and unprofitable were noted by the word it self which we translate idle yet is it no unusual thing in the Scriptures by several words to mean and intend more than in their literal sense they do express Thus are the abominable works of darkness mentioned Eph. 5 called unfruitful works where the meaning surely is not only that they bring in no profit or advantage but also that they are most deadly and mischievous v. 11 and the wicked servant spoken of Mat. 25 is called the unprofitable servant v. 30. And after the same use of speech our words which do not only tend to none but to very ill fruit may be called idle or unprofitable words And so they are in this place For the idle words whereof our Saviour speaks v. 36 are such words as are not only idle and unprofitable but positively wicked and evil being indeed false slanderous and reviling words as will appear from the consideration of these particulars For the words which are threatned in that 36. ver are such as are a sign not of a trifling but of an evil heart How can ye says he being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh So that as a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth or speaketh good things an evil man likewise out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things v. 34 35. And being the fruits of an evil heart they are the signs not of an impertinent but of an evil man The tree is corrupt says he if the fruit be corrupt for the tree is known by its fruits v. 33. And since they are such words as are thus sinful in themselves and an argument of so much sin in us they shall in the last Judgment be charged upon us to condemn us For by thy words says he as well as actions thou shalt be justified and by thy words if they be such idle words as I mean thou shalt be condemned v. 37. The words then which are spoken of in this place from the 33. to the 38. ver are such as are a sign of a wicked heart as make a wicked man and render us in the last Judgment liable to condemnation But now words of this black dye and of these mischievous effects are not every idle and impertinent but false slanderous railing or otherwise sinful and forbidden words But false and slanderous words are especially struck at in this place such as were those lying and contumelious ones that occasioned all this discourse when the Jews most reproachfully charged his Miracles upon the Devil telling him that he cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils v. 24. Upon occasion of which black calumny he proceeds in all the following verses to warn them against such blasphemous speeches demonstrating clearly the unreasonableness of them v. 25 to 31 the sinfulness of them ver 33 34 35 and the mischievous effects of them in the two next verses Such reproachful words as these let me tell you says he you shall be called to an account for as well as for your works and actions I say unto you and you may believe me for you will find it true that every idle or slanderous and reproachful word such as now you have spoken against me that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment For when that day comes think you of it as you please now mens words as well as their actions shall be called to an account by thy words thou shalt be justified and if they have been such as yours now are by thy words thou shalt be condemned ver 36 37. And thus by all this it appears that the idle word here threatned by our Lord is not every word that is vain and useless but only such as are railing false or slanderous And in this sense some Manuscripts read the place For in the Book of Steph. it is not every idle but every wicked word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment So that as for this third scruple it is as groundless as was the former no good man need to be disquieted by it since they shall never be condemned for it 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 meaâ—â— 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 S t 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
repeat them A Confession of the mouth that is accompanied with a turn and change of the heart which is now set as much against them as formerly it was inclined to them And such was that Confession which Wise Solomon durst recommend to Gods mercy and beg him to accept of for mens Pardon and Forgiveness If they Repent saith he and say we have done perversly we have committed wickedness and so RETVRN unto thee with all their hearts and all their soul then hear their prayer and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed 1 Kings 8.47 48 49 50. It is such an acknowledgment of our Sins lastly as undoes so far as is possible all that which we had done wickedly and makes all just and sufficient recompence and satisfaction for them And this is that acknowledgment of all Sins of injustice which God himself prescribes When a Man or Woman saith he shall commit any sin of injury and wrong that men commit one against another to do a trespass thereby against the Lord and that person be guilty then shall they confess their Sin that they have done and shall RECOMPENCE their Trespass with the principle thereof or the thing it self which they took away wrongfully and shall add moreover unto it a fifth part more thereof and give it unto him against whom they trespassed Numb 5.6 7. Now a Confession of our Sins thus qualified viz. a Confession of them with blushing and being ashamed of them with an implacable hatred and loathing indignation of them with bitter sorrow for them with firm purpose and resolution against them and with all possible endeavours to undo them by making just recompence and satisfaction A Confession I say thus attended is a most natural cause and powerful principle of our leaving and forsaking them The four first concomitant tempers are all most effectual causes of better obedience and reformation and the last viz. making of satisfaction is an instance and effect of it Shame and sorrow and hatred are the great rules and measures of what we shall forsake the prime springs and directors of all aversation and avoidance Nothing is more natural for us than to be slow to do that we are ashamed of to avoid what we hate to turn away from that which grieves and torments us So that if once disobedience fall under these passions it has lost all its interest and will surely be excluded from the service of our works and actions Our passions oppose it and our wills are set against it and when both these are not only got loose from it but also most resolutely contend with it it is wholly bereft of all its power and can do nothing in us We have no temptation to pursue it further we are weary of it and offended at it and so are sure to leave and forsake it And because this Confession thus qualified and attended as we have seen is so genuine a cause of better obedience and reformation therefore alone it is that so great things are spoken of it When God says he that confesses his sin shall find mercy he means he that confesses and forsakes it that acknowledges his offences in such sort as to renounce them and become obedient His speech is mâ—tonymical he implies Obedience although he doth not mention it For no Confession of sin will serve any mans turn at the last day except he leave it and in his life and actions bid adieu to it The world indeed abounds with another sort of Confession which costs less and effects nothing They confess their sins without shame and relate them without sorrow and name them without hatred they recite them to God without resolving against them and acknowledge them daily without any amends or making any recompence and satisfaction for them For they cannot but be hardned against shame who day by day if not several times every day have the face to tell God that they have rebell'd against him and yet never endeavour to come with another story by disavowing and forsaking their Rebellion They must needs be void of sorrow for sin who will never keep back from it it cannot but please them so long as they continue to pursue it For they would not continually repeat their pain and at every turn act over again their own torment and vexation It is beyond all doubt that they do not hate but entirely love disobedience so long as they slip no opportunities of acting it They are plainly resolved upon it whilst they are most firmly fixt and forward to embrace it And since notwithstanding all their hideous Confessions they stand ready still to close with their Sin upon the first meeting and to repeat what they confessed upon the next occasion it is plain that their hearts were never against it whatever their words were They only shewed their wit but not their passions or perswasion they declaimed against it but all the while they meant no hurt to it For even whilst they inveighed against the baseness the loathsomness the destructiveness of their Sin their own heart did not believe it They did no more but spare God their tongues and speak what he pleased but for their souls and actions they reserved them for their Lusts and would like and do what they pleased themselves But can any man be so blind as to think that such a Confession of Sins as this can in any wise please God and procure his Pardon Has he any kindness for our Sins that he should take delight to hear them spoken of Are they so acceptable a service that we may hope to gain his favour barely by reciting them in his presence No he hates them as things that are most loathsome to him and will not endure to have them mentioned without real detestation Is any man so weak as to think that he honours God merely by reckoning up his own offences That he gives glory unto him by declaring to his face how vilely he has affronted and despised him To Confess thus is to reproach him to his face and boldly to defie him It is a telling of him that we have disobeyed and are resolved to go on in it an open profession and avowing of our Rebellion without any real signs or approach to amendment and due subjection It is a transgressing bare-faced an addition of impudence to sin a continuing daily to Rebel against him and yet coming as daily into his very presence to declare and own our continued Rebellions And this now is not to supplicate but to defie not to beg peace but to declare enmity it is by no means the way to soften and appease but a most effectual course to exasperate and implacably to provoke him But then to go on still further and to pretend to him that we are sorry at our heart and loath our selves for having sinned against him and are resolved to do so no more when really as our after-actions which are
which we sue for obtained although sometimes our prayers are less attent and less affectionate than at other times they are and we at all times greatly desire they might be For our fixedness and fervency are not the only things which procure acceptance for our prayers They are great good things as I said and such qualifications as make our requests fit both for us to offer and for God to hear and therefore we must take care still when we pray in such measure as we are able to be provided with them But although they are some yet are they not the only qualifications of our prayers which prevail with God and move him to hear them For our trust and dependance our submission and resignedness and other spiritual vertues and instances of obedience are likewise dispositions which God respects in them nay indeed which he prizes above all and principally looks at So that if we pray with these God is honoured by our prayers and he will reward them and our petitions shall not be put up in vain although by reason of some bodily dulness or distraction the fixt attention of our minds and the fervency of our hearts which we endeavour after always and enjoy at other times should happen to be wanting Yea I add further so long as our hearts are honest and our lives entirely obedient we are always furnished with those qualifications which are sufficient to bring down Gods Grace and Blessing upon us and which are the principal things that make our prayers themselves an acceptable Offering A good man is drawing down the blessings of Heaven upon himself all his life long and not only whilst he is upon his knees so that if at any time his prayers are less perfect and chance to falter that defect will be otherwise supplied and he will have all that mercy conveyed to him through another means which his prayers should have obtained for him seeing that which makes his prayers procure Gods love and mercy for him will make his obedience procure the very same For I suppose no man is so silly as to imagine that it is the lifting up of his eyes and hands the composedness of his countenance the quaintness of his phrase the eloquence of his expressions the volubility of his language or any other external thing which makes his prayers so powerful and brings down the blessing of God upon them But it is that dependance upon God that confidence in God that love of God and desire of goodness that acknowledgment of his tenderness and power that submission to his Authority and resignation to his pleasure which are all implied in prayer and fitly expressed by it and which make up the very life and spirit of it these I say it is which God looks at in our prayers and for the sake whereof he so graciously accepts and rewards them But now as for all these they are expressed every whit as much by the obedience of our lives as by the prayer of our lips nay indeed much more in as much as our actions are a more perfect expression and certain evidence of all these tempers of a good heart than our words are They differ as much as words and deeds as profession and performance for whereas in our prayers we only speak and profess all this in the obedience of our lives we work and perform it We shew our love and resignation to God when for his sake we deny our selves and give up our own will in obedience to his We acknowledge his Power and Authority most effectually when we obey it and owne his Providence to the best purpose when we contentedly acquiesce in it and patiently submit to it and confess his love and kindness after the most acceptable sort when we throw our selves upon it and work and endeavour all our lives long in hopes and expectations of it In our daily actions of Justice and Charity of Temperance and Sobriety of Meekness Patience Mercy and Forgiveness and in all other instances of obedience we give God the honour to chuse for us to dispose of us to be sought after and intrusted by us We evidence our esteem of him our love for him our trust in him our dependance on him our resignation to him and that most effectually So that whatsoever can move God in our prayers will move him in a higher degree and after another fashion in our obedience the Spirit of goodness which is evidenced in our prayers being evidenced much more in the course of good actions No Rhetorick therefore of our Prayers is like to that of a good life every action of obedience in a good man having the effect of a prayer and calling down upon him the same mercy and the same Grace which would be procured by a supplication Let a man therefore make sure in the first place of a good life and of an honest and intire obedience and then he need not fear to want those things which all good men have need to pray for seeing he will shew so much daily in his life as will make his requests be granted and his prayers be hearkened to He cannot perish for want of those mercies which he prays for although it be sometimes with coldness and distraction because not only the other obedient tempers of his prayers when through some unchosen hindrances a due fixedness and fervency are wanting but also the constant and uninterrupted obedience of his life is daily ascending up and brings them down upon him Let no good soul therefore be further troubled and disquieted upon this account as if because after all his care his prayers are sometimes dull and cold and his thoughts therein are much distracted he should either be eternally punished for them or at least go without those blessings which he desires in them For so long as the Spirit of obedience appears both in his Prayers and in his actions the unwilled distractions of his mind and the dulness and frozenness of his affections at some times shall be no hindrance either to his Suit at present or to his happiness hereafter his request shall not be thrown by nor he condemned for them but so far as God sees it fitting for him it shall be granted and he shall eternally be saved notwithstanding them 3. A third scruple which is wont causelesly to disquiet and trouble good and honest minds is the words of our Saviour Matth. 12. I say unto you That as concerning every idle word which men shall speak they shall give an account thereof at the Day of Judgment ver 36. This seems to be a strict and a severe Saying For in all the crowd and variety of converse in the infinite numbers of Questions and Answers and other occasions of discourse what man in all the World but especially of those who are of a conversation that is free and open courteous and ingenuous cheerful and delightsome which tempers the Gospel doth not only allow but approve of who I say of
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 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 S t 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 S t 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 10 th Chapter of the Acts when the Gentiles in Cornelius's house begun to speak with Tongues upon S t 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 S t 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 7 th Chapter of S t 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 S t 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 S t 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