiritual members of their Church that they don‘t have the Holy Spirit. Their citizenship during the week is not in heaven. Their preaching on Sunday completely lacks the spirit, power, and demonstration of the Gospel.

Sometimes they seem to sense that they have grieved the Spirit. Several years ago, a young man who had been in the ministry for several years, came to me for advice, saying that he had grieved the Holy Spirit when studying theology. Since that time he had never enjoyed God’s presence, and as a result, his ministry was barren. His soul was shut out from God, and he felt that he must abandon the ministry, since God had rejected him because of his sin. Several months ago, a Christian brother related to me another fact, which every minister of the gospel should consider. An elderly minister made this confession in a revival of religion, into the midst of which he was providentially brought. He said, “When I was young and for years after I entered the ministry, the Spirit of God was with me. A divine unction attended my preaching. I was instrumental in promoting several revivals of religion. Finally, because of financial considerations, I had to change my field of labor. For this the Spirit departed from me. After this, my ministry was barren and my soul was as a barren field. The heavens became brass over my head and the earth iron under my feet. Thus, many years passed over me. Still the Spirit of the Lord has not returned.”

8. This subject will enable us to account for the present state of so many professing ministers of Christ. Their ministry is barren. Their spirit is worldly. Their bitterness, argumentativeness, prejudices, and everything deeply wounds and disgraces Christ.

9. Let us all take warning lest any of us, while we think we are standing, should suddenly and hopelessly fall. Beloved let us walk softly before the Lord, and look carefully into all our ways. Let us see where we have been and where we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

And now, let us all go down on our knees, and confess our infinite guilt, in having, in so many ways and for so long a time, grieved the Holy Spirit, “whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption”.