tation does not fufficiently difference this fin from all o ther forts of fins, which, it is yet very plain, our Saviour intended to do. It remains then, that these words must in all reason be understood abfolutely, that the perfons that are guilty of this great fin, fhall never have it forgiven unto them. And it may be this will not feem fo harsh, when we have confidered, in the

IV. Fourth place, How it comes to pass that this fin is above all others incapable of pardon? and that upon thefe two accounts.

1. Because, by this fin, men refift their last remedy, and oppose the best and utmost means of their conviction. What can God be imagined to do more, to convince a man of a divine revelation, or of the truth of any do&trine or meffage that comes from him, than to work miracles to this purpofe? and what greater affurance can men have that miracles are wrought, than to be eyewitneffes of them themselves? and if men will refift such evidence, what can God do more for their fatisfaction? If, when men fee plain miracles wrought, they will fay, that it is not the power of God that does them, but the power of the devil; and if, when men fee the devils caft out, they will fay that the devil confpires against himself: this is to outface the fun at noon-day, and there is no way left to convince fuch perverse persons of the truth of any divine revelation. So that there is no remedy but fuch perfons muft continue in their oppofition to the truth. For this is fuch a fin, as does in its own nature fhut out and prevent all remedy. And he that thus perverfely and maliciously opposeth the truth, must upon the fame grounds unavoidably continue in his oppofition to it; because there is nothing left to be done for his conviction, more than is already done. If God fhould fend a perfon immediately from heaven to him to convince him of his error, he can give him no greater teftimony that he' comes from God than miracles: and if, when God enables that perfon to work thefe by the power of his Spirit, this man will obftinately impute them to the power of the devil, he defeats all the imaginable means of his own conviction. So that it is no wonder if that fin be unpardonable, which refifts the laft and utmost means which God hath ever yet thought fit to use to bring men

to

to repentance and falvation. And if God were willing to reveal himself, and the way to pardon and falvation, to fuch a one, he doth by this very temper and difpofition render himself incapable of being fatisfied and convinced concerning any divine revelation.

2. Because this fin is of that high nature, that God is therefore justly provoked to withdraw his grace from fuch perfons; and it is probable refolved fo to do; without which grace they will continue impenitent. There is no doubt but God, if he will, can work fo powerfully upon the minds of men by his grace and Spirit, as to convince the most obftinate; and fuppofing them to be convinced, and repent, it cannot be denied but that they would be forgiven. And therefore, when our Saviour here fays they fhall not be forgiven, it is reasonable to fuppofe that he means, that, when perfons are come to that degree of obftinacy and malice, God will, as juftly he may, withdraw his grace from them: His Spirit will not frive with them, to overcome their obftinacy, but will leave them to the bias of their own perverfe and malicious minds; which will still engage them in a farther oppofition to the truth, and finally fink them into perdition. So that, being deferted by God, and for want of the neceffary help and aid of his grace, juftly withdrawn from them, continuing finally impenitent, they become incapable of forgiveness, both in this world, and that which is to come. And there is nothing that can seem harsh or unreasonable in this, to those who grant, as I think all men do, that God may be fo provoked by men as justly to withdraw his grace from them in this life, that grace which is neceffary to their repentance. And furely, if any provocation be likely to do it, this cannot be denied to be of all others the greateft, obftinately and maliciously to oppose the utmost evidence that God ever gave to the truth of any doctrine revealed by him. And of this the Pharifees, who are here charged with this fin against the Holy Ghoft, were notoriously guilty, in refifting the clear evidence of our Saviour's miracles.

And thus I have done with the four things I propounded to inquire into from these words, namely, the difference between Speaking against the Son of man, and Speaking against the Holy Ghof; wherein the nature of

this fin, or blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft, does confift; and in what fenfe this fin is faid to be unpardonable; and upon what account it is fo; namely, because men by this fin refift their last remedy, and oppose the beft and utmost means of their conviction; and becaufe it may reasonably be fuppofed, that, upon a provocation of this high nature, God may, and is refolved to withdraw that grace from fuch perfons which is neceffary to their repentance, without which their fin remains for ever unpardonable.

All that now remains is, to make this difcourfe fome way or other ufeful to ourselves. And it may very well ferve to these two purposes. . To comfort fome very good and pious perfons, who are liable to despair, out of an apprehenfion that they have committed this fin. 2. To caution others against the approaches to it.

1. To comfort fome very good and pious perfons, who are liable to defpair, upon an apprehenfion that they have committed this great and unpardonable fin; and confequently are utterly incapable of ever being restored to the mercy and favour of God. And nothing can be more for the comfort of fuch perfons, than to underftand aright what the nature of this fin is, and where in the heinousness of it doth confift; which I have endea+ voured to manifeft. And if this be the nature of it which I have declared, as it seems very plain that it is, then I cannot fee how any perfon now is likely to be in those circumstances as to be capable of committing it. And being a fin of fo heinous a nature, and declared by our Saviour to be abfolutely unpardonable, there is no rea fon to extend it beyond the cafe to which our Saviour ap plies it; which was, the refifting of the evidence of the miracles which were wrought for the truth of Christiani→ ty by those who were eye-witneffes of them; that is, by thofe who had the utmost affurance of them that human nature is capable of: and not only a bare resistance of that evidence, but with a very malicious circumstance, fo as to impute thofe works which were wrought by the Holy Ghoft, to the power of the devil. This was the cafe of the Pharifees, whom our Saviour chargeth with this fin. And no body hath warrant to extend this fin any farther than this cafe: and without good warrant,

it

it would be the most uncharitable thing in the world to extend it any farther.

That which comes nearest to it, both in the heinouf nefs of the crime, and the unpardonablenefs of it, is to tal apoftafy from Christianity, after the embracing of it, and full conviction of the truth of it. And this the scripture seems to place, if not in the fame rank, yet very near to it. And of this the Apostle fpeaks very often in the epiftle to the Hebrews under the name of unbelief, and fin, by way of eminence, as being the great fin that Chriftians were in danger of falling into, called in that epiftle (Heb. xii. 1.) й UTEρisatos quaprila, the fin which Christians, by reafon of the circumstances they were then in, were especially fubject to and he parallels it with the cafe of the Jews in the wildernefs, concerning whom God fware that they should not enter into his reft, namely, the earthly Canaan, which was a type of heaven, chap.iii. 18: and chap. vi. 4. 5. 6. more exprefsly: For it is impoffible for those who were once enlightened, and have tafted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tafted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they fould fall away, to renew them again to repentance; where, by impoffible, the leaft that can be meant is, that it is extremely difficult for fuch persons to recover themfelves by repentance. And it is obfervable, that those perfons are faid to have been partakers of the Holy Ghoft; by which is meant, that they were endued with a power of miracles by the Holy Ghoft, or were under the conviction of them, as having feen them wrought by others. So that this apostasy may be faid in that refpect to be a fin against the Holy Ghoft. So likewife, chap. x. 26. If we fin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, (that is, if we apoftatife from Chriftianity after we have embraced the profeffion of it, as appears plainly from the scope of the Apoftle's difcourfe), there remains no more facrifice for fin: which expreffion declares this fin either to be unpardonable, or fomething very like it. And, at the 29th verfe, thofe perfons are faid to tread under foot the Son of God, and to do defpite unto the Spirit of grace; which fignifies, that the fin there spoken of is more immediately committed against

the

St. Peter likewise declares

the Holy Spirit of God. the great danger of this fin, 2 Pet. ii. 20. If after they have efcaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, they are again intangled therein, and overcome; the latter end is worfe with them than the beginning. St. John likewife feems to speak of this fin of apoftafy, and to call it a fin unto death; difcouraging Chriftians rather from praying for those who were fallen into it; which gives great fufpicion, that he looked upon it as hardly pardonable: 1 John v. 16. If any man fee his brother fin a fin not unto death, he fhall afk, and he shall give him life for thofe that fin not unto death. There is a fin unto death; I do not fay that he shall pray for it. Now, that by the fin unto death, the Apostle here means apoftafy from the Christian religion to the Heathen idolatry, feems extremely probable from what follows, y 18. We know that whofoever is born of God, finneth not; but keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not; that is, he preferveth himself from idolatry, which the devil had feduced the world into:

19. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness, T Tovnp, in the wicked one; that is, under the power of the devil: And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us understanding to know him that is true; that is, to distinguish between the true God and idols. And then it follows, This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep your felves from idols. Which last caution is a key to the underftanding of all the reft; and makes it very probable, that the fin unto death is apoftafy from Christianity unto idolatry: otherwise it is hard to imagine, how the last clause comes in, Little children, keep yourselves from idols. And this is that fin which of all others approacheth nearest to this fin against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour speaks of, and concerning the pardonableness of which the fcripture feems to speak very doubtfully. But if it were of the fame unpardonable nature, yet this can be no trouble to thofe perfons I am speaking of, who cannot but know themselves to be far enough from the guilt of this fin.

As for those other fins which by fome are taken to be the fins against the Holy Ghoft, they are either fuch as

perhaps