heretics do blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and yet have remission ;' but he certainly concludeth final impenitence, which he took this sin to consist in, to be unpardonable.

The papists commonly say that, of divers sorts of the sin against the Holy Ghost, only final impenitency is absolutely unpardonable; but all the rest are more hardly forgiven than other sins. So the Rhemists, against whom Dr. Fulk contendeth that this sin is never forgiven. Lyra saith it is not easily pardoned. Erasmus speaketh yet more doubtfully, that he shall scarce have pardon.

Maldonate will be stricter than Chrysostom, and therefore blameth him for expounding it of a more difficult obtaining of pardon; and doth himself expound it of an impossibility of pardon, as considering simply the nature of the sin which hath no excuse; but not impossible to God, who can pardon that which is inexcusable, as it is impossible for a rich man to enter into heaven, as to any human power, but possible with God. Thus he falls in with Chrysostom while he seemeth to dissent.

So Cajetan expoundeth, 'It shall not be forgiven,' that is, not pardoned regularly. There is no rule to assure it; but yet saith he, 'God is above all rules.'

The Lutheran divines also, do many of them, go that way of making this sin remissible.

Wigandus and Mat. Index in Syntagm. Doct.Christian, (part ii. page 712, and 716,) make it to be unpardonable while he remaineth in it; but labour to prove that we must not wholly despair of such as commit this sin, but that some of them may be recovered. But C. Pelargus doth contend for the absolute unpardonableness of it, against Bellarmine, Barradius, Salmeron, with their associates, in Matt. xii.

Grotius pleadeth for Chrysostom's sense, and those that go that way, and from "Heaven and earth shall pass away," &c., (Matt. v.,) which is, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than my word," &c. (Luke xvi. 17.) He gathereth that the former member doth not affirm, but make the latter more difficult; and so he thinks there is here such a Hebraism; and the sense he giveth thus, Any crime that can be can be committed, even calumnies, which are among the greatest crimes, shall more easily be forgiven than that calumny which is committed against the Holy Ghost.' Like that, 1 Sam. ii. 25. "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall plead for him?”

6

But the reformed divines do commonly expound it of absolute unpardonableness, and judge all the former expositions of those ancients, and papists, and Lutherans, to be forced and unsound.

6

Some question there is also about the distinction of forgiving in this life, or the life to come; whence the papists would vainly gather their purgatory; but the reformed divines, and the ancients commonly, do expound it one of these ways: either as if he should say, 'He shall be punished both in this life and that to come;' or, 'he shall neither have the temporal nor eternal punishment remitted;' or, he shall neither be forgiven and absolved by the church here, nor by Christ hereafter:' or simply, he shall never be forgiven :' or, he shall neither have that Gospel pardon, which all true believers have in this life, nort that sentential absolution which they shall have in judgment.' (See Dr. John Reignolds, of this de lib. Apocr.) 'What Christ speaketh about the unpardonableness of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, is in direct facing of their tenet, which held that blasphemy was atoned for by death, though by nothing else;' saith Dr. Lightfoot, Harmon. of N. T.," (sect. xxxv. page 30,) for which he citeth the words of the Talmud.

6

The fifth question is: What are the reasons why this sin is more unpardonable than others?

Some say, because it is against God himself directly, and not only against Christ as man. Others, because it is that high degree of malicious wickedness, which is in the devils themselves, and therefore not fit for God to forgive: because, saith Ambrose, it makes the Saviour of all to be like Beelzebub, and placeth God's grace in the devil's kingdom. Many say, because others' sins deserve some excuse, that is, may admit excuse; but this hath no excuse. So divers of the ancients, as Theodoret, (in Heb. x.,) of the sinning wilfully there mentioned, which is taken to be the same. "That which is not wilfully done,' saith he, 'deserveth some pardon,' that is, is capable of it. So that it seems they mean there is nothing in this sin which may move to mercy, or to abate the punishment, as matter of excuse. So, also, Maldonate, and many of his way. Our divines ordinarily say, 'because it excludeth repentance;' "not,' saith Musculus, 'because it is against conscience; but because it is not repented of.' 'And that is,' say they, 'because through God's just judgment they are given unto blindness and to a reprobate sense, and forsaken

utterly by the Holy Ghost, whom they have maliciously sinned against.'

Some very few run into that mistake, as to fly rather to God's eternal decree of not giving them repentance, than to the nature of the sin that makes them incapable of it; but this putteth no difference between them and the rest of the non-elect. That which sticks with these is, that they are loth to yield that Christ died for those that sin against the Holy Ghost, or for any but the elect; and, therefore, they are loth to confess that he procured for them and bestowed on them the illumination or other gifts of the Holy Ghost, which they reject, as if they were given to them as mercies and means tending to recovery, and therefore they would not yield that for rejecting such means and mercies they are 'unpardonable.

Erasmus giveth in his thoughts thus, of the reason of the unpardonableness of this sin: "He that sinneth of frailty and is fit for pardon, shall have it; but he that blasphemeth the Holy Ghost, whose manifest power he seeth in his works, shall scarce have pardon here or hereafter." (See Amyraldus, his way of opening this De Economia trium personarum,' p. 45, et sequentib.)

6

This variety of expositions is no disparagement to the words of Christ, but showeth, as Austin saith, and out of him Cameranus in Conciliat. hujus loc.,' that such depths are left for our exercise and humiliation.

Sect. III.

Having told you the judgment of learned expositors about this text, and the nature of this sin against the Holy Ghost, I shall next presume to tell you which I take to be the true sense of the words, and what this sin is, and how far unpardonable, and why, seeing among such variety of expositions we cannot receive all; and I shall lay down my thoughts in several propositions: First, for the negative, which is not this sin, and then as to the affirmative, what it is.

1. Every gross sin after baptism, or after solemn repentance and confession of the baptised, is not the sin against the Holy Ghost. This we assert against the Novatians (if they be not wronged) it is proved, in that many such have been known to repent and be recovered: as, also, because there is no description of this sin in the Scripture agreeth to it.

2. Every sin, yea, gross sin, which is committed against knowledge and conscience, is not the sin against the Holy Ghost;

else all men that commit gross sin, who are men of any knowledge or conscience, should be guilty of it, or most men at least ; and none should be more guilty than those true believers that fall into any gross sin, as David did; for, doubtless, their knowledge of it is greatest, and their conscience most likely to rise up against it.

3. Every sin, though gross, which is committed upon deliberation and consideration of God's prohibition and displeasure of Christ's death, of the evil of the sin, the ill effects, and the like moving reasons against it, is not the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is here spoken of. Though these be heinous aggravations of any sin, (and it is a very sad case that any that fear God should in such manner offend,) and will likely raise doubts of their sincerity in their hearts, and well may do in any that should frequentle do this; yet here is no evidence to prove it to be the unpardonable sin.

4. It is not every sin against the Holy Ghost, no, nor every blasphemy against him, that is this unpardonable blasphemy here mentioned; for then, every one that ignorantly blasphemed him, should be unpardonable; and, then, few Jews, or Turks, or infidels, that have lived within the sound of the Gospel, should be curable, and so pardonable.

5. It is not all opposing or persecuting the known truth, which is the sin against the Holy Ghost; it may be a particular truth and not the main christian faith, that is so opposed; or it may be done in a spleen against the person that holdeth it, rather than against the truth itself; or it may be done by fear of men, to escape some outward danger or suffering: as some in Queen Mary's days were noted to burn others against their consciences, lest they should be suspected of heresy themselves; and one is said to sit with others in judgment against one of them contrary to his conscience, who afterwards suffered himself or else it may be from an imperfect light, not thoroughly convincing him of the truth, but leaving him in some doubts that he holdeth that truth, who yet by temptation may persecute it, as making against some lust or carnal interest of his own: and if it will not prove murder or adultery to be the sin against the Holy Ghost, because they are done deliberately and against conscience, as David's were, I see not then, how it should prove persecution to be that sin on that account that it is against conscience; although perhaps it may prove the person graceless. 6. It is not all malice against God, or hatred of him, that is this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, for there are haters of

God of a lower rank mentioned in the second commandment and other places of Scripture; yea, every man, at least, that is unregenerate, hath some of this sin. Our natural apostasy lieth in a falling from God to our carnal selves and the creature; and consequently in an enmity to him, as one that would cross us in our way, and take us off our desired pleasures, and punish us for our sin; though we do not say, that every man is a hater of God, who hath any the least hatred to him in his heart, because we must denominate men from the affection that is predominant; otherwise all the godly might be called haters of God, seeing no doubt, so far as they are imperfect, their love to him is imperfect, and they have some measure of displacency against his Spirit and ways, and so himself for them.

7. The sin against the Holy Ghost doth not consist in the hatred of God or his truth as good; for that is not possible, at least to man while he is in the flesh.

8. All persecuting the known truth out of malice, seemeth not to me to be the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is here mentioned; for if there may be a malice against truth in men unregenerate, yea, all of them, though not blasphemers of the Spirit; and if they may persecute the known truth as is before showed, then this inward malice will, or at least may, have a hand in that persecution. The rage of all wicked men's lusts doth boil against whatsoever doth oppose them, and if God do not restrain such rage, and keep the apprehension of the danger of resisting upon their hearts, no wonder if ungodly men do in their passion even persecute the truth in malice, because it crosseth them in the way of their sin.

:

9. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not only the sin of professed Christians, or only of those that approve of Christianity; nor is always against the knowledge and judgment of the sinner and therefore they err that say, that Jews, Turks, and papists, are not liable to this sin; and for aught I see, so do they that would find out such a sin as they describe in this text. They cannot prove that the pharisees here spoken of did believe Christ to be the Son of God, or the Messiah, or that indeed his miracles were done by the Holy Ghost, and not by Beelzebub. For 1. The Scripture saith, even of the rulers, that through ignorance they crucified Christ, and had they known. him, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. 2. It is most improbable that they who so longed for the Messiah should crucify him when they knew him, and yet deny him.