The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 5 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, which is a fourth cause of scruple.
The CONTENTS.
Some good mens fear upon this account. What is mea… in Scripture by the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost or Spirit is taken for the gifts or effects of it; whether they be first ordinary, either in our minds and understandings, or in our wills and tempers; or secondly, extraordinary and miraculous. Extraordinary gifts of all sorts proceed from one and the same Spirit or Holy Ghost; upon which account any of them indifferently are sometimes called Spirit, sometimes Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost and Spirit are frequently distinguished, and then by Holy Ghost is meant extraordinary gifts respecting the understanding; by Spirit extraordinary gifts respecting the executive powers. The summ of this Explication of the Holy Ghost. What sin against it is unpardonable. To sin against the Holy Ghost is to dishonour him. This is done in every act of sin, but these are not unpardonable. What the unpardonable sin is. Of sin against the ordinary endowments of the Holy Ghost, whether of mind or will; the several degrees in this, all of them are pardonable. Of sin against the Spirit. Blaspheming of this comes very near it, and was the sin of the Pharisees, Mat. 12; but it was pardonable. Of sinning against the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost the last means of reducing men to believe the Gospel, that Covenant of Repentance. The sin against it is unpardonable, because such sinners are irreclamable. All dishonour of this is not unpardonable; for Simon Magus dishonoured it in actions, who was yet capable of pardon; but only a blaspheming of it in words. No man is guilty of it whilst he continues Christian.
ANother causless ground of fear, which disquiets the minds, and affrights the hearts of good Christian people, is the sin against the Holy Ghost. They hear very dreadful things spoken of it, for our Saviour Christ who knew it best, and who at the last Day is to judge of it, has told us plainly before-hand, that he who blasphemeth the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come, Mat. 12.32; or, as St Mark expresses it, he shall never have forgiveness, but is liable to eternal damnation, Mark 3.29. This is a fearful Sentence upon a desperate sin; and seeing they are in darkness about it, and do not well understand it, they know not but that they themselves may be guilty of it; nay some of a timorous temper and abused minds go further, and think that they really are.
But to cure their fears, and to quiet their minds in this matter, there needs nothing more be done than to give them right apprehensions, and a clear explication of this sin; for if they once knew what it is, they would be at ease from such tormenting suspicions, and unreasonable fears about it.
To explain this I will consider,
1. What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost.
2. What is meant here by sinning against it.
1. What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost. By the word Holy Ghost or holy Spirit, according to an usual Metonymie of the giver for the gift, or of the cause for the effect, is very often meant the gifts or effects of the holy Spirit, whether they be such as he ordinarily produces in us, or such as are extraordinary and miraculous.
Sometimes it signifies such gifts and dispositions, whether of mind or temper, as the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God, is wont ordinarily to produce in men. It notes, I say, the good qualifications of our minds or understandings, which, as all other good gifts, are wrought in us by the Spirit, and derived to us from God. Thus a man endued with wisdom and discretion, such as Joseph advised Pharaoh to set over all the Land of Egypt, is called a man in whom the Spirit of God is, Gen. 41.33, 38; and the Spirit of the Lord mentioned Isai. 11, is in the very next words explained by the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of knowledge, and the Spirit of quick understanding, vers. 2, 3. It signifies also the vertuous tempers and good qualifications of our hearts, which, like as the former were, are given us of God. Thus that good and charitable temper which is so exemplary in God, and which is wrought in our souls by him, is called the Spirit of God, 1 John 4. If we love one another, God dwells in us; so that a1 John 3.24.hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us that loving temper of his Spirit, ver. 12, 13. The temper which was so observable in Christ is called the Spirit of Christ, Rom. 8.9; the temper of Elias is called the spirit of Elias, Luke 1.17; the Spirit of the Lord is explained by the Spirit of the fear of the Lord, Isai. 11.2; and that spirit which God hath given us, says St Paul, is not the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. 1.7.
Thus doth the Spirit of God signifie many times in Scripture those ordinary gifts and Graces, which are the good effects of the Spirit.
But besides these effects of it in the good endowments and perfections of our natural faculties, whether of mind or temper, which are common and ordinary; sometimes it signifies more especially those gifts which are extraordinary and miraculous. Of which sort are the gift of tongues, of prophecy, of healing Diseases without any natural means, and performing other miraculous operations, so famous in the first times of the Gospel. Thus, for example, that Saying, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, is interpreted by this in the next words, And they shall prophesie, Acts 2.18. And the elder Brothers, which was a double share of the prophetick power of Elias, is called a double portion of his Spirit, 2 Kin. 2.9. And the Corinthians zealous pursuit of the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of prophecy, speaking with tongues, healing diseases, and working miracles; is called by the Apostle their being bforeign.zealous of Spirits, or, as we translate it, of spiritual gifts, 1 Cor. 14.12.
Now as for these extraordinary gifts, they are all wrought in us by the same cause, and proceed from the same Principle, viz. the holy Spirit of God, or the holy Ghost. There are in the Church now in our times, saith the Apostle, diversities of gifts, but yet one and the same Spirit is the Donor of them all. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, or of Gospel truths and revelations; to another the word of knowledg, or discerning of remote things, and prophetical predictions, by the same Spirit; to another faith of his being Divinely assisted to produce supernatural effects; to another miraculous gifts of healing Diseases without use of means, by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles, or the foreign.utmost activity and energy of powers in the highest instances and effects of them, of which sort are raising the Dead, casting out Devils, inflicting bodily torments on contumacious Sinners, &c. to another prophecy, or exposition of Scripture and inspired; Hymns to another discerning of Spirits, both in seeing into mens spiritual thoughts and intentions, and also in discerning who wrought true Miracles, and who Satanical Delusions, who were divinely inspired, and who were mere Pretenders; to another the ecstatick gift of speaking divers kinds of tongues in such rapturous transports as permitted them not to stay to interpret what they said, and made them afterwards forget it; to another the gift of interpreting into the vulgar language of any in the Congregation those strange tongues. But all these diversities of gifts worketh that one and the self same Spirit, dividing all these different gifts to every man severally as he will, 1 Cor. 12.4, 8, 9, 10, 11. And seeing it is the same Spirit or Holy Ghost, which is the Authour and Giver of them all; therefore are they all indifferently called by either name. For sometimes all these extraordinary gifts, both the power of miracles, and the gift of tongues and prophecy, are called the Spirit. Thus when the Apostles began to speak with tongues, and to prophesie, as well as to work miracles and heal diseases, it is said that the Spirit was poured out upon them, Acts 2.17, 18, 19; and all these varieties of gifts o… one sort or other, which are reckoned up by St Paul in this twelfth Chapter to the Corinthians, are attributed to the Spirit, and said to be wrought by it; and the Apostles being filled with the Holy Ghost, and speaking with tongues, is called their speaking by the spirit, —they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, says St Luke, and began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance, Acts 2.4. And in like manner at other times all these same powers, whether of understanding or action, of tongues or miracles, are called the Holy Ghost. Thus the gifts of signs and wonders, and divers miracles, are reckoned among the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Heb. God, says Saint Paul, bearing the Apostles witness, with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and other gifts of the Holy Ghost, ver. 4. And the signs and wonders which were done by the hands of the Apostles, particularly that of healing the lame man, so much taken notice of Acts 3; is said to be the witness of the Holy Ghost, Acts 5.12, 32.
Thus, I say, by reason that all these extraordinary gifts, whether relating to our minds in knowledge and speaking with tongues, or to our executive powers, in healing diseases, and working miracles, proceed all from the self same Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit; the gifts of either sort are called indifferently by either name, being sometimes called the Spirit, and sometimes the Holy Ghost.
But although, as I say for this reason the words Spirit and Holy Ghost are sometimes used promiscuously to signifie all or any of these extraordinary gifts indifferently; yet, what is very material to our purpose, sometimes, nay very frequently, they are dSee the excellent Dr Patrick's Witness to Christ, part 1. chap. 7.distinguished. And then by the Holy Ghost is meant not all extraordinary gifts indifferently, but particularly those which respect our understandings, not executive powers, consisting rather in illumination, than in power and action; of which sort are the gift of tongues, of prophecy, of discerning Spirits, of knowledg, of revelation, and such like. Thus the lying against that part of the gift of discerning Spirits, which consisted in understanding the thoughts and purposes of the heart, is called lying to the Holy Ghost. For so St Peter, who was endowed with this gift, tells Ananias, when he would have imposed upon him; Why hath Satan filled thine heart, saith he, to lye to the Holy Ghost? Acts 5.3. And St Stephen's being filled with an extraordinary revelation of Christ's sitting at God's right hand in Heaven, is called his being filled with the Holy Ghost, Acts 7.55. But more especially the gift of Tongues and Prophecy is dignified with that name. Thus in the 10th Chapter of the Acts, when the Gentiles in Cornelius's house begun to speak with Tongues upon St Peters preaching; it is said, that the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word, and that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, v. 44, 45, 46. The Disciples at Ephesus, who being baptized with the Baptism of John, cannot be supposed ignorant of the many miraculous Cures so much talked of among the Jews, and of the strange effects of the Spirit in Jesus whom John preached; did yet tell Paul, that they had not so much as heard of the Holy Ghost, Act. 19.2; which might very well be, because the Holy Ghost, or gift of Tongues and Prophecy, were not given till after Jesus was glorified, Joh. 7.39. But upon the preaching of St Paul they were made partakers of it, for when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied, Act. 19.6. And to name no more instances in this matter, that place which I now hinted in the 7th Chapter of St John, is a full proof of this restrained acceptation. For there after all the instances of curing diseases, casting out Devils, and other effects of the Spirit in miraculous operations, which Christ shewed wheresoever he came; it is yet expresly affirmed, that the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified by his Exaltation to the right hand of God, v. 39. The Holy Ghost, i. e. these gifts of Tongues, of Prophecy, and the like, which are all that remained still to be shed abroad, and which came upon the Apostles at the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, Act. 2.
Thus is the Holy Ghost set to denote, not all the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit promiscuously, but particularly those which respect the mind or understanding; such as the gift of Tongues, of Prophecy, of deep Knowledge, and the like.
And on the other side as for the word Spirit, it is set to express, not all extraordinary gifts and effects of the Spirit in general, but those by name which respect our executive, not knowing powers, and which consist, not in illumination, but in action. Of which sort are the gift of healing diseases, of casting out Devils, of raising the dead, and other miraculous operations. Thus the miraculous courage and valour which was given to Othoniel, is called the Spirit of the Lord, Judg. 3.10; as is that likewise which was given to Gideon, Judg. 6.34; and the miraculous strength of Samson is called the Spirit of the Lord upon Samson, Judg. 14.6. And upon Christs working the miraculous cure upon the man with the withered hand, St Matthew applies to him that saying of the Prophet, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, Mat. 12.18; and his casting out Devils he himself attributes to the Spirit of God, I, says he, by the spirit of God cast out devils, v. 28.
As by the Holy Ghost therefore are meant particularly the gifts of illumination in Tongues and Prophecy; so by the Spirit are signified the gifts of Power in healing diseases, casting out Devils, and doing mighty and miraculous works.
And both these together take up the full compass of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and are both distinctly expressed by St Peter, when he says, that Jesus was anointed with the holy Ghost, and with Power, Act. 10.38.
These then are the several meanings of the words, Holy Ghost, and holy Spirit. They denote, as the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost himself; so also those gifts and effects which proceed from him. Whether those gifts are ordinary, either in the endowments of our minds, or the vertuous tempers and dispositions of our wills and hearts; or extraordinary and miraculous. Wherein yet we must observe this difference, that the gifts of the executive powers in healing diseases, casting out Devils, working Miracles, are by a peculiar name called the Spirit; and the gifts of the knowing or understanding Faculties, in Prophecies, Revelations, speaking with divers sorts of Tongues, are by a contradistinct name called the Holy Ghost.
And thus having shewn what is meant by the Holy Ghost, I proceed now to show,
2. What is meant by sinning against it; and which of all those which are committed against it, is the unpardonable sin.
The only way whereby any men are capable to sin against God, as was observed, is by affront and dishonour; for God is out of our reach for any other sort of injury, and we cannot otherwise hurt him, than by shewing our contempt and disrepect of him.
And in regard the Holy Ghost in his own person is very and essential God, this must needs be the only way whereby we can sin against him likewise. We cannot injure him in his Nature, but only in his Honour; but then we sin against him, when we walk cross to him, and oppose him, or any way slight and contemn, undervalue or reproach him, or any of those excellent and Divine gifts which proceed from him.
Now this we do more or less in every sin. For this Spirit of God is an universal instrument of faith and good life; it has taken the utmost care by miracles, and other its convictive evidences to evince the truth of Christs Doctrine; and doth now still by his daily suggestions and sollicitations excite men to the observance of it. And seeing the Spirit of God has shown it self so much concerned for our faith and obedience; every act of unbelief and disobedience is a direct opposition to it, and reproach of it, and therefore is a sin against it.
But every such sin is not the unpardonable fault here mentioned. For our very wilful sins themselves, as has been shewn, are not desperate under Christs Religion, the Gospel being a Covenant that doth not damn men upon all voluntary sin, but encourages their repentance with the promise of pardon; so that although all our sins are against God and his Spirit, they are not irremissible, but will be remitted to every man who repents of them.
It is not every sin against the Spirit of God then, which this place in St Matthew threatens so severely. But the unpardonable sin is a sin by it self; it has something peculiar in it from all other sins, which by shutting us out from all possibility of repentance, excludes it from all hopes of being forgiven.
And indeed it is plainly this. It is a sinning against the Holy Ghost in the last sense, as it signifies not only the power of miracles, but also the gift of tongues, and other illuminations of the Holy Ghost, which came down upon the Apostles at Pentecost; and it is such a sinning against these, as is particularly by reviling and blaspheming them. This, and none other, I take to be the sin here mentioned.
For the clearer discerning whereof, we will consider the sins against the Holy Ghost in all the acceptations before laid down; and in all of them, except the last, we shall find room for pardon and remission.
First then, to sin against the Holy Ghost, as it signifies the ordinary endowments, and vertuous tempers of our minds and wills, is not the unpardonable sin that is here spoken of. For every sin against any particular vertue is a sin against the Holy Ghost in that sense. Every act of drunkenness, for instance, is against the gift of sobriety; and every act of uncleanness is against the gift of continency; and so it is in the several actions of all other sorts of sin. But now as for all these, the great offer and invitation of the Gospel is, that men would accept of mercy upon repentance. The Incestuous Corinthian sinned deeply against the grace of chastity, and he repented, and was forgiven; St Peter denied his Lord and upon his repentance he was also pardoned; and the same Grace has been allowed, as we have seen, to all other wilful sinners.
Nay in this sort of sinning against the Holy Ghost, viz. by sinning against those Christian gifts and graces which he works in us, there is mercy to very great degrees. For sometimes we do not hearken to his holy motions, but fall into lesser sins and offensive indecencies, notwithstanding all his vertuous suggestions and endeavours to the contrary: and then he is troubled and grieved at us, Eph. 4.30. And at other times we venture upon more hainous crimes, which quite lay waste the conscience, and undo all the vertuous temper and resolution of our souls, so that we lie long in our impenitence, as David did in the matter of Vriah, and are almost hardned in our wicked way before we are able again to recover out of it: and in these offences the Spirit has been so much affronted, and his importunate suggestions so frequently thrown out, that he is almost ready to forsake us, and to leave us to our selves, so that it may be called a quenching of him, 1 Thess. 5.19. But although the last of these especially be very dangerous; yet is neither of them desperate. But after we have been guilty of them, God continues still to make offers and invitations, and by his long-sufferance, and his gracious providences, and the repeated calls of his Word and Ministers; he still endeavours to recover us to pardon, by recalling us to repentance. Yea the holy Spirit it self makes fresh assaults upon us, and tries again whether we will hearken to it, and be relieved by it; as it was with David after he had complained of his being deprived of Gods presence, and of the holy Spirit's being taken from him, Psal. 51.11; and as it is with every other reclaimed back-slider.
The sinning against the Holy Ghost therefore in this sense, as it signifies the ordinary gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, is far from being the unpardonable sin, and is manifestly under the grace of pardon and repentance.
Secondly, Nor is a sin against the extraordinary gifts of casting out Devils, healing diseases, working miracles, or other things called the Spirit, that unpardonable sin which is here intended. To blaspheme the Spirit, 'tis true, comes very near it, and when men are once gone on to that, God is very nigh giving of them up, and using no more means about them to bring them either to Faith or Repentance, which are the only way to pardon and forgiveness. But although this pitch of sin be extreme dangerous, yet in great likelihood it is not wholly desperate; for after all the dirt that men had thrown upon this evidence, viz. the miraculous operation wrought by Christ whilst he continued upon earth, God was still pleased to use some means further to bring them to believe; and that was the evidence of the Holy Ghost which came down to compleat all after that Jesus was glorified, Act. 2. This great proof, which was to be poured out upon the Disciples at Pentecost, and upon other Christians at the Imposition of their hands for a good while after, might effect that wherein the other had failed, and be acknowledged by those very men who had blasphemed the former. So that their case, notwithstanding it were gone extreme far, was not for all that quite hopeless, because one remedy still remained which God resolved he would use to reclaim them, though after that he would try no more. The blaspheming of the Spirit then was very near the unpardonable, because unamendable, sin, but yet it was not fully grown up to it; it was in the next degree to unpardonable, but yet, if it went no further, it might be pardoned still.
And of this I think we have a clear proof, even in those blasphemous Pharisees, whose reviling of the Spirit was the occasion of all this discourse. For as for the Spirit, they blasphemed it in this very Chapter, when upon occasion of the miraculous cure of the man with the withered hand, v. 13; and of Christs casting out of Devils, v. 28; both which were so manifestly wrought before their eyes, that none of them durst question, or deny the working of them; they go blasphemously to charge these evident effects of the Spirit upon the power of Magick, and to say that these works of God were performed by the Devil. For when these mighty effects of the Spirit were urged to them in behalf of Jesus, they answered and said, says St Matthew, this Fellow doth not cast out Devils, but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils, v. 24. Here is a reproach to these miraculous gifts of the Spirit, as great as can be invented; for it is nothing less than an attributing them to the most foul and loathsom Fiends in Nature, even to the very Devils themselves. But yet this Blasphemy, as dangerous as it was, is not utterly unpardonable and hopeless. For our Lord himself in this very Chapter encourages their hopes, by giving them a promise that some further means should still be used to cure their Infidelity, after that they had blasphemed this; telling these very men, that the sign of his Death and Resurrection, with the other evidences of the Holy Ghost which were to ensue upon it, should be a further argument to satisfie them in what they inquired after, viz. his being the Messiah, or the Son of God. For when certain of the Pharisees, presently upon his finishing this Discourse of their Blaspheming of the Holy Spirit, v. 37, made Answer to him saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee to confirm to us the truth of that pretension: he answered, as St Matthew goes on, an evil and an Adulterous Generation seeketh a sign, and there shall no further sign be given it, but only the sign of the Prophet Jonas, and that indeed shall. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly, and was afterwards deliver'd out of it to go and preach to the Ninevites: so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and after that rise again to preach by his Apostles to you and all the world, sending to you, for a further evidence still, the Holy Ghost, v. 38, 39, 40.
So that as for this blasphemy of the spirit, wherewith the Pharisees reviled it, it was not utterly unpardonable, but was still within the possibility of pardon. For after they had committed it, Christ promised them a further Argument in his Resurrection after the Example of Jonas, which should be a new sign added to all that they had already seen, to gain them over to faith or belief, and thereby to pardon and forgiveness; every sin being pardonable to him that believeth.
And this pardonableness of blaspheming of the spirit, our Lord further intimates in that very place, by a wary change of the phrase when he comes to speak of the unpardonableness of it; calling the unpardonable blasphemy, not a blasphemy against the spirit, (although it was the spirit which was indeed blasphemed v. 24; and whereof he had just made mention, v. 28;) but a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which being, as St John says, *John 7.39.not yet given, could not yet be blasphemed, v. 31, 32.
But
Thirdly, The desperate and unpardonable sin here mentioned, which shall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come, is a sin against the last and greatest evidence of all, viz. the gift of tongues, of prophecy, and of other things called the Holy Ghost. In all the other evidence that came before to win men to a belief of Christ's Religion, which is the only means of pardon to the World; God had still a reserve, and resolved upon some further course if they proved ineffectual. If the testimony of John Baptist to Christ's being the Lamb of God, if the message of an Angel at his conception, the Star at his birth, and the Quire of Angels at his entrance into the World; if the innocency of his life, the wisdom of his words, and the mightiness of his wonders in commanding the winds and seas, in curing diseases, in casting out Devils, in restoring the weak to strength, and the dead to life; if all these prove unsuccessful, and unable to perswade an Infidel, and perverse Generation: yet still God resolves to try one means more, which before that time the World never saw nor heard of, and that is the ample and most full effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles at Pentecost, and upon others at the imposition of their hands for a long time after. This further evidence shall still be given to subdue the stubbornness of mens unbelief, which had proved too hard for all the former. When I am departed from you, says our Saviour to his Apostles, I will send the Holy Ghost, who is the Comforter or dforeign ▪Advocate, unto you. And when he is come, he shall plead my Cause more convincingly, than the operations of the Spirit have done hitherto. For he shall reprove and eforeign.convince the world, and those who remained Infidels after they had seen all the evidence of the Spirit, of their own sin in not believing on me, and of my righteousness and truth in saying I am the Messiah, because he shall shew that I am owned above, and am gone to my Father, whence I have sent him down so plentifully upon you, John 16.8, 9, 10. But when once God had given this proof, he had done all that he designed: for this is the last remedy which he had decreed to make use of to cure the infidelity of an unbelieving Age. So that if men shall use it, as they have done all that went before; and if instead of being perswaded by it, they shall proceed not only to sleight and despise, but, what is more, to revile and blaspheme it, as they have already done with the Spirit; then is the irreversible Decree gone out against them, and God is unalterably resolved to strive no more with them, but to let them dye in their unbelief. If they should be won by it indeed, and believe upon it; be their former offences what they will, no less than a blaspheming of the Spirit, yet may they justly expect to be pardoned. For the offer of Grace is universal, Whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, Mark 16.16: and nothing is impossible to him that believeth, Mark 9.23. But when once men have gone so far as to be guilty of it, their sin is unpardonable, because their Faith is impossible. For they have rejected all the evidence which any man can urge for their conviction: seeing they have despised all that which God has offered. Their infidelity is stronger than can be cured, by any Argument that Christ either has, or will afford to prevail over it; so that they must dye in their sin, and there is no hope for them.
Indeed if God so please, there is no question but that after they have once blasphemed it, he can still so melt and soften, fashion and prepare their minds, that afterwards they shall hearken to the incomparable evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost, which to any honest mind are irresistible. But this sin is of so provoking a nature, that when once they are guilty of it he will not. He has past an irreversible Decree upon them, never more to meddle with them; so that they never will be pardoned, because, as things stand, they never will be reclaimed. Which is the very reason which the Apostle himself gives of the desperate state of Apostate Christians. For by renouncing of that faith, which, upon the evidence both of the spirit, and the Holy Ghost, they had been before convinced of; they despite, says he, the Spirit of Grace, as it implies both the Spirit and the Holy Ghost too, so that as for them, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; that being such a sin as God will never give repentance to, Heb. 6.6.
The sinning against the Holy Ghost in this sence then, as it denotes the gift of tongues, of prophecy, &c. which is the last evidence that God is resolved to make use of for the conversion of an unbelieving World, is that unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven.
And yet even here in this limited and contracted sence of the word Holy Ghost, we must still proceed with some caution. For it is not every affront and dishonour that is put upon these gifts, which is the sin here styled irremissible. Simon Magus cast a very high indignity and reproach upon them in his actions: for he went about to purchase the gift of tongues, and other sacred illuminations called the Holy Ghost, which fell upon men at the imposition of the Apostles hands, as if they had been only a trick to get money, or a fit thing to drive a trade withal, and make a gainful merchandise; When Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, says St Luke, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost, Acts 8.18, 19. This was a very great abuse, and a most unworthy comparing of the heavenly and holy Spirit of God to a mercetable ware, and vendible commodity; thinking it fit to serve any ends, and to minister to the basest purposes of filthy lucre and covetousness. But yet this sin against the Holy Ghost in its strictest acceptation, was not the unpardonable sin; it came very near it indeed, and would hardly be remitted; but still in all likelihood it was remissible. And therefore St Peter, although he be very severe upon this sordid man for the high affront, doth not yet pronounce an irreversible doom of damnation upon him, but on the contrary exhorts him to repent, that the sin of his heart may be forgiven. Repent, says he, of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee, ver. 22.
But that which is the desperately damning sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall never be forgiven either in this world, or in that which is to come; is the sinning against it, not by interpretation only in our actions, but directly in our words and expressions. It is our speaking reproachfully and slanderously of it, as the Pharisees did of the spirit when they attributed it to Beelzebub. And therefore it is expresly called the speaking blasphemously against the Holy Ghost. Whosoever speaketh fforeign.blasphemously against the Holy Ghost when he shall come, it shall never be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come, Matth. 12.21, 32. The great weight lyes in that, for this heavy doom he denounced upon them, says St Mark, because they said he hath an unclean spirit, Mark 3 30.
And thus at length we see what that sin against the Holy Ghost is, whose doom is so dreadful, and whose case is so desperate under the Gospel. It is nothing less than a slandering and reviling, instead of owning and assenting to that last evidence, which God has given us of the truth of the Gospel in the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and other extraordinary illuminations called the Holy Ghost. So that no man who ownes Christ's Religion, and thinks he was no Impostor, and believes that these miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were no magical shows or diabolical delusions, can ever be guilty of it. No, before he arrive to that, he must not only be an Infidel to the faith, but also a Blasphemer of it; he must not only disbelieve this last and greatest evidence, but disparage and rail against it. If then there be any man who ownes Christ's Authority, and obeys his Laws, and believes his Gospel, and hopes in its promises, and fears its threatnings, and expects that every word of that Covenant, which was confirmed to us by the infallible evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost, shall come to pass; he is not more guiltless of any sin, than of this against the Holy Ghost; for he doth not so much as sleight and disparage, but ownes and submits to it.
If good men therefore are afraid by reason of the irremissibleness of the sin against the Holy Ghost; they fear where they need not, and their scruple is utterly unreasonable and groundless, For let it be as unpardonable as it will, that shall not hurt them, for they can never suffer by it, since, whilst they continue such as now they are, they cannot possibly be guilty of it, or of any thing that comes near it.