Holy Ghoft. As for this laft, the Sin against the Holy Ghoft, I fhall treat of it the next Time we meet. But, for the other Texts, I hope I have made it appear, that the Perfons I now speak of are no ways concerned in any of them, for I fuppofe the Perfons, that have thefe Apprehensions of themselves, do profefs themselves Christians, and have never fallen off from that.Profeffion; tho' poffibly they may have been guilty of many other grievous Sins: They have never renounced their Lord and Master Chrift, or turned Apoftates from his Religion; but have always owned him and it, both in publick and private: Tho' poffibly their Lives and Practices have not been, in all refpects, fo fuitable, as they ought to have been, to fuch a Profeffion.

Now, if the Cafe be thus with them, I think it has been made out, with Evidence enough, that they cannot be guilty of any of the Crimes mentioned in thefe Texts. That is to fay, they have neither finned the wilful Sin, nor fallen away after inlightening; nor finned the Sin unto Death: Since thefe Crimes import, neither more nor less than an Apoftacy from the Christian Religion, and going over either to Atheism or Heathenifm, or fome other Religion that is contrary to the Chriftian.

But Thirdly and Laftly, let no Man from hence, or upon this Account that he hath not finned the Sin unto Death, incourage

himself

himself in any evil Course or Habit of Sin, feem it never fo flight and excufable to him. There are a hundred Ways of going to Hell, besides these Sins I have been treating of; and far the greatest part that are now concluded in eternal Mifery, it is probable, never finned in this kind. Every wilful Sin, or habit of Sin, continued in, be it never fo plaufible or fashionable,be there never fo many Pleas and Apologies to be made for it, from Temper and Conftitution, from Business and. Intereft, or from the Mode and Custom of the Place where we live; I fay, all fuch Sins perfifted in will as certainly destroy a Man's Salvation, as the Sin against the Holy Ghoft.

O, therefore, let no Man indulge himfelf in any evil Courfe, that God's Law hath declared againft, in hopes that it will be eafily paffed by, because it is none of those enormous Crimes, that do continually fly in a Man's Face, and have a Mark of Infamy put upon them,by the Laws of the Country. Why any known Sin, encouraged and perfisted in, and never repented of, may prove as fatal to a Man's Soul as a Torrent of open Impieties. And again, let no Man indulge himfelf in any evil Course, in confidence that he hath not yet finned, beyond a probability of Pardon, or in profpect that hereafter he may repent. This is a moft intolerable prefumption upon God's Mercy, and it is the readiest Course we can take to provoke God Vol. III,

to

1

to withdraw his Grace from us, and to give us up to hardness of Heart and final Impenitency. And, when it once comes to that, our eternal State is concluded, and we have indeed finned a Sin unto Death in one Senfe, and no Prayers or Interceffions will be available for us. But, as the Apostle faid in this very Cafe, fo I hope I may fay to you, Brethren I am perfuaded better things of you, and things that accompany Salvation, tho' I thus Speak.

I pray God give us all Grace to confider the Things that belong to our everlasting Salvation, and, in pursuance thereof, to hold the Profeffion of our Faith unto the End, and to bring forth Fruits fuitable to that Profeffion, by a righteous and fober and godly Converfation: This God Almighty grant for the fake of his dear Son, to whom, &c.

SER

SERMON XI.

MATTH. XII. 31, 32.

Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of Sin and Blafphemy fhall be forgiven unto Men, but the Blafphemy of the Holy Ghost Shall not be forgiven unto Men. And whofoever Speaketh a Word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him, but whofoever Speaketh a Word against the Holy Ghost it fhall not be forgiven him, neither in this World nor in the World to come.

T is my Defign, at this Time, to
give an Account of this difficult
Text, and, in doing that, to ex-

plain the Nature of that Sin, which in common Speech we call the Sin against the Holy Ghoft. I have obferved how much that Sin is often mistaken, and what trouble and perplexities of Mind have hence arifen to well meaning People, but especially thofe that are Hypocondriack in their Tempers. I thought, therefore, that a plain Account of this might be of fome Ser

vice.

Q2

There

227

There are many Sins against the Holy Ghost. Whosoever grieveth the Spirit, or quencheth the Spirit, both which Things St. Paul cautions the Chriftians against, finneth againft the Holy Ghoft. Ananias and Sapphira, in the Lie they told St. Peter, are faid to lie against the Holy Ghost. St. Stephen calls the ftubbornefs and difobedience of the Jews to the Admonitions of the Prophets a refifting the Holy Ghoft, and confequently a Sin againft him. Simon Magus his Sin, in offering to purchase the Gift of the Spirit with Money, was a Sin against the Holy Ghost.

But none of these feem to be the Sin against the Holy Ghoft; the Sin which, by way of Eminence, we call fo, and of which we are now to treat. The not observing this Diftinction has given occafion to many of thofe Notions, concerning this great Sin, which have too often perplexed the Confciences of weak Perfons.

For the finding out what this Sin is, we muft take the Scriptures for our Guide, and them only; nay, we must keep close to the very Words and Phrases, in which it is there spoken of, having also a special regard to the Occafion of those Speeches.

The neglect of this is another Reason, why Men have been fo different, and fome of them fo unlucky, in their Apprehenfions, and Definitions of this Sin; running away with this, that the Sin is unpardonable, they

look