And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ver. 30. And grieve not, &c.] As men in heaviness cannot despatch their work as they were wont; so neither doth the Spirit. if we grieve the Holy Ghost, how should we expect that he should comfort us? It is a foul fault to grieve a father; what then the Spirit? Delicata res est Spiritus Dei, saith Tertullian, God's Spirit is a delicate thing, and must not be vexed. "It is a holy thing, that Spirit of that God" (so the original hath it, το πνευμα το αγιον του Θεου), "whereby we are sealed," and so are declared to be the excellent ones of the earth; for whatsoever is sealed, that is excellent in its own kind, as Isaiah 28:25, hordeum signatum, sealed barley, &c.