Christian.  “For what did you bring yourself into this condition?”

Man.  “For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight; but now every one of those things also bites me and gnaws me like a burning worm.”

Christian.  “But canst thou not repent and turn?”

Man.  “God hath denied me repentance.  His word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, himself hath shut me up in this iron cage:  nor can all the men in the world let me out.  O eternity, eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity?”

Then said the Interpreter to Christian, “Let this man’s misery he remembered by thee, and be an everlasting caution to thee.”

“Well,” said Christian, “this is fearful!  God help me to watch and he sober, and to pray that I may shun the cause of this man’s miseiy.”

We that religiously name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity, because the Spirit of the Father will else be grieved.  Eph. 4:30.  The countenancing of iniquity, the not departing therefrom, will grieve the Spirit of God, by which you are sealed to the day of redemption; and that is a sin of a higher nature than men commonly are aware of.  He that grieveth the Spirit of God shall smart for it here, or in hell, or both.  And that Spirit that sometimes did illuminate, teach, and instruct them, can keep silence, can cause darkness, can. withdraw itself, and sufler the soul to sin more and more; and this last is the very judgment of judgments.  He that grieves the Spirit, quenches it; and he that quenches it, vexes it; and he that vexes it, sets it against himself, and tempts it to hasten destruction upon himself. 1 Thess. 5:19.

Wherefore take heed, professors, I say, take heed, you that religiously name the name of Christ, that you meddle not with iniquity, that you tempt not the Spirit of the Lord to do such things against you; whose beginnings are dreadful, and whose end in working of judgments is unsearchable.  Isa. 63:10; Acts 5:9.

A man knows not whither he is sjoing, nor where he shall stop, that is but entering into temptation; nor whether he shall ever turn back, or go out at the gap that is right before him.

He that has begun to grieve the Holy Ghost, may be sufiered to go on until he has sinned that sin which is called the sin against the Holy Ghost.  And if God shall once give thee up to that, then, thou art in the iron cage, out of which there is neither deliverance nor redemption.