I. Scripture-light the most sure light ... delivered in three sermons on 2 Pet.…

Answ. Be it so: yet did not the Church of Ephesus lose her first Love? yet this Church of Ephesus, did not sin the Sin against the Holy Ghost; Why? For the Lord saith unto her, Repent, and do thy first Works: she could not have repented thus, if she had sinned this Sin.

Object. 4 O! but yet I fear that I have sinned this great Sin, because that I have sinned directly against the Spirit; I have quenched, I have grieved, I have resisted the Spirit; the Spirit of the Lord hath come and fallen upon my heart in preaching, and I resisted, and grieved it; the Spirit of the Lord hath fallen upon my heart in Prayer, and I have grieved that; therefore I fear I have sinned this great Sin, that shall never be pardoned.

Answ. This is ill too: But those that you read of in Acts, 7. resisted the Holy Ghost; yet they did not sin the Sin against the Holy Ghost; for then Stephen would not have prayed for them. And indeed Beloved, if every resisting of the breathings of the Spirit, and grieving of the Holy Ghost, were the unpardonable Sin, what godly man would be free? A godly man is more properly said to grieve the Spirit, than a wicked man. If an Enemy strike you, you are angry; if your Friend strike you, ye are grieved: If a wicked man strike at God, he is angry with him; if a godly man strike at God, God is angry, and his Spirit is grieved, because he is a Friend. Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption: So that thus far, possibly a man may go, and yet not sin this Unpardonable Sin.