Sin is the transgression of the law; blasphemy, when applied to men, is injurious and calumnious speaking; and when considered as a crime against the Divine Majesty, it consists in reproachful speeches uttered against God, or in a denial to him of those attributes and excellencies which, according to the revelation he has been pleased to make of himself, he is known to possess; and thus in both cases includes in it the idea of wilful and rebellious enmity. For all such blasphemy there is, however, forgiveness upon repentance; but for that particular blasphemy which consists, as expressed in the next verse, in speaking against the Holy Ghost,—that is, saying, in opposition to all evidence, and against reasonable conviction, that the "Spirit of God," by which our Lord cast out devils, was the unclean and evil spirit, Satan himself, and doing this from enmity to the kingdom and truth of God, which by these miracles the Holy Spirit attested and established,-there is no forgiveness. Nothing can be more clear, than that this is the unpardonable blasphemy of which our Lord speaks, and that these are the circumstances under which it was committed. Blasphemy, or speaking against the Son of Man, was remissible; such as denying his Messiahship, calling him a wine-bibber and gluttonous, &c.; all which, though high and dangerous crimes, yet were not excluded from the divine mercy. But when, after the Pharisees had always admitted, according to the faith of their nation, that devils could not be cast out but by the Spirit of God, and had seen how intimately connected all the works of Christ were with a holy doctrine and a holy life, they were so far influenced by their wicked passions, as to resist that evidence of a divine power in his case, which they admitted in other cases, the cases of their own children or disciples, to be conclusive; and when they audaciously attributed that power exerted by Christ to Satan himself, of which they had sufficient proof, even upon their own principles, that it could only proceed from the Spirit of God, and yet, after all, wilfully and most wickedly, said of the power of the Holy Spirit,

"This is the working of Beelzebub himself," this fatal offence was committed. Our Lord had thrown a veil around him by his humility, which often hid the glory of his majesty, so that men might for a time question who he might be. Not so the Holy Spirit: he fully revealed himself in the works of Christ; so that had they been performed by the meanest of their prophets, the Pharisees would have acknowledged in them the finger of God, which now they denied; and therefore they sinned directly and wilfully against the Holy Ghost This was their blasphemy and their crime, and our Lord solemnly declares that those who had been guilty of it should not be forgiven, neither in this life, nor in the world to come. This phrase is equivalent to, "Shall never at any future time be forgiven;" hence Mark expresses it, "Is in danger of eternal damnation." There is no reference in this expression to the notions of the Jews, that some sins would be forgiven to the seed of Abraham after death; for it is not probable that our Lord would seem to sanction so unscriptural an opinion by even an allusion: nor is "the world" or age "to come" to be understood, with others, of the age of the Messiah; for that had already commenced. The expression, as appears from similar phrases in the later Jewish writers, was proverbial for never; or, if there was in it any reference to a future state, it signifies, that as in this life that sin could not be forgiven, so, at the day of judgment, there could be no eclardation of its having been forgiven, though the forgiveness of sins of every other description will then be made manifest and publicly proclaimed So clearly is the nature of this sin marked, that it is somewhat surprising that there should have been so much difference of opinion respecting it. One of the least defensible notions is that which refers it forward to the rejection of the gospel after the Holy Ghost had been shed forth in his miraculous gifts; whereas, the very occasion on which our Lord uses the words, and the particular character of the crime itself, which consisted in attributing the casting out of devils by the Spirit of God to the agency

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of Satan, proves indubitably that the sin might not only at that time be committed, but was actually so. The chief differences of opinion have, however, arisen, not from any difficulty in ascertaining in what the original crime consisted, but from the questions, how far others beside the Pharisees could be guilty of it; and from what its irremissibility arose. to the first, it is difficult to say whether those Jews who might see the miracles of the Holy Spirit wrought by the apostles, and ascribe them to Satan, did not also commit precisely the same offence. They probably did; but still we have no authority for saying that this sin could be committed by any but the eye-witnesses of the miracles themselves, or at least by those who fully admitted them as FACTS. We are likewise to recollect, that there are blasphemies often committed against the Holy Ghost, of a deeply aggravated and dangerous nature, by infidels and scoffers and apostates, which are not THE blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; and these are not to be confounded with it, though awfully criminal. As to the second question, in what the irremissibility of this sin consisted, perhaps it is best for us at once to confess our ignorance. Certain it is, that the pretended solution of those who make it merely a consequence of the nature of the offence, cannot be admitted, because in that respect it stands on the same ground as many other offences. The Pharisees, they tell us, by resisting the strongest evidence put themselves beyond the possibility of being convinced of the truth, because no higher evidence could be given them: but this was equally true of all obstinate unbelievers then, though many of them were not charged with this particular offence; and it is also equally true of aii unbelievers now, who have received all the evidence which God intends to afford. The only satisfactory conclusion on this awful subject is, that God was pleased to

make this exception from the mercies of his gospel as a warning to all mankind, who, if not capable of committing that precise sin, may all make dangerous approaches to it. It was designed to exhibit the evil of spiritual pride and bigotry; to show that there are sins of the INTELLECT and WILL, as well as of the senses, most hateful to God, because leading to a malignant opposition to his holy truth; and that a state of heart is attainable by perseverance in sin, from which the insulted Holy Spirit, after much patience, takes his everlasting flight, and leaves the sinner incapable of repentance. Still, while it operates as a warning, by showing how awful a degree of depravity man is capable of, there is no just ground for any apprehensions to be entertained by pious and scrupulous minds; for, not to urge that the fears of such persons are a sufficient proof that they have not committed this greatest of all offences, it may be confidently concluded, that as those only are charged with the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost who saw the miracles of Christ performed, and yet attributed them to Satan, so no one in these later times can be guilty of this particular crime, and no one is therefore, on that account, excluded from forgiveness. We have no right to enlarge an EXCEPTION from the mercies of the gospel, beyond its strict letter. If any exception to a general rule demands a severely rigid interpretation, it is this, which stands in direct opposition to the general character of the covenant of grace.

Verse 33. Either make the tree good, &c. -The connexion of these words with the Pharisees appears to lie in their being an exhortation to them to put off the guise of hypocrisy, and to appear to be what they were in reality. As you have uttered blasphemy against God, pretend no more to sanctity and reverence for sacred things either retract your blasphemies, or show that you are or

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mockers and contemners of God; for that you are so in reality, your conduct in reviling the Holy Spirit, rather than acknowledge a doctrine attested by him, sufficiently proves; for the tree is known by his fruit.

Verse 34. O generation of vipers, &c. He compares them to the exidvai, the most deadly of the serpent brood, because of the malignity of their dispositions, and the fatal venom of their tongues. "The poison of asps" was truly "under their lips." And how many were infected by their slanders against Christ, and by that wicked hypothesis which destroyed the force of the evidence of the miracles of Christ, by accounting for them on the principle of Satanic agency, the increasing unsuccessfulness of his ministry was the awful proof. A ministry which commenced by making so general and favourable an impression upon vast multitudes, gradually seemed to excite little but prejudiced and malignant objections; except that now and then the people in some places, for a time, and but for a time, manifested somewhat of a more docile spirit. Yet were the scribes and Pharisees always at hand to wither every ap pearance of good. The poison of deadly serpents was not more fatal to life, than their blasphemies to the souls of men; and our Lord therefore adds, carrying on this allusion to their blasphemous slanders, How can ye, being evil, wholly evil, having evil substantiated in your whole nature, speak good things? for out of the abundance, K του περισσευμαίος, out of the exuberance, the overflowing abundance, of

the heart, the mouth speaketh; that is, when the heart is so fully charged that it can no longer restrain, the mouth will declare the quality of the principles and passions by which it is so powerfully actuated; and thus, by the blasphemies uttered by the Pharisees, their true character was unveiled, and the full-charged wickedness of their hearts wholly laid open.

Verse 35. The good treasure of his heart, &c.-Tns kapdias is wanting in so many Mss. and versions, that it was probably a marginal addition from St. Luke, where it occurs, Luke vi. 45. But the sense is not altered by omitting or retaining it. The treasure, or rather the treasury, is the heart; but the treasury is put metaphorically for what is contained in it. In the case of a good man there are laid up in the heart wisdom, holy principles, and all the benevolent affections; the heart of an evil man is a treasury, a receptacle charged with error, prejudice, sensuality, irreligion, envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. The word Onσaupos does not necessarily convey the idea of value that depends upon the quality of the articles collected and deposited. These may be gold, silver, precious stones," corn, wine, and oil," or "firebrands, arrows, and death;" the heart being often a magazine of all hurtful and deadly tempers and emotions, like that of the Pharisees here so strongly reproved. These our Lord calls evil trea

sures.

Verse 36. Every idle word that men skall speak, Sc.-The words here referred to

sees,

are not those trifling and unprofitable words which are not meant to injure others, or to convey falsehood; for, however blameable these are, and often endangering to men's spiritual interests, and therefore to their souls, our Lord has still reference to the blasphemous slanders of the Phariand to that state of the heart which renders it impossible for those he describes as being evil to speak good things, as the context shows. The primitive sense of apyos is idle or useless, from a, negative, and epyos, work. It is, however, itself a vague term, the sense of which must be determined by the context. Origen says that apyos Xoyos, in the language of logicians, was used to express a sophism or false reasoning, employed with a view to deceive. The meaning of our Lord appears to be, that, as for every calumnious word, the malice of which consisted in the design to make a false impression, which men may speak, they shall be condemned at the last day, so did the Pharisees render themselves liable to the just judgment of God by those blasphemous slanders in which they had indulged with the design of making him odious to the people. From this particular case he, however, according to his custom, deduces a great general truth. Words, as well as actions, are to be the subjects of solemn account at the last day; and the abuse of speech not less than the abuse of any other faculty shall subject men to condemnation. What account then will mere triflers give, men who spend life in useless talking and "foolish jesting," in singing vain songs, and framing vain witticisms? But still more severe will be the punishment of the censorious, of

"lying lips," and especially of those whose tongues have been employed in uttering corrupt doctrines, misleading and destructive to the souls of men !

Verse 37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, &c.-Words as well as actions shall be exhibited as proofs of character, and be evidence in that day for or against every man; by them too, as far as words are the matter of judicial decision, he shall be acquitted or condemned.

Verses 38, 39. We would see a sign from thee, &c. They probably meant, as they expressed it on other occasions, a sign FROM HEAVEN." Perhaps they urge this as their apology for not being convinced by his miracles, as though greater power was required to produce some preternatural appearance in the atmosphere, than to raise the dead, or cast out devils, and to heal the sick by a word or touch; or, as though upon their own theory, as wicked as absurd, that Christ was in league with Satan, that mighty spirit could not as easily produce a portent in the heavens as any other miraculous work which they pretended to ascribe to him. Their fellow-infidels, in all ages, have demanded different evidence from that which God has been pleased to give, and with the same insincerity. He who is unconvinced by proofs so stupendous as those on which Christianity rests, is an unbeliever, not for want of evidence, but from some evil bias upon his judgment and will, which no additional demonstration could remedy. Thus our Lord here traces the unbelief of the scribes and Pharisees to its true source: an evil and adulterous generation, pretending not to be convinced by miracles which have made

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manifest "the finger of God," still seeketh after a sign, and that in the same unbelieving spirit. The reason of this was, that they were evil and adulterous, as their polygamy, frequent divorces, and, other sensualities, so general among them though covered by their hypocrisy, or defended by their immoral casuistry, sufficiently proved. Where such deep immoralities prevailed, immersing men in the very dregs of sensuality, unbelief was sufficiently accounted for, as well as their fierce hatred of the pure and self-denying doctrines taught by Christ.

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Verse 40. As Jonas was three days and three nights, &c.—That the prophet Jonah was a type of Christ, is not to be deduced from these words. He was now, on this occasion, made by our Lord sign" and the reason was, that our Lord, who now for the first time lays down his resurection from the dead as the grand SIGN and DEMONSTRATIVE evidence of the truth of all his claims, chose, for obvious reasons, to speak of this event enigmatically, and to fix upon that part of the history of Jonah, his being three days and three nights in the belly of the fish which had swallowed him, so that his meaning might not be fully-explained until after

the event.

The whale's belly.-This is an unfortunate translation, both because neither the Hebrew nor the Greek term necessarily signifies a whale, but only a great fish, or sea monster; and because, in fact, whales are not found in the Mediterranean sea, into which the disobedient prophet was cast. The shark, or the lamia, or canis carcharius, might be the fish employed on this miraculous occasion.

Three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The heart of the earth is beneath its surface, as Jonah was said to be in "the heart" of the sea, though not in its middle or centre. A similar mode

of speaking occurs in Ezek. xxviii. 2: "Tyre, in the heart of the sea," because nearly surrounded by it, though not far from the land. The Jewish mode of computing time will explain the phrase three days and three nights, which according to our modes of reckoning far exceeds the time during which our Lord lay in the grave. With them, a day and a night was the same portion of time as a day; for, like us, they had no one word, says Bishop Pearce, by which to express a day of twenty-four hours, or a vvxonμepov, as the Greeks called it; that is, a night-day. They sometimes called it a day, as we do; but at other times a day and a night, or a night and a day; so that we are to understand by the expression three days and three nights, three days as we should express it, reckoning inclusively the first and the last for two days, though only parts of days, and counting those parts of days for whole days. “A part," say the Rabbins, "of an onah or Jewish day, is as the whole." Thus in computing the circumcision of eight days, if the child is born an hour before the evening, when the day began, that hour of the day is reckoned as one whole day. Thus as to our Lord's remaining in the grave, Friday is reckoned one day, Saturday the second, Sunday the third; Saturday commencing on the evening of the Friday. He was laid in the grave a little before sunset on the Friday or the sixth day, which space being part of the day was reckoned as the whole; he continued there the night and day following, which was the seventh day; and rose again early on the first day, during a part of which therefore he was also in the grave, and this part according to the Jewish mode was considered as the whole; so that to say he was three days and three nights in the grave, was very easy to be understood, and created no difficulty with the Jews,