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That ye may be enabled to pray and give thanks, as before:
Quench not the Spirit. And, by the figure meiosis, he means, cherish the Spirit. The Spirit is compared to fire, Mat_3:11; and he came down upon the apostles in the similitude, of tongues of fire, Act_2:3; but the Spirit himself cannot be quenched; he means it therefore of his gifts and operations; which are either ordinary or extraordinary. Many had extraordinary gifts in the primitive times, of healing, tongues, government, prophecy, &c.; those that had them, without question, should have taken care not, by any fault of their own, to lose them. Especially that of prophecy, which the apostle prefers before all others, 1Co_14:1, and mentions here in the following verse; and which the apostle exhorted Timothy to stir up in himself, 2Ti_1:6, as we stir up the fire to quicken it, so the word anazwpurein imports. The like is required of ministers with respect to their miniserial gifts which are now given. But there are ordinary gifts and operations of the Spirit common to all Christians, as enlightening, quickening, sanctifying, comforting the soul: men by sloth, security, earthy encumbrances, inordinate affections, &c., may abate these operations of the Spirit, which the apostle calls the quenching it: the fire upon the altar was kept always burning by the care of the priests. Fire will go out either by neglecting it, or casting water upon it. By not exercising grace in the duties of religion, or by allowing sin in ourselves, we may quench the Spirit; as appears in David, Psa_51:10-12. Not that the habits of grace may be totally extinguished in the truly regenerate, yet they may be abated as to degree and lively exercise. Yet those common illuminations and convictions of the Spirit which persons unregenerate, especially such that live under the gospel, do often find, may be totally lost, Heb_6:4-6; and we read of God’s Spirit ceasing to strive with the old world, Gen_6:3, and the scribes and Pharisees resisting the Holy Ghost, Act_7:51, which were not persons regenerate. He may sometimes strive with men, but not overcome them. And there is a quenching of the Spirit in others its well as ourselves; people may quench it in their ministers by discouraging them, and in one another by bad examples, or reproaching the zeal and forwardness that they see in them.