i62 For we nirefile. ac cept and take it. Such a kinde 'pf ftrife is this of the Spirits with men. They are the lulls of men,!, (thofe bloody inftruments of death, with which finners are mikhieving themfelves) that the holy Spirit strives by his fweet counfels and entreaties to get out of our hands. They are Chrifts, his grace and eternal life he ftrives to make us' accept at the hands of Gods mercy ; and for repulfing the Spirit thus ftriving with them, finners are justly counted fighters againft God : refliffe-necked, and tench, Aas 7. 51 cumcifed in heart and earl, ye do alWayes refift the Holy Gholl. Now there is a twofold striving of the Spirit, and fo of our wreftling againft it.Firft, the Spirit strives in his malingerswith finners. They coming on his errand, and not their owne, he voucheth the faithful counfels, reproofs and exhortations which they giveas his own a& Noah, that 'Preacher of rightconfneffe, what he faid to theold world, is call'd the Preaching of the Spirit, -1 Pet. 3,19. The pains that .Motes, Aaron and other fervants of God took in infiru6ting Ifrael, is call'd the inftruftion of the Spirit, Nehem. 9. 20. fo that when theWord, which Gods Mi- nifters bring in his Name,is rejected, the faithful counfels they give are thrown at finners heels and made light of; then do they ftrive with the Spirit, and wreftle againft Chrift as really, as if he vifibly in his own perfon had been in the Pulpit, and preached the fame Sermon to them. When God comes to reck- on with finners, it will prove fo ; then God will rub upyour me- mories, and minde you of his striving with you and your un- kinde him.Theywhether they vvillheare, or whether they E'1'.25 will orbear, fnallknow they had a Prophet among them. Nowmen foon forget whom and what they hear; ask themwhat was preft upon their conscience in fuch a Sermon, they have forgot; what were the precious truthes laid out in another, and they are loft : &well were it for them if their memories were no better in an° Cher world : it would eafe their torments more then a little. But then they final' know they had a Prophet among them, and what a price they had with him in their hands, though it was in fooles keeping. They (hall know what he was, and what he laid, though a thoufand years paft, as frefh as if it were done but laft night. The more zealous and compaffionate, the more painful and powerful he was in his place, the greater shall their fin be found, to break from fuch holy violence offered to do them . ........
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