immediately after our Death It seems to be too great a Leap for so very imperfect a Soul as every good Man's is in this Life to enter upon so great a Glory forthwith upon its being dislodg'd from the Body We see nothing like this in Nature all Creatures being wont from mean Beginnings gradually to creep on to the Height of their Perfection in a leasurely way by very slow and easy Steps And we have the more reason to think it should be so in the present Case because good Men in this World are not wont to improve very fast in the Divine Life but still they have many Imperfections adhering to them And one of the greatest Signs of their Growth is to be deeply sensible of the Remainders of Corruption which do still hang about them If the Scriptures be laid aside 't is hardly to be supposed that a Soul which has been so long in so muddy and defiled a Vessel can be drawn off from the Body so very clear as to carry no Dregs along with it but that it will need to pass through a great many Purgations before it be thoroughly refined And who can tell how severe and how long a Trial it must endure before it be qualified to receive and fitted to bear so great a Weight of Glory The wisest of the Heathens have thought that none but those who have been perfectly * Socrates in Platonis Phoedone p. 80 113 114. Plat. Gorgias p. 526. purged in this Life can go straightway to Heaven But as for others it would require a very considerable Time to cleanse them from that Dross that sticks to 'em before they can be prepared to enter into it They have fancied that several departed Souls did first wheel and roll about the Earth for †Tully's Somn. Scip. many Ages That some of 'em when deliver'd out of the Body are like poor ‖ Tusc Qu. l. 1. Prisoners who having lain in Irons for a long while can't presently feel their Legs and hardly know how to walk when their Shackles are off Plato was so Extravagant in his Conceits as to affirm that many of them could not recover their * In Phoedro p. 248 249. Wings in a less Space of Time than Ten Thousand Years But the Pinions of some Philosophical Spirits who were Lovers of Wisdom and beautiful Boys would grow considerably faster so that in the Compass of Three Thousand Years they would be capable of flying upwards Tho' as Eusebius * Praep. Evang. l. 13. c. 16. hath well observed we have nothing but his bare Word for all this and herein as well as in many other Points he did notoriously Contradict himself For at another time he makes Socrates tell us They who have committed great Sins but yet curable ones according to the Nature of their Crimes are cast into several Rivers of Fire where they lie for a †In Phoedone p. 113 114. Year according to the Tradition of their Poets and then come to a certain fenny marish place where they pray to those whom they have injured that they may come forth and be received into the Mansions of the Blessed And if their Prayers prevail with these Men they presently are drawn out but otherwise they must lie by it Hermagoras * In Macrob. in Somn. Scip. l. 2. c. 17. a Platonist tells us Guilty Souls are punish'd for infinite Ages before they are deliver'd out of Tartarus and then when they are sufficiently purged they return to Heaven And Virgil saith according to the Platonick Notion that some dirty Souls are hung up a drying †Aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad ventos aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igne c. Aeneid l. 6. v. 740. and bleaching in the Wind others which are very foul are rinsed and scoured in the Water but some must be cast into a scorching Fire before their Spots can be clean got out and they be fitted for a Walk in the Elysian Fields to cool and refresh themselves There is one Saying of Socrates that is very fit to be applied to all these Fooleries which Plato makes him deliver even at the end of that very place where he speaks more soberly of this Subject than any-where else as far as I have observed t is this It may be O * In Platonis Gorgiâ p. 527. Callicles these may seem to thee to be Old Wives Fables and thou wilt despise them And it would not be strange if they were despised provided that by all our Search we could any-where find what is better and truer This is not to be found any-where but by Divine Revelation whereby we know and are sure that as soon as ever Good Men die they cease from their Labours When they are absent from the Body they are present with the Lord. It is but departing and being with Christ Angels receive the dislodging holy Soul to convoy it into the Seat of the Blessed How far it is thither and how long an Angel may be in Wafting a holy Soul to that Place is uncertain tho' we may judge the time is but short This Day says Christ to the Penitent Thief when the Day was already far spent shalt thou be with me in Paradise And we find that the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9.21 who at the Beginning of Daniel's Prayer had a Divine Order to fly to him made so great a Dispatch as to be with him about the Time of the Evening-Oblation Now suppose that Prayer of Daniel's to begin early in the Morning for I will allow him to have been up very betimes at his Devotions especially on a solemn Fast as this seems to be yet from thence till Three in the Afternoon which was about the Time of the Evening-Oblation is but a very few Hours The Compass of Time is but very short before a holy Soul enters into the Heavenly Paradise after it has left the Body and it may be it usually arrives there long before the forsaken Carkase is lodged in the Grave without the trouble of any tedious Delays or the Hazard of any new Trial or the Severity of any further Discipline V. § V Mere Natural Light and Reason cannot Certify us what Persons shall enjoy all this Happiness If we were left to the wild Guesses of our own dim-sighted Reason we might well suppose that so great a Glory should be confined to a very few special Favourites and not lie open for All. Some shall be excluded And every Man that knows himself would have been apt to suspect Am not I one of that unhappy Number And especially these three Sorts of Persons would 1. Those that have been very great Sinners either as to the Heinousness of their Crimes or the Time of their continuing Impenitent under them The fabulous and idle Poets indeed have placed the Dog the Bear and the Dragon in the Heavens and succeeding Astronomers have left them in the
rationem Plato nullam afferret vide quid homini tribuam ipsâ Auctoritate me frangeret Tot autem rationes attulit ut velle caeteris sibi certè persuasisse videatur Tusc Quaest l. 1. p. 1057. is very observable who having spoken of those little Philosophers who affirmed that Death was the total destruction of the whole Man adds Nothing doth occur to me to make me think the contrary Opinion of Pythagoras and Plato is not true For tho' Plato should produce no Reason at all see what Deference I pay to the Man his Authority would quite bear me down But he hath produced so many Reasons that he seems Willing to persuade others however doubtless to persuade himself So that in his Opinion he was little better than a Well-wisher to the Cause Let 's see whether He himself can do better He had as sharp an Eye as most Men ever had and yet he introduces his Discourse on this Argument with words to this effect I am not going to utter * Tusc Quaest l. 1. p. 1053. Explicabo nec tamen ut Pythius Apollo certa ut sint fixa quae dixero c. Oracles nor give Demonstrations but inconsiderable Man that I am among many others I will give you my Guess as to what is likely For I can go no further than Probabilities Let those talk of Certainties who profess themselves to be Wise Then he reckons up the several Opinions of the Philosophers Some think the Soul is extinguish'd with the Body others that 't is presently dissipated after it hath taken its leave of the Carkase others that it remains in being a long while and others that it lasteth always c. Now saith he God knows which of these Opinions is true and which of them is most probable is a great Question And afterwards having rejected the Opinion of Dicoearchus * Id. p. 1054. that the Soul is nothing at all saith he the Opinions of the rest give us HOPE if this be pleasing to you that it is POSSIBLE that Souls when they depart from their Bodies may go to Heaven as to their own House To this his Friend who discourses with him replies I am very desirous it should be so and if it be not yet I would fain be persuaded of it And upon the recommending Plato's Treatise of the Soul to him his Friend replies I assent to what he says * Tusc Qu. l. 1. p. 1054. I know not how while I am reading it But when I have laid the Book aside and I begin to think with my self of the Soul's Immortality all my Assent to it slides away from me Indeed the ARguments which Plato brings on this Occasion and which Tully hath but too much honoured by transcribing from him are almost all of them so weak and trifling that I wonder how Cleombrotus when he heard him discoursing on that Subject could be induced to leap from him into the Sea that he might presently be in the other State Had I been his Hearer unless he could have produced stronger Proofs and given a better Account of the matter than he hath done in his Dialogue of the Soul I should much rather have thrown Him than my self over-board and have sent him into the other World that so he might thoroughly have informed himself about the Subject he pretended to treat but was so far from being a Master of He talks so weakly on this Head that I think no man but one who is Non compos mentis would ever have brought in poor Cleombrotus as a Felo de se for Drowning himself And in another place Tully brings in Cato after a long Discourse on this Subject winding up the whole in these Words * De Senectute at the end p. 1265. If it be an Error that the Souls of Men are Immortal I am pleased to err and I will never as long as I live be beaten out of it But if when I am dead as some little Philosophers think I shall perceive Nothing I am not afraid lest the Philosophers who are dead should deride this Error of mine But if we are not Immortal yet it is desirable for a Man in his proper time to be extinguish'd This cannot be excused by a Pretence that Tully speaks it not in his own Person but in Cato's And that when a Man doth personate another he must speak agreeably to his Character tho' it be never so contrary to his own real Sentiments For he himself tells us in * De Amicitiâ in the beginning p. 1265. another place that he brings in Cato disputing of Old Age because he did not know a fitter Person and that this manner of Writing in the borrowed Person of Ancient and Illustrious Men hath he knows not how more of Weight in it And therefore saith he when I read my OWN Writings I am sometimes so affected with them as tho' they were not my Sayings but really Cato ' s. So that under the Covert of another's Name he plainly writes his own Opinion And a little after in the same Book having spoken of the speedy Return of the departed Souls of very Excellent Men to Heaven he can't forbear adding IF * Id si ita est ut optimi cujusque animus in morte facillime evolet c. Sin autem illa veriora ut idem interitus sit animorum corporum nec ullus Sensus maneat ut nihil boni est in morte sic certè nihil mali Id. p. 1267. this be so then Scipio 's Soul to be sure is got thither But IF it be TRUER that Body and Soul do utterly perish together and there be no remaining Sense at all then as there is no Good in Death so there is no Evil in it Seneca when he was dangerously Sick labours to Comfort himself against the Fears of his Dissolution with this sorry Consideration That Death * Ep. 54. would put him into the same Condition he was in ere he was born that Men are like a Candle which is in no worse State after 't is put out than before it was lighted At another time saith he I was pleased in enquiring into the Soul's Eternity †Ep. 102. or rather to Believe it For I did easily believe the Opinions of Great Men who were better at promising what was very grateful to me than at proving it When he would comfort ‖ Ad Marciam Ch. 19. Marcia for the Loss of her dear Son saith he That may be Good or Evil that is Something but that which is Nothing and reduceth all things into Nothing delivers us up to no Fortune nor can he be Miserable who no longer is at all And again upon the same Occasion saith he to another It may be he * Epist 63. the last words is gone before IF what Wise men have said be true and there be a Place to receive us after Death But this is poor Consolation cold as the Grave wherein a
man's Friend is laid Plutarch speaks no more confidently when he endeavours to comfort * Consol ad Apol. Edit Xylandri p. 109 c. Apollonius upon the untimely Death of his very promising Son he adopts that Saying of Socrates That Death is like a deep Sleep or a long Travelling into a foreign Country or else 't is a total Destruction of Body and Soul and speaks to the last as well as the two other that he may demonstrate Death to be no Evil. This was one of the Ingredients he uses to make a Plaister to heal the Sore of his distressed Friend And the best that he could say was IF the Saying of the Ancient Poets and Philosophers be true †P. 120. as 't is Probable that it is that Good men are advanced when they die and some of them as 't is reported more highly than others and there be a certain Place appointed for pious Souls in which they live you have reason to hope well concerning your Son that he is got among ' em As for Death saith * Antoninus l. 7. §. 32. Antoninus whether it be a Dissipation of the Elements or a Reduction into Atoms or an Annihilation it is either an Extinction or a Transmigration Or as others read it it is either †Gataker in locum p. 273. a Dissipation of the Elements Resolution into Atoms Annihilation Extinction or Transmigration A Saying that much resembles that of Seneca ‖ Contemnite mortem quae vos aut finit aut transfert Seneca de Provid ch 6. Despise Death which either ends or translates you He that would see more of Antoninus's Uncertainty let him turn to the Places * Lib. 3. §. 3. l. 4. §. 14. 21. l. 6. §. 24. l. 7. §. 50. l. 8. §. 25. 58. l. 10. §. 58. l. 12. §. 5. cited in the Margent To these Philosophers I will add the famous Historian †Vita Agricolae ad finem Tacitus who speaking in very affecting Terms concerning the Death of his Father-in-Law Agricola drops this Passage IF there be any place for the Ghosts of Good men IF as Wise men define the Souls of Great Persons die not with the Body in Peace maist thou rest c. Of the same Strain is the Speech of that noble Roman Lady Veturia a Woman of an admirable Wit and Address and whose Spirit was altogether as great as her Quality who among other Arguments with which she diverted her Son Coriolanus from ruining his own Country when it was entirely at his Mercy makes use of this That if she could but succeed in her Enterprize of prevailing with him to lay aside his she should not only gain Immortal Honour here upon Earth but also IF there be a place saith she * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Halicarn l. 8. p. 522 523. Edit Wichelii for the Reception of Humane Souls after they are dismiss'd from the Body mine shall go not to a subterraneous and dark one where 't is SAID that miserable Wretches are lodg'd nor to the Plains of Lethe as they are called but to the High and Pure Aether where 't is REPORTED that they who are descended from the Gods do lead a blessed and happy Life I am not without some Grounds of Jealousy that the Whole of her Speech whereof these Words are a part as 't is set down was made for her by Dionysius according to the usual custom of most Historians who are wont to put Words into the Mouths of those Persons whose Actions they relate and don 't so much tell us what They spake as what Themselves would have said had they been to have made a set Oration under the same Circumstances wherein they frequently over-do make them talk much finer than it can rationally be supposed They are capable of doing lay on so much Paint that it easily appears to an observing Eye to be the work of Art and not of Nature But be it the Incomparable Veturia or the Grave Dionysius 't is not very material 'T is evident the Person that spake was very doubtful about a Future State Now if it were thus with the most Learned and Sagacious Men with the most Elevated and Exalted Souls how sad in all likelihood must it needs be with the Body of Mankind If they who had got the Higher Ground above the Heads of the Common People and had the Advantage too of standing on one another's Shoulders could see such a little way before 'em what shall we think of the little Creatures that sate below In short we do not find that Everlasting Life in the other State was in any Heathen Nation an Article of Religion established by Law It was but slightly touch'd on by Philosophers when ever they did name it which was but seldom as a Motive to excite Men to the Practice of Vertue Other Arguments they use and trust to which they did better understand and it is Prudence for a man not to urge those Reasons which are strongest in themselves but rather fight with that Weapon which he is a Master of and knows how best to manage And 't is a shrewd Observation of * St. August de Civit. Dei l. 4. c. 22. l. 6. c. 9. St. Austin That tho' the Heathens had abundance of Gods to whom they did particularly apply themselves to one for one Blessing to another God for another Favour and therefore the Knowledge of the Gods was necessary that they might direct themselves to them aright and not ask Water from the God of Wine c. Yet Varro himself who was very well skill'd in the matter hath not mentioned so much as one God whom they were to pray unto for Eternal Life 'T is true indeed we who have been taught from our very Infancy by the Gospel that there is such a Place as Heaven and so glorious a Reward for the Righteous in the other State may be apt to think that we have hit upon it by the Exercise of our own unassisted Reason or that it was very easy so to have done But herein it fares with us as oftentimes it doth with a Studious Man who having familiarly convers'd with good Authors doth verily think some of those Notions and Expressions too which he hath learnt from them are the genuine Off-spring of his own Mind and Thought Just as Corn that springs up in some places seems to the Husbandman to be the natural Product of the Ground he having never sowed it with that sort of Grain the Seeds of which in Reality were taken up by the Wind from another Field whereto they did originally belong and invisibly dropt down there I can't better express my Sense of this than in the Words of a modern Author who herein speaks very well tho' judging by the main Design of his Book I take him to be a very Singular Unitarian seeing he cuts off all the necessary Articles of our Faith excepting that of the Belief of
nec suum nec sui quicquam à quoquam censeri volebant Stoici Gataker in Annot. in Antonin p. 423. Edit Cantabrigiae 1652. Hody of the Resurrection p. 23 24 25. Men have proved that herein he was mistaken He speaks of the utter Extinction of the Soul by Death And the Answer he gives to this stabbing Question is That if it be so you must know for certain they would have order'd it otherwise if it had been just and possible and natural and ought to have been otherwise managed And yet at another time he propounds this Question * Antoninus l. 4. §. 21. If Souls do continue how will the Air contain 'em all especially considering they have been from Eternity Which he answers by propounding another How the Earth is able to contain all the Carkases which for so very long a space of time have been buried in it And then adds As the Carkases of Men when they have been for some time in the Earth are changed and dissolved so as to make room for others so Souls being translated into the Air after they have abode there for some time * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Id. Ib. are changed burnt melted down like the Metals of a Founder I suppose and so run into the common Soul of the World and thereby make way for others to come into their places and because Men die very fast I conceive this must be very quickly done lest the Place be crouded and separated Souls be stifled for want of Room and Breath tho' in the midst of the Air it self Were it not that he adds these Words That thus a Man would answer on this Hypothesis †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. that Souls do supervive their Bodies I would say that to reconcile this with the Passage which I but just now cited out of him would be as difficult as 't is to make the two Poles to meet and kiss each other He reels and staggers to and fro and knows not what Opinion to be of If he had not a more steady hand in Government than he had in Reasoning and Philosophy he would have made but a very indifferent Ruler Others of the Stoicks believed that after Death the Soul lasted as long as its Body did continue And the Egyptians were of the same Opinion and that was the reason of their embalming the Bodies of the Dead For this we have the Authority of Servius * Ad Aeneid l. 3. p. 664. which the most Learned Gataker indeed puts a Slur upon saying I don't †Unde habeat nescio Gataker Annot. in Anton. p. 140. know whence he had it Nor I neither but he who lived so many hundred years ago might have met with it in some of their Books which have not been transmitted down to us nothing being more common than 't is for Learned Men as much to bewail the Loss of many Ancient Writings as their nearest Relations could do the Death of the Authors of ' em Nor is that other Reflection of that Great Man whereby he would discredit this Testimony of Servius of any great Weight viz. as tho' the * Quasi sc à Stoâ dogma istud arripuerint Aegyptii sc Id. ib. Egyptians had borrowed this Opinion from the Stoicks For 't is very likely that Servius's Author might so misrepresent it as if the Egyptians had taken it from the Stoicks whereas in truth the latter stole it from the former according to the known humour of the Greeks who did vainly arrogate to themselves those Inventions which 't is very plain they borrowed from their Neighbours And some tell us this was the true * Hody of the Resurrection p. 12. Reason why the Egyptians were wont to keep the Carkases of their Friends in their Houses and Closets and set 'em at Table as formal Guests believing they had there the Whole Man not only the Body but the Soul too Tho' such Company I suppose would not very much support the Discourse nor greatly enflame the Reckoning Other Stoicks thought that it was with Human Souls as 't is with †Gatak Annot. in Antonin p. 140. It. 301. Material Beings there was some solid Substance at the bottom which did always remain and from which in process of time new Souls did spring when the Old ones were dissolved somewhat like new Mill'd Money produced from the old Coin that was so miserably clipt and debas'd Others of them thought Souls did last till the Universal * Id. p. 139. Conflagration which they put at a very considerable distance from the Age wherein they lived Cleanthes said All Souls did so but Chrysippus and some †Arius Didymus in his Account of the Stoical Philosophy as quoted by Euseb Praep. Evang. l. 15. c. 20. p. 822. Edit Paris Others say only those of Good Men. But then they were to cease from being individual Beings any longer and to be refunded into the Elements of the World or that Universal Soul whence they were Originally taken Which a Learned Man ‖ Huetii Concordia Fidei cum Ratione p. 159. thus very aptly represents 'T is as if a Man should fill a Vessel with Water taken out of the Sea and then some time after should break the Vessel and let the Water run again into the Ocean wherein it is as it were lost being mingled and incorporated with the mighty Mass tho' it be not annihilated And this was the Opinion of Pythagoras too and his Followers and * Id. 160. Heraclitus also the Author and Founder of a Sect of Philosophers who bore his Name But others of them did not think that Souls tho' they took them for pretty durable Beings did last altogether so long They fancied that they did †Stoici usuram nobis largiuntur tanquam cornicibus diu mansuros aiunt animos semper negant Tully Tusc Qu. l. 1. p. 1060. perish at length after they had worn out several Bodies with which from time to time they were cloathed as with so many new Suits of Apparel And herein they did agree in the main with the Pythagoreans and Platonists who held the Transmigration of Souls either into Brutes or other humane Bodies or both successively which as we observed in the foregoing Section was a most Catholick Opinion of whole Nations in the East as also it * Cluverius de Germ. Antiq. l. 1. c. 32. Hody of the Resurrection p. 6 7 8. Dr. Jackson Vol. 3. p. 424. was of the Egyptians and the Druids too and the Ancient Germans in the West How often the Soul might be a Widower and with how many Bodies it might successively Marry I do not know nor think it worth the while to enquire But herein some at least of the Stoicks did differ from others that at last they thought the Soul it self did drop away and crumble into nothing Hence Dionysius Halicarnassaeus reflecting on the unhappy Death of the brave and
down upon the Return of his disobedient Child Jer. 31.18 19 20. Gataker in locum Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child Or rather as a Learned Man reads the words Is not Ephraim my dear Son Is he not a pleasant Child For since I spake against him I remember him still Therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have Mercy upon him saith the Lord. The Publican who in a sense of his Vileness Luk. 18.13 14. stood afar off and as an Argument of his Shame would not so much as lift up his Eyes towards Heaven but in token of his great Contrition smote upon his Breast saying God be merciful to me a Sinner went down to his house justified i. e. absolved and acquitted of God and so the wretched Thanksgiving of the Proud Pharisee Lord I thank thee I am not as other men or even as this Publican was utterly ruin'd V. § V Meer Natural Light and Reason gives us no Assurance whether and how often God will renew his Pardon Fresh Breaches after a Reconciliation are very provoking Every one would be apt to despise that Government which still should Spare a Traitor who hath been pardon'd once and again and after that breaks out into other Rebellions There is such a Complication of aggravating Circumstances in returning to the Commission of Folly that we could rationally expect no other than that Divine Justice thereupon should seize us and say to us Pay me what you Owe If God in his holy Word had not encouraged us and made it our Duty to believe and hope that upon our deep Humiliation and renewed Faith in the Blood of Christ he will yet be pacified towards us Ye have played the Harlot with many Lovers which is an Offence of that nature that a man would never pass by one Single act of it but it hath been frequently repeated by you with Variety of Persons and therefore you can well look for no other than a Bill of Divorce Jer. 3.1 22. yet return unto me saith the Lord. Return ye back-sliding Children and I will heal your back-slidings And if an awaken'd Conscience tells us our Treacherous Dealings have been many and we are no more worthy to be regarded by him yet the Invitation is Hos 14.2 4. Take unto you Words and turn to the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and then follow those reviving Words I will heal all their back-slidings and I will love them freely There are indeed two Passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews which seem to oppose this and 't is sufficiently known how the Novatians abused them of Old and many serious but weak Christians have in all Ages been tormented through a misunderstanding of them Which therefore I shall largely consider and so much the rather because being rightly interpreted I am afraid they will appear to have a very black Aspect on some of our present Deists The one is Heb. 6.4 5 6. That it is impossible for those who were once enlighten'd c. If they shall fall away to renew them again unto Repentance seeing they Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open Shame The other is of the like Import Ch. 10.26 27. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the Knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries This passage at the first View seems to render the case of every Man wholly desperate And it would much more do so if one word were exactly translated For whereas we render it If we sin Wilfully according to the Original it should be translated If we sin Willingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Softer word of the two And who is there that dares to deny but that he hath been guilty of many Voluntary Sins even since he hath received the Knowledge of the Truth Now I shall endeavour to prove that both these Places are to be understood barely of the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost only it would be attended in these Hebrews if they should be guilty of it with more aggravating Circumstances than that same Sin in the Pharisees was accompanied withal Because the Persons offending are supposed by the Apostle once to have been the Professed Disciples of Christ which the Pharisees never were and because if they should commit it they would sin against greater Miracles for the proof of Christianity since the more plentiful Effusion of the Holy Ghost after the Ascension of Christ For here is the Characteristical Note whereby our Blessed Saviour hath distinguish'd the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost from all other Sins and Blasphemies whatsoever viz. the Unpardonableness of it In the former of these Places it is said that 't is Impossible to renew these men to Repentance Which is in other words to say 't is Impossible they should be forgiven For why is it that the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven but because 't is impossible they should ever Repent who have been guilty of it And then the Apostle in the very next words doth oppose them that should be guilty of this Sin to that Ground which receiveth Blessing from God Heb. 6.7 8. and compares them to that which beareth thorns and briars and is rejected and nigh unto Cursing and whose End is to be burnt And in the latter place the Apostle tells us that as for these Men Ch. 10.26 there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins Which words are a plain Allusion to the Law of Moses in which no Expiations were allowed or appointed for Heinous and Presumptuous Sins but he who was guilty of them was to be put to Death without any Favour 'T is as if the Apostle had said There is no other Sacrifice for Sins but what the Son of God hath offered up this they impiously reject and Christ never design'd to make any atonement by his Blood for the Sin I am now speaking of and there is no other And where there is no Expiation there can be no Pardon He further adds Ver. 27 There remains nothing for these men but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the adversaries What more Significant and Emphatical Words could the Apostle use to express the Unpardonableness of their Crime And yet as tho' this had not been enough he further compares their Case to that of those Men who despised the law of Moses Ver. 28 either by renouncing or abjuring it or Sinning impudently and presumptuously against it and who therefore died without Mercy And to convince us that the Offenders he is speaking of should be unavoidably pressed to Death he lays more Weight on them than on the Despisers of Moses's Law For saith he Of how much sorer Punishment suppose ye shall he be thought
worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God c. 'T is further evident from the Nature of the Sin here mentioned that the Apostle is speaking of the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost The formal nature of that dreadful Sin I take to be this A malicious reproaching our Blessed Saviour as an Impostor and Deceiver imputing the Miracles which he wrought by the Spirit of God for the Confirmation of his Holy Doctrine and Mission to the Power of the Devil A man would wonder if there were not a thousand Instances of the like kind how so many Learned Men could make a shift so much to mistake this clear and plain notion of this Sin and give us so many Extravagant Opinions concerning it as widely distant from each other as all of them are from the Truth who doth but consider how St. Mark closes the Speech of our Saviour concerning it For he winds up all with these remarkable words Mark 3.30 Because they said he hath an Unclean Spirit which give us a clear Light whereby to discern the nature of this Sin But some rather chuse as an Evidence of their great Strength to endeavour to break through the Walls than turn the Key that is very plainly in the Door and would easily open it and let them into the House Now that 't is this Sin viz. the Reproaching Christ as a Deceiver the Apostle is here speaking of will appear from the Expressions which he useth concerning it He calls it a Crucifying the Son of God afresh Ch. 6.6 Ch. 10.29 and putting him to an open Shame A treading him under foot and counting his Blood an unholy thing and doing Despite to the Spirit of Grace All which do amount to this That they esteemed Christ to be a Vile Malefactor a wretched Impostor that his Miracles which for the Matter of Fact they could not deny were wrought by the help of the Infernal Powers and therefore he was deservedly put to death and had it been to do again they would as readily have done it as ever the Malicious Jews did Moreover the Sin here spoken of in one of the Places Ch. 6.6 is called a falling away and that from the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ which in the Verses immediately foregoing he had newly mentioned Ver. 1 2. i. e. a total Renouncing of the Christian Faith and Returning either to Judaism or Paganism which these Hebrews were in great danger of and which 't is the apparent Design of this Epistle to fortify them against And tho' in the other place it be called only in the General a Sinning Wilfully or Willingly Ch. 10.26 yet thereby the same thing is meant For just before the Apostle had been exhorting them to hold fast the Profession of their Faith without wavering Ver. 23 and cautioning them against forsaking the Assembling of themselves together as the manner of some was Ver. 25 which was the natural Means and the Ouvert-Act and Sign of their Apostacy And then these Words are brought in For if we sin wilfully c. i. e. If we cast away the Profession of our Faith forsake the Christian Assemblies and renounce the Doctrine of Christ Now it is worthy of our careful Observation that the Heathens but especially the Jews were so implacably bent against our Blessed Lord that tho' a Christian did desert the Assemblies of the Faithful and offer to join with them in their Judaical or Pagan Religion and Worship yet this alone would not suffice But besides this they required an express Abjuring and Reviling and Blaspheming Christ as an Impostor And without this their Rage was never satisfied and to speak in the modern Language they never thought they had fully performed all the necessary Duties of New Converts Acts 26.11 St. Paul tells us that when he persecuted the Christians 1 Tim. 1.13 being exceeding mad with Rage he compelled them to Blaspheme as he Himself also did And giving the Corinthians a Character whereby to distinguish between Divine and Diabolical Spirits 1 Cor. 13.3 I give you to understand Saith he that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus Accursed which doth plainly imply that it was very usual for men to do so in that Age for otherwise this Note of his would have been of no manner of Service to them Pliny in his Epistle to Trajan informs him what was the Ordeal Fire by which he tried those who were suspected and accused whether they would disown Christianity not only by proposing to them to worship the Heathen Gods and the Image of the Emperor but also by demanding of them whether praeterea Christo maledicerent they would also revile Christ And he further adds concerning those that fell in that hour of Temptation that they not only worshipp'd the Pagan Idols and Trajan's Image but also that Ii Christo maledixerunt they reviled Christ And Justin Martyr * Apol. 2d p. 72. Edit Paris tells us That Barchochebas the Ringleader of the Jewish Rebellion did order the Christians to be severely punisht unless they would not only deny Christ but blaspheme him too And Polycarp being required in order to save his Life to reproach †Euseb Hist l. 4. c. 15. Christ replied How can I Blaspheme my King and Saviour And our Learned †Harm of N. Test p. 289 290. Vol. 1. Lightfoot saith That as early as about the 10th or 11th Year after our Saviour's Ascension Rabban Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin appointed a new Prayer in which was a Petition to God to destroy the Hereticks i. e. the Christians and this he set among the Common Prayers and appointed it to be in every man's Mouth And that the Jews had their Emissaries every where abroad that to their utmost cried down the Gospel and blasphemed it and Christ that gave it Of this saith he there is Testimony abundant in the New Testament and in their own Writings So much shall suffice to prove that 't is the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost but a more Aggravated one than that of the Pharisees that is meant in both these Places And if any of our Modern Deists have been maliciously guilty of this Sin unto death I leave them to God But provided a man hath not gone so great a Length as this is how many soever his Sins and Back-slidings from God have been yet on a renewed deep and Sincere Repentance and a lively Faith in the Blood of Christ they shall be remitted Tho' I must add in the words of Moses Exod. 8.29 Let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully with God any more For if this Grace be turned into Wantonness tho' God forgive Men Ps 99.8 yet he may and will take vengeance upon their Inventions And this naturally leads me to the Last thing which remains to be spoken unto VI. § VI Mere Natural Light and Reason cannot assure us to what Degree God will pardon those whom he does forgive It