tarrying 6. Lastly consider what an unspeakable happiness it is to have our minds settled in that condition that we may without fear and amazement nay with comfort and confidence expect death and judgment Death is never far from any of us and the general Judgment of the world may be nearer than we are aware of for of that day and hour knoweth no man And these are two terrible things and nothing can free us from the terror of them but a good conscience and a good conscience is only to be had either by innocence or by repentance and amendment of life Happy man who by this means is at peace with God and with himself and can think of death and judgment without dread and astonishment For the sting of death is sin and the terror of the great day only concerns those who have lived wickedly and impenitently and would not be perswaded neither by the mercies of God nor by the fear of his judgments to repent and turn to him But if we have truely forsaken our sins and do sincerely endeavour to live in obedience to the Laws and Commands of God the more we think of death and judgment the greater matter of joy and comfort will these things be to us For blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing Let us therefore as soon as possibly we can put our selves into this posture and preparation according to that advice of our blessed Saviour Luke 12.35 36 Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. And now I hope that enough hath been said to convince men of the great unreasonableness and folly of these delays nay I believe most men are convinced of it by their own thoughts and that their consciences call them fools a thousand times for it But O that I knew what to say that might prevail with men and effectually perswade them to do that which they are so abundantly convinced is so necessary And here I might address my self to the several ages of persons You that are young and have hitherto been in a good measure innocent may prevent the Devil and by an early piety give God the first possession of your souls and by this means never be put to the trouble of so great and solemn a repentance having never been deeply engaged in a wicked life You may do a glorious I had almost said a meritorious thing in cleaving stedfastly to God and resolving to serve him when you are so importunately courted and so hotly assaulted by the Devil and the World However you may not live to be old therefore upon that consideration begin the work presently and make use of the opportunity that is now in your hands You that are grown up to ripeness of years and are in the full vigor of your age you are to be put in mind that the heat and inconsiderateness of youth is now past and gone that reason and consideration are now in their perfection and strength that this is the very age of prudence and discretion of wisdom and wariness So that now is the proper time for you to be serious and wisely to secure your future happiness As for those that are old they methinks should need no body to admonish them that it is now high time for them to begin a new life and that the time past of their lives is too much to have spent in sin and folly There is no trifling where men have a great work to do and but little time to do it in Your Sun is certainly going down and neer its setting therefore you should quicken your pace considering that your journey is never the shorter because you have but little time to perform it in Alas man thou art just ready to dye and hast thou not yet begun to live Are thy passions and lusts yet unsubdued and have they had no other mortification than what age hath given them 'T is strange to see how in the very extremities of old age many men are as if they had still a thousand years to live and make no preparation for death though it dogs them at the heels and is just come up to them and ready to give them the fatal stroke Therefore let us not put off this necessary work of reforming our selves in what part and age of our lives soever we be To day whilst it is called to day least any of you be hardened thorough the decitfulness of sin Nay to day is with the latest to begin this work had we been wise we would have begun it sooner 'T is Gods infinite mercy to us that it is not quite too late that the day of Gods patience is not quite expired and the door shut against us Therefore do not defer your repentance to the next solemn time to the next occasion of receiving the blessed Sacrament Do not say I will then reform and become a new man after that I will take leave of my lusts and sin no more For let us make what haste we can we cannot possibly make too much properat vivere nemo satis No man makes haste enough to be good to cease to do evil and to learn to do well Be as quick as we will life will be too nimble for us and go on faster than our work does and death will go nigh to prevent us and surprize us unawares Do do sinner abuse and neglect thy self yet a little while longer till the time of regarding thy soul and working out thy own salvation be at an end and all the opportunities of minding that great concernment be slipped out of thy hands never to be recovered never to be called back again no not by thy most earnest wishes and desires by thy most fervent prayers and tears and thou be brought into the condition of prophane Esau who for once despising the Blessing lost it for ever and found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears To conclude Art thou convinced that thy eternal happiness depends upon following the advice which hath now been given thee Why then do but behave thy self in this case as thou and all prudent men are wont to do in matters which thou canst not but acknowledg to be of far less concernment If a man be travelling to such a place so soon as he finds himself out of the way he presently stops and makes towards the right way and hath no inclination to go wrong any farther If a man be sick he will be well presently if he can and not put it off to the future Most men will gladly take the first opportunity that presents it self of being rich or great every man almost catches at the very first offers of a great place or a good purchase and secures them presently if he can least the opportunity be gone and another snatch these things from him Do thou thus so much more in matters so much greater Return
it was long since judiciously noted by Aristotle That moral and proverbial speeches are not to be taken too strictly as if they were universally true and in all cases It is sufficient if they be true for the most part and in several respects which are very considerable And of this nature are most of the Proverbs of Solomon and whosoever shall go about to make out the truth of them in all cases does in my opinion take a very hard task upon himself But which is nearer to my purpose our Saviour himself in the Chapter before my Text and in the moral application of a Parable too namely that of the unjust steward useth a proverbial speech just in the same manner The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light Which is only a wise observation that is generally true and in many respects but not absolutely and universally For some men have been as wise and diligent for the glory of God and interest of their souls as ever any man was for this world and for the advancement of his temporal interest Of the like nature is this saying used by our Saviour probably taken as our Saviour did many other proverbial speeches from the Jews and applied to his own purpose For there are several sayings of the Jewish Masters much to this purpose As Great is the dignity of penitents Great is the vertue of them that repent so that no creature may stand in their rank and order And again The righteous may not stand in the same place with those that have repented These I confess were very high sayings but yet very well designed for the encouragement of repentance And they are not without good reason as will appear if we consider these two things First That the greater the difficulty of vertue is so much the greater is the praise and commendation of it And not only we our selves take the more joy and comfort in it but it is more admirable and delightful to others Now it cannot be denyed to be much more difficult to break off a vicious habit than to go on in a good way which we have been trained up in and always accustomed to Those that have been well educated have great cause to thank God and to acknowledg the care of their Parents and Teachers For piety and goodness are almost infinitely easier to such persons than to those who have wanted this advantage It is happy for them they never tasted of unlawful pleasures if they had they would possibly have drank as deep as others It is well they were never entangled in a sinful course nor enslaved to vicious habits nor hardened through the deceitfulness of sin if they had they might possibly never have been recovered out of the snare of the Devil By the happiness of a good education and the merciful providence of God a great part of many mens vertue consists in their ignorance of vice and their being kept out of the way of great and dangerous temptations rather in the good customs they have been bred up to than in the deliberate choice of their wills and rather in the happy preventions of evil than their resolute constancy in that which is good And God who knows what is in man and sees to the bottom of every man's temper and inclination knows how far this man would have fallen had he had the temptations of other men and how irrecoverably perhaps he would have been plunged in an evil course had he once entered upon it So that repentance is a very great thing and though it be the most just and fit and reasonable thing in the world yet for all that it deserves great commendation because it is for the most part so very hard and difficult And therefore though absolutely speaking innocence is better than repentance yet as the circumstances may be the vertue of some penitents may be greater than of many just and righteous persons Secondly There is this consideration further to recommend repentance that they who are reclaimed from a wicked course are many times more thoroughly and zealously good afterwards Their trouble and remorse for their sins does quicken and spur them on in the ways of vertue and goodness and a lively sense of their past errours is apt to make them more careful and conscientious of their duty more tender and fearful of offending God and desirous if it were possible to redeem their former miscarriages by their good behaviour for the future Their love to God is usually more vehement and burns with a brighter flame for to whomsoever much is forgiven they will love much And they are commonly more zealous for the conversion of others as being more sensible of the danger sinners are in and more apt to commiserate their case remembring that it was once their own condition and with what difficulty they were rescued from so great a danger And for the most part great penitents are more free from pride and contempt of others the consideration of what themselves once were being enough to keep them humble all their days So that penitents are many times more throughly and perfectly good and after their recovery do in several respects outstrip and excel those who were never engaged in a vicious course of life As a broken bone that is well set is sometimes stronger than it was before 2. It will conduce also very much to the extenuating of this difficulty to consider that our Saviour does not here compare repentance with absolute innocence and perfect righteousness but with the imperfect obedience of good men who are guilty of many sins and infirmities but yet upon account of the general course and tenour of their lives are by the mercy and favour of the Gospel esteemed just and righteous persons and for the merits and perfect obedience of our blessed Saviour so accepted by God Now this alters the case very much and brings the penitent and this sort of righteous persons much nearer to one another so that in comparing them together the true penitent may in some cases and in some respects have the advantage of the righteous and deserve upon some accounts to be prefer'd before him 3. Which is principally to be considered for the full clearing of this difficulty this passage of our Saviours is to be understood as spoken very much after the manner of men and suitably to the nature of humane passions and the usual occasions of moving them We are apt to be exceedingly affected with the obtaining of what we did not hope for and much more with the regaining of what we looked upon as lost and desperate Whatever be the reason of it such is the nature of man that we are not so sensibly moved at the continuance of a good which we have long possest as at the recovery of it after it was lost and gone from us And the reasons of a judicious value and esteem of a settled pleasure and contentment are one thing
unpardonable I would fain know how could he have expressed the matter in higher fuller words Dr. Hammond mollifies the words another way that this sin shall never be pardoned but upon a particular repentance for it As if our Saviour's meaning was that a general repentance which was sufficient for sins of Ignorance would not be sufficient in this case but there must be a particular repentance for it without which it would never be pardoned But this is by no means agreeable to the scope of our Saviour's discourse Because he plainly intends to difference this from all other sorts of sins I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men But according to this interpretation our Saviour must mean that all other sins would be forgiven upon a general repentance which is not true for there are many other sins besides sins of Ignorance there are wilful and heinous sins such as wilful murder and adultery and blasphemy that only excepted which is against the Holy Ghost and the like gross sins which all Divines hold shall not be forgiven but upon a particular repentance So that this interpretation does not sufficiently difference this sin from all other sorts of sins which yet it is very plain our Saviour intended to do It remains then that these words must in all reason be understood absolutely that the persons that are guilty of this great sin shall never have it forgiven to them And it may be this will not seem so harsh when we have considered in the IV. Fourth place how it comes to pass that this sin is above all others incapable of pardon And that upon these two accounts First Because by this sin men resist their last remedy and oppose the best and utmost means of their conviction What can God be imagined to do more to convince a man of a Divine Revelation or of the truth of any Doctrine or message that comes from him than to work miracles to this purpose And what greater assurance can men have that miracles are wrought than to be eye-witnesses of them themselves And if men will resist such evidence what can God do more for their satisfaction If when men see plain miracles wrought they will say that it is not the power of God that does them but the power of the Devil And if when men see the Devils cast out they will say that the Devil conspires against himself this is to outface the Sun at Noon-day and there is no way left to convince such perverse persons of the truth of any Divine Revelation So that there is no remedy but such persons must continue in their opposition to the truth For this is such a sin as does in its own nature shut out and prevent all remedy And he that thus perversely and maliciously opposeth the truth must upon the same grounds unavoidably continue in his opposition to it because there is nothing left to be done for his conviction more than is already done If God should send a person immediately from heaven to him to convince him of his errour he can give him no greater testimony that he comes from God than miracles And if when God enables that person to work these by the power of his Spirit this man will obstinately impute them to the power of the Devil he defeats all the imaginable means of his own conviction So that it is no wonder if that sin be unpardonable which resists the last and utmost means which God hath ever yet thought fit to use to bring men to repentance and salvation And if God were willing to reveal himself and the way to pardon and salvation to such a one he doth by this very temper and disposition render himself incapable of being satisfied and convinced concerning any divine Revelation Secondly Because this sin is of that high nature that God is therefore justly provoked to withdraw his grace from such persons and it is probable resolved so to do without which grace they will continue impenitent There is no doubt but God if he will can work so powerfully upon the minds of men by his Grace and Spirit as to convince the most obstinate and supposing them to be convinced and repent it cannot be denied but that they would be forgiven And therefore when our Saviour here says they shall not be forgiven it is reasonable to suppose that he means that when persons are come to that degree of obstinacy and malice God will as justly he may withdraw his grace from them His spirit will not strive with them to overcome their obstinacy but will leave them to the byass of their own perverse and malicious minds which will still engage them in a further opposition to the truth and finally sink them in perdition So that being deserted by God and for want of the necessary help and aid of his grace justly withdrawn from them continuing finally impenitent they become incapable of forgiveness both in this world and that which is to come And there is nothing that can seem harsh or unreasonable in this to those who grant as I think all men do that God may be so provoked by men as justly to withdraw his grace from them in this life that grace which is necessary to their repentance And surely if any provocation be likely to do it this cannot be denied to be of all others the greatest obstinately and maliciously to oppose the utmost evidence that God ever gave to the truth of any Doctrine revealed by him And of this the Pharisees who are here charged with this sin against the Holy Ghost were notoriously guilty in resisting the clear evidence of our Saviours miracles And thus I have done with the four things I propounded to enquire into from these words Namely The difference between speaking against the Son of man and speaking against the Holy Ghost wherein the Nature of this sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost doth consist and in what sense this sin is said to be unpardonable and upon what account it is so Namely because men by this sin resist their last remedy and oppose the best and utmost means of their conviction And because it may reasonably be supposed that upon a provocation of this high nature God may and is resolved to withdraw that grace from such persons which is necessary to their repentance without which their sin remains for ever unpardonable All that now remains is to make this discourse some way or other useful to our selves And it may very well serve to these two purposes First to comfort some very good and pious persons who are liable to despair out of an apprehension that they have committed this sin Secondly To caution others against the approaches to it 1. First To comfort some very good and pious persons who are liable to despair upon an apprehension that they have committed this great and unpardonable sin and consequently are utterly incapable of ever being restored to the mercy and
counsels and admonitions of Gods Word nor his milder and gentler dealings with us can usually attain Thus we find in the Parable Luk. 15. that the Providence of God makes use of hunger and extreme necessity to bring home the Prodigal and by him our Saviour represents to us the temper of most sinners For till we have spent that stock of mercies which God hath given us till we come to be pinch'd with want and are ready to perish we are not apt to entertain thoughts of returning to our Father It may be there are some sinners which are more tractable and easie to be reduced to goodness that are not so headstrong and obstinate in their way but that they may be reclaimed by milder and softer means But there are likewise a great many sensless and outragious sinners who are madly and furiously bent upon their own ruin Now to treat these fairly with the allurements of kindness and the gentle arts of perswasion would be to no purpose The only way that is left of dealing with them is rigour and severity When sinners are thus besides themselves some thing that looks like Cruelty is perhaps the greatest mercy that can be shown to them nothing so proper for such persons as a dark Room and a spare Diet and severe Usage A Rod for the back of Fools as the Wise-man speaks Thus have I done with the first thing I propounded to speak to namely The merciful design and intention of God in sending Judgments upon a People which is to bring them to Repentance and by Repentance to prevent their Ruin I proceed to the II. The Reason of the continuance of Gods Judgments viz. because the people were not reclaimed by them therefore his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still because the people turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts And how can it be expected it should be otherwise When incorrigibleness under the Judgments of God is a provocation of so high a nature a sign of a most deprav'd and incorrigible temper and an argument of the greatest obstinacy in evil Upon this account we find that the Holy Spirit of God in Scripture brands Ahaz as a singular and remarkable sort of sinner 2 Chron. 28.22 because in the time of his distress he sinned yet more against the Lord. The longer Pharaoh and the Egyptians resisted the Judgments of God the more still they were harden'd and the more they were plagu'd Levit. 26.23 after God had there threatned his people with several sore Judgments for their sins he tells them that if they will not be reform'd by all these things he will punish them seven times more and after that seven times more for their sins And if in such a case the just God will punish seven times more we may safely conclude that sins after Judgments are seven times greater So likewise Deut. 28 after a long and dreadful Catalogue of Curses there denounc'd against the people of Israel in case of their disobedience God at last threatens them with a Forreign Enemy that should distress them in their gates And if they would not be reclaim'd by all this he tells them That he hath still more and greater Judgments for them in store v. 58 and 59 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that thou mayest fear this great and glorious Name THE LORD THY GOD then the Lord will make thy Plagues wonderful If we be of so strange and monstrous a disposition as to grow worse under Judgments God will deal with us after an unusual and prodigious manner he will make our plagues wonderful This incorrigible temper the Prophets of old every where make the great aggravation of the sin of Israel Isa 1.4 5 Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity and after a great many other expressions to set forth what heinous sinners they were he sums up all in this That they were so far from being reform'd by the several Judgments of God which had been inflicted upon them that they were the worse for correction Why should they be stricken any more they will revolt more and more So likewise Hos 7.9 10 Ephraim though brought very low is represented as of the same refractory temper Strangers have devour'd his strength c. But they do not return to the Lord nor seek him for all this I will mention but one Text more and methinks it bears but too near a resemblance with our own condition both in respect of the judgments which have been upon us and our carriage under them Amos 4. where God upbraids his people several times with this as the great aggravation of their sins That they continued impenitent under all those terrible Judgments of God which had been upon them I have sent among you says he Famine and then Pestilence and then the Sword and last of all a terrible Fire which had almost utterly consumed them vers 11. I have overthrown some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not return'd unto me And because all these Judgments had not been effectual to reclaim them He tells them that he was resolved to go on in punishing and therefore he bids them to expect it and prepare themselves for it vers 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel When God hath begun to punish a people and they are not amended by it the honour of his Justice is concern'd to proceed and not to give over By every sin that we commit we offend God but if he smite us and we stand out against him then do we contend with him and strive for mastery And when the sinner is upon these stubborn and insolent terms then prepare to meet thy God A bitter Sarcasme as if man could be a match for God and a poor weak creature in any wise able to encounter him to whom Power belongs There 's a severe expression concerning Gods dealing with such perverse and obstinate sinners Psal 18.26 With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward or as the words may more properly and conveniently be render'd with the froward thou wilt wrestle God will not be outbrav'd by the sins of men and therefore if we continue impeninent we have all the reason in the world to expect that God will go on to punish But to come nearer to our selves and to consider our own case which is in truth so very bad that we may almost be afraid to consider it The wise and good God like a prudent and indulgent Father hath used all the arts of his Providence towards this Nation to reclaim us He hath invited us to him by many blessings but we would not come so that to borrow an apt illustration from a great Divine of our own we have forced him
are tendered to such persons serve only to provoke their scorn or their passion And surely that man is in a sad case that is so disposed that in all probability he will turn the most effectual means of his amendment into the occasion of new and greater sins But that which renders the condition of such persons much more sad and deplorable is that all this while God is withdrawing his grace from them For every degree of sin causeth the Holy Spirit of God with all his blessed motions and assistances to retire farther from them And not only so but the Devil that evil Spirit which the Scripture tells us works effectually in the children of disobedience does according as men improve in wickedness get a greater and a more establish'd dominion over them For as they who are reclaimed from an evil course are said in Scripture to be rescued out of the snare of the Devil and to be turned from the power of Satan unto God So on the other hand the farther men advance in the ways of sin so much the farther they depart from God from under the influences of his grace and the care of his protection and providence and they give the Devil who is not apt to neglect his advantages upon them greater opportunities every day to gain the firmer possession of them And thus by passing from one degree of sin to another the sinner becomes hardened in his wickedness and does insensibly slide into that state in which without a miraculous grace of God he is like for ever to continue For the mind of man after it hath been long accustomed to evil and is once grown old in vice is almost as hard to be rectified as it is to recover a body bowed down with age to its first streightness The Scripture speaks of some that commit sin with greediness and that drink up iniquity as the Oxe drinketh up water with a mighty appetite and thirst as if they were not able to refrain from it And to express to us the miserable condition of such persons it representeth them as perfect slaves to their vices that have sold themselves to do wickedness and are led captive by Satan at his pleasure And when men have brought themselves to this pass they are almost under a fatal necessity of sinning on I do not believe that God hath absolutely predestinated any man to ruin but by a long course of wilful sins men may in a sort predestinate themselves to it and choose wickedness so long till it almost become necessary and till they have brought themselves under all imaginable disadvantages of contributing any thing towards their own recovery being bound in the chains of their own wickedness and held in the cords of their sins Nay like Sampson not only bound by those lusts which they have embraced but likewise robbed of all their strength whereby they should break loose from those bonds God grant that none of us may ever have the woful experience of it But I am horribly afraid it is too true that a sinner may arrive to that confirmed state of impiety as almost totally to lose his liberty to do better He may attain to that perfection in vice as to continue to be a bad man upon the same account that the Historian extravagantly says Cato was virtuous quia aliter esse non potuit because he could not be otherwise Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots It is the Scripture comparison to set forth to us how hard a thing it is for a man to be brought to goodness that hath been long accustomed to do evil He that is thus deeply engaged and entangled in a bad course will scarce ever have the heart and resolution to break loose from it unless he be forced violently out of it by some severe affliction by a sharp sickness or by a terrible calamity or by the present apprehensions of death and the terrours of a future Judgment Nor will these be effectual neither to change such a person without an extraordinary degree of Gods grace which considering the greatness and the continuance of his provocations he hath very little reason to expect or hope God should ever bestow upon him Wretched man that hast brought thy self into this miserable state out of which there is but just a possibility left of thy being rescued that hast neglected thy disease so long till it is almost too late to apply remedies that hast provoked God so far and sinned to such a prodigious height that thou hast reason almost to despair both of his grace and assistance for thy repentance and of his mercy for thy pardon I speak not this to discourage even the greatest of sinners from repentance Though their case be extremely difficult yet it is not quite desperate For those things which seem impossible with men are possible with God But I speak it on purpose to stop sinners in their course and to discourage men from going on in sin till they be hardened through the deceitfulness of it and have brought themselves by insensible degrees into that dangerous and difficult state which I have all this while been representing to you I come now to the II. Second thing I propounded which was from this consideration to shew what great reason and need there is to warn men of this danger and to endeavour to rescue them out of it The Apostle directs this precept to all Christians Exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin That is lest you be hardened by degrees and be finally ruined And surely every man is concerned to do what in him lies to rescue his brother from so imminent a danger It is every ones place and duty to endeavour to save those whom he sees ready to perish Much more does it concern those who are peculiarly set apart for this work I mean the Ministers of Gods holy Word whose proper office and business it is to exhort and warn every man day and night who are set as watchmen to the house of Israel and whose blood in case any of them miscarry through our neglect shall be required at our hands So that if we believe the threatnings of God which we declare to others if we have any apprehension of the dreadful misery of another world if we have any sense of our own duty and safety if we have any pity for perishing souls we cannot but be very importunate with sinners to look about them and to consider their danger and to bethink themselves seriously of the miserable event and issue of a wicked life We cannot but be earnest with them to break off their sins and to give glory to God by repentance before darkness come and their feet stumble upon the dark mountains When we are convinced more fully than we can desire that misery and destruction are in their ways when we plainly see the evil day hasting toward them a-pace and destruction
determined For though a man endeavour never so much to settle himself in the principles of Infidelity and to perswade his mind that there is no God and consequently that there are no rewards to be hoped for nor punishments to be feared in another life yet he can never attain to a steddy and unshaken perswasion of these things And however he may please himself with witty reasonings against the common belief of mankind and smart reparties to their arguments and bold and pleasant raillery about these matters yet I dare say no man ever sate down in a clear and full satisfaction concerning them For when he hath done all that he can to reason himself out of Religion his conscience ever and anon recoyls upon him and his natural thoughts and apprehensions rise up against his reasonings and all his wit and subtilty is confuted and born down by a secret and strong suspicion which he can by no means get out of his mind that things may be otherwise And the reason hereof is plain because all this is an endeavour against nature and those vigorous instincts which God hath planted in the minds of men to the contrary For whenever our minds are free and not violently hurried away by passion nor blinded by prejudice they do of themselves return to their first and most natural apprehensions of things And this is the reason why when the Atheist falls into any great calamity and is awakened to an impartial consideration of things by the apprehension of death and judgment and despairs of enjoying any longer those pleasures for the sake of which he hath all this while rebelled against Religion his courage presently sinks and all his arguments fail him and his case is now too serious to admit of jesting and at the bottom of his soul he doubts of all that which he asserted with so much confidence and set so good a face upon before and can find no ease to his mind but in retreating from his former principles nor no hopes of consolation for himself but in acknowledging that God whom he hath denied and imploring his mercy whom he hath affronted This is always the case of these persons when they come to extremity not to mention the infinite checks and rebukes which their own minds give them upon other occasions so that 't is very seldom that these men have any tolerable enjoyment of themselves but are forced to run away from themselves into company and to stupify themselves by intemperance that they may not feel the fearful twitches and gripings of their own minds Whereas he who entertains the principles of Religion and therein follows his own natural apprehensions and the general voice of mankind and is not conscious to himself that he knowingly and wilfully lives contrary to these principles hath no anxiety in his mind about these things being verily perswaded they are true and that he hath all the reason in the world to think so And if they should prove otherwise which he hath no cause to suspect yet he hath this satisfaction that he hath taken the wisest course and hath consulted his own present peace and future security infinitely better than the Atheist hath done in case he should prove to be mistaken For it is a fatal mistake to think there is no God if there be one but a mistake on the other hand hath no future bad consequences depending upon it nor indeed any great present inconvenience Religion only restraining a man from doing some things from most of which it is good he should be restrained however so that at the worst the religious man is only mistaken but the Atheist is miserable if he be mistaken miserable beyond all imagination and past all remedy 2. Another and indeed a principal cause of trouble and discontent to the minds of men is Guilt Now Guilt is a consciousness to our selves that we have done amiss and the very thought that we have done amiss is apt to lie very cross in our minds and to cause great anguish and confusion Besides that Guilt is always attended with Fear which naturally springs up in the mind of man from a secret apprehension of the mischief and inconvenience that his sin will bring upon him and of the vengeance that hangs over him from God and will overtake him either in this world or the other And though the sinner while he is in full health and prosperity may make a shift to divert and shake off these fears yet they frequently return upon him and upon every little noise of danger upon the apprehension of any calamity that comes near him his guilty mind is presently jealous that it is making towards him and is particularly levelled against him For he is sensible that there is a just power above him to whose indignation he is continually liable and therefore he is always in fear of him and how long soever he may have scaped punishment in this world he cannot but dread the vengeance of the other And these thoughts are a continual disturbance to his mind and in the midst of laughter make his heart heavy And the longer he continues in a wicked course the more he multiplies the grounds and causes of his fears But now Religion frees a man from all this torment either by preventing the cause of it or directing to the cure either by preserving us from guilt or clearing us of it in case we have contracted it It preserves us from guilt by keeping us innocent and in case we have offended it clears us of it by leading us to repentance and the amendment of our lives which is the onely way to recover the favour of God and the peace of our own consciences and to secure us against all apprehension of danger from the divine Justice though not absolutely from all fear of punishment in this world yet from that which is the great danger of all the condemnation and torment of the world to come And by this means a man's mind is setled in perfect peace Religion freeing him from those tormenting fears of the Divine displeasure which he can upon no other terms rid himself of whereas the sinner is always sowing the seeds of trouble in his own mind and laying a foundation of continual discontent to himself Secondly As Religion removes the chief grounds of trouble and disquiet so it ministers to us all the true causes of peace and tranquillity of mind Whoever lives according to the rules of Religion lays these three great foundations of peace and comfort to himself 1. He is satisfied that in being religious he doth that which is most reasonable 2. That he secures himself against the greatest mischiefs and dangers by making God his Friend 3. That upon the whole matter he do's in all respects most effectually consult and promote his own interest and happiness 1. He is satisfied that he does that which is most reasonable And it is no small pleasure to be justified to our selves to be satisfied
to it but they hope hereafter to be in a better temper and disposition and then they resolve by Gods grace to set about this work in good earnest and to go through with it I know not whether it be fit to call this a Reason I am sure it is the greatest cheat and delusion that any man can put upon himself For this plainly shews that thou dost not intend to do this which thou art convinced is so necessary but to put it off from day to day For there is no greater evidence that a man doth not really intend to do a thing than when notwithstanding he ought upon all accounts and may in all respects better do it at present than hereafter yet he still puts it off Whatever thou pretendest this is a meer shift to get rid of a present trouble It is like giving good words and making fair promises to a clamorous and importunate creditour and appointing him to come another day when the man knows in his conscience that he intends not to pay him and that he shall be less able to discharge the debt then than he is at present Whatever reasons thou hast against reforming thy life now will still remain and be in as full force hereafter nay probably stronger than they are at present Thou art unwilling now and so thou wilt be hereafter and in all likelihood much more unwilling So that this reason will every day improve upon thy hands and have so much the more strength by how much the longer thou continuest in thy sins Thou hast no reason in the world against the present time but only that 't is present why when hereafter comes to be present the reason will be just the same So that thy present unwillingness is so far from being a just reason against it that 't is a good reason the other way because thou art unwilling now and like to be so nay more so hereafter if thou intendenst to do it at all thou shouldst set about it immediately and without delay 2. Another reason which men pretend for the delaying of this work is the great difficulty and unpleasantness of it And it cannot be denied but that there will be some bitterness and uneasiness in it proportionably to the growth of evil habits and the strength of our lusts and our greater or less progress and continuance in a sinful course So that we must make account of a sharp conflict of some pain and trouble in the making of this change that it will cost us some pangs and throws before we be born again For when nature hath been long bent another way it is not to be expected that it should be reduced and brought back to its first strenghtness without pain and violence But then it is to be considered that how difficult and painful soever this work be it is necessary and that should over-rule all other considerations whatsoever that if we will not be at this pains and trouble we must one time or other endure far greater than those which we now seek to avoid that it is not so difficult as we imagine but our fears of it are greater than the trouble will prove if we were but once resolved upon the work and seriously engaged in it the greatest part of the trouble were over it is like the fear of children to go into the cold water a faint trial increaseth their fear and apprehension of it but so soon as they have plunged into it the trouble is over and then they wonder why they were so much afraid The main difficulty and unpleasantness is in our first entrance into Religion it presently grows tolerable and soon after easie and after that by degrees so pleasant and delightful that the man would not for all the world return to his former evil state and condition of life We should consider likewise what is the true cause of all this trouble and difficulty 'T is our long continuance in a sinful course that hath made us so loth to leave it 'T is the custom of sinning that renders it so troublesome and uneasie to men to do otherwise 'T is the greatness of our guilt heightned and inflamed by many and repeated provocations that doth so gall our consciences and fill our souls with so much terror 'T is because we have gone so far in an evil way that our retreat is become so difficult and because we have delayed this work so long that we are now so unwilling to go about it and consequently the longer we delay it the trouble and difficulty of a change will encrease daily upon us And all these considerations are so far from being a good reason for more delays that they are a strong argument to the contrary Because the work is difficult now therefore do not make it more so and because your delays have encreased the difficulty of it and will do more and more therefore delay no longer 3. Another pretended encouragement to these delays is the great mercy and patience of God He commonly bears long with sinners and therefore there is no such absolute and urgent necessity of a speedy repentance and reformation of our lives Men have not the face to give this for a reason but yet for all that it lies at the bottom of many mens hearts So Solomon tells us Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But it is not always thus There are few of us but have seen several instances of Gods severity to sinners and have known several persons surprized by a sudden hand of God and cut off in the very act of sin without having the least respite given them without time or liberty so much as to ask God forgiveness and to consider either what they had done or whither they were a-going And this may be the case of any sinner and is so much the more likely to be thy case because thou dost so boldly presume upon the mercy and patience of God But if it were always thus and thou wert sure to be spared yet awhile longer what can be more unreasonable and disingenuous than to resolve to be evil because God is good and because he suffers so long to sin so much the longer and because he affords thee a space of repentance therefore to delay it and put it off to the last The proper design of Gods goodness is to lead men to repentance and he never intended his patience for an encouragement to men to continue in their sins but for an opportunity and an argument to break them off by repentance These are the pretended reasons and encouragements to men to delay their repentance and the reformation of their lives and you see how groundless and unreasonable they are which was the first thing I propounded to speak to II. I shall add some farther considerations to engage men effectually to set about this work speedily
to go on and fortifie their good resolutions to be more vigilant and watchful over themselves to strive against sin and to resist it with all their might And according to the success of their endeavours in this conflict the evidence of their good condition will every day clear up and become more manifest The more we grow in grace and the seldomer we fall into sin and the more even and constant our obedience to God is so much the greater and fuller satisfaction we shall have of our good estate towards God For the path of the just is as the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever I shall only make two or three Inferences from what hath been discoursed upon this Argument and so conclude 1. From hence we learn the great danger of sins of Omission as well as Commission Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God The mere neglect of any of the great duties of Religion of piety towards God and of kindness and charity to men though we be free from the commission of great sins is enough to cast us out of the favour of God and to shut us for ever out of his kingdom I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink sick and in prison and ye visited me not therefore depart ye cursed 2. It is evident from what hath been said That nothing can be vainer than for men to live in any course of sin and impiety and yet to pretend to be the Children of God and to hope for eternal life The Children of God will do the works of God and whoever hopes to enjoy him hereafter will endeavour to be like him here Every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure 3. You see what is the great mark and character of a mans good or bad condition whosoever doth righteousness is of God and whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Here is a plain and sensible evidence by which every man that will deal honestly with hâ—mself may certainly know his own condition and then according as he finds it to be may take comfort in it or make haste out of it And we need not ascend into heaven nor go down into the deep to search out the secret counsels and decrees of God there needs no anxious enquiry whether we be of the number of Gods elect If we daily mortifie our lusts and grow in goodness and take care to add to our faith and knowledg temperance and patience and charity and all other Christian graces and vertues we certainly take the best course in the world to make our calling and election sure And without this it is impossible that we should have any comfortable and well grounded assurance of our good condition This one mark of doing righteousness is that into which all other signs and characters which are in Scripture given of a good man are finally resolved And this answers all those various phrases which some men would make to be so many several and distinct marks of a child of God As whether we have the true knowledg of God and divine illumination for hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments Whether we sincerely love God for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments And whether God loves us for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance will behold the upright Whether we be regenerate and born of God for whosoever is born of God sinneth not Whether we have the Spirit of God witnessing with our Spirits that we are the children of God for as many as have the Spirit of God are led by the Spirit and by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh Whether we belong to Christ and have an interest in him or not for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof In a word Whether the promise of heaven and eternal life belong to us for without holiness no man shall see the Lord but if we have our fruit unto holiness the end will be everlasting life So that you see at last the Scripture brings all to this one mark viz. holiness and obedience to the Laws of God or a vicious and wicked life In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Let us then deal impartially with our selves and bring our lives and actions to this tryal and never be at rest till the matter be brought to some issue and we have made a deliberate judgment of our condition whether we be the children of God or not And if upon a full and fair examination our consciences give us this testimony that by the grace of God we have denyed ungodliness and worldly lusts and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world we may take joy and comfort in it for if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But if upon the search and tryal of our ways our case appear clearly to be otherwise or if we have just cause to doubt of it let us not venture to continue one moment longer in so uncertain and dangerous a condition And if we desire to know the way of Peace the Scripture hath set it plainly before us Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Though our case be very bad yet it is not desperate This is a faithful saying and worthy of all men to be embraced that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And he is still willing to save us if we be but willing to leave our sins and to serve him in holiness and righteousness the remaining part of our lives We may yet be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God We who have ventured so long upon the brink of ruin may yet by the infinite mercies of God and by the power of his grace be rescu'd from the base and miserable slavery of the Devil and our lusts into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And thus I have endeavoured with all the plainness I could to represent every man to himself and to let him clearly see what his condition is towards God and how the case of his soul and of his eternal happiness stands And I do verily believe that what I have said in this matter is the truth of God
take away his life Whatever he said or did though never so innocent never so excellent had some bad interpretation put upon it and the great and shining Vertues of his life were turned into Crimes and matter of accusation For his casting out of Devils he was called a Magician for his endeavour to reclaim men from their vices a friend of Publicans and Sinners for his free and obliging conversation a wine-bibber and a glutton All the benefits which he did to men and the blessings which he so liberally shed among the people were construed to be a design of Ambition and Popularity and done with an intention to move the people to Sedition and to make himself a King Enough to have discouraged the greatest goodness and have put a damp upon the most generous mind and to make it sick and weary of well-doing For what more grievous than to have all the good one does ill interpreted and the best actions in the world made matter of calumny and reproach And then Lastly If we consider how chearfully notwithstanding all this he persevered and continued in well-doing It was not only his business but his delight I delight says he to do thy will O my God The pleasure which others take in the most natural actions of life in eating and drinking when they are hungry he took in doing good it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father He plyed this work with so much diligence as if he had been afraid he should have wanted time for it I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work And when he was approaching towards the hardest and most unpleasant part of his Service but of all others the most beneficial to us I mean his Death and Sufferings he was not at ease in his mind till it was done How am I straitned says he till it be accomplished And just before his Suffering with what Joy and Triumph does he reflect upon the good he had done in his life Father I have glorified thee upon earth and have finished the work which thou hast given me to do What a blessed Pattern is here of diligence and industry in doing good how fair and lovely a copy for Christians to write after And now that I have set it before you it will be of excellent use to these two purposes To shew us our Defects and to excite us to our Duty I. To shew us our Defects How does this blessed Example upbraid those who live in a direct contradiction to it who instead of going about doing good are perpetually intent upon doing mischief who are wise and active to do evil but to do good have no inclination no understanding And those likewise who though they are far from being so bad yet wholly neglect this blessed work of doing good They think it very fair to do no evil to hurt and injure no man but if Preachers will be so unreasonable as to require more and will never be satisfied till they have persuaded them out of their estate and to give to the poor till they have almost impoverish'd themselves they desire to be excused from this importunity But we are not so unreasonable neither We desire to put them in mind that to be charitable according to our power is an indispensable duty of Religion that we are commanded not only to abstain from evil but to do good and that our Blessed Saviour hath given us the example of both he did not only do no sin but he went about doing good And upon this nice point it was that the young rich man in the Gospel and his Saviour parted He had kept the Commandments from his youth Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal he had been very careful of the negative part of Religion But when it came to parting with his Estate and giving to the poor this he thought too hard a condition and upon this he forsook our Saviour and forfeited the Kingdom of heaven And it is very considerable and ought to be often and seriously thought upon that our Saviour describing to us the Day of Judgment represents the great Judg of the world acquitting and condemning men according to the good which they had done or neglected to do in ways of mercy and charity for feeding the hungry and cloathing the naked and visiting the sick or for neglecting to do these things Than which nothing can more plainly and effectually declare to us the necessity of doing good in order to the obtaining of eternal Happiness There are many indeed who do not altogether neglect the doing of this work who yet do in a great measure prevent and hinder themselves from doing it as they ought under a pretence of being employed about other Duties and parts of Religion They are so taken up with the exercises of Piety and Devotion in private and publick with Prayer and reading and hearing Sermons and preparing themselves for the Sacrament that they have scarce any leisure to mind the doing of good and charitable offices to others or if they have they hope God will pardon his servants in this thing and accept of their Piety and Devotion instead of all But they ought to consider that when these two parts of Religion come in competition Devotion is to give way to Charity Mercy being better than Sacrifice that the great End of all the Duties of Religion Prayer and reading and hearing the Word of God and receiving the holy Sacrament is to dispose and excite us to do good to make us more ready and forward to every good work and that it is the greatest mockery in the world upon pretence of using the means of Religion to neglect the end of it and because we are always preparing our selves to do good to think that we are for ever excused from doing any Others are taken up in contending for the Faith and spend all their zeal and heat about some Controversies in Religion and therefore they think it but reasonable that they should be excused from those meaner kind of Duties because they serve God as they imagine in a higher and more excellent way as those who serve the King in his Wars use to be exempted from Taxes and Offices But do those men consider upon what kind of Duties more especially our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles lay the great weight and stress of Religion that it is to the Meek and Merciful and Peaceable that our Saviour pronounceth Blessedness that pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction that the wisdom which is from above is full of mercy and good works These are the great and weighty things of Religion which whatever else we do ought not to be left undone Do they consider that a right Faith is wholly in order to a good Life and is of no value any farther
at last upon this as the greatest felicity of humane life and the only good use that is to be made of a prosperous and plentiful fortune Eccl. 3.12 I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and do good in his life And a greater and a wiser than Solomon hath said that it is more blessed to give than to receive Thirdly To employ our selves in doing good is to imitate the highest Excellency and Perfection It is to be like God who is good and doth good and to be like him in that which he esteems his greatest glory and that is his Goodness It is to be like the Son of God who when he took our nature upon him and lived in the World went about doing good It is to be like the blessed Angels whose great employment it is to be ministring spirits for the good of others To be charitable and helpful and beneficial to others is to be a good Angel and a Saviour and a God to men And the Example of our blessed Saviour more especially is the great Pattern which our Religion propounds to us And we have all the reason in the World to be in love with it because that very Goodness which it propounds to our imitation was so beneficial to our selves when we our selves feel and enjoy the happy effects of that good which he did in the World this should mightily endear the Example to us and make us forward to imitate that love and kindness to which we are indebted for so many blessings and upon which all our hopes of happiness do depend And there is this considerable difference between our Saviour's charity to us and ours to others He did all purely for our sakes and for our benefit whereas all the good we do to others is a greater good done to our selves They indeed are beholden to us for the kindness we do them and we to them for the opportunity of doing it Every ignorant person that comes in our way to be instructed by us every sinner whom we reclaim every poor and necessitous man whom we relieve is a happy opportunity of doing good to our selves and of laying up for our selves a good treasure against the time which is to come that we may lay hold on eternal life By this principle the best and the happiest man that ever was governed his life and actions esteeming it a more blessed thing to give than to receive Fourthly This is one of the greatest and most substantial Duties of Religion and next to the love and honour which we pay to God himself the most acceptable service that we can perform to him It is one half of the Law and next to the first and great Commandment and very like unto it like to it in the excellency of its nature and in the necessity of its obligation For this commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his brother also The first Commandment excels in the dignity of the object but the Second hath the advantage in the reality of its effects For our righteousness extendeth not to God we can do him no real benefit but our charity to men is really useful and beneficial to them For which reason God is contented in many cases that the external Honour and Worship which by his positive commands he requires of us should give way to that natural duty of Love and Mercy which we owe to one another And to shew how great a value he puts upon Charity he hath made it the great testimony of our Love to himself and for want of it rejects all other professions of love to him as false and insincere If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Fifthly This is that which will give us the greatest comfort when we come to die It will then be no pleasure to men to reflect upon the great estates they have got and the great places they have been advanced to because they are leaving these things and they will stand them in no stead in the other world Riches profit not in the day of wrath But the conscience of well-doing will refresh our Souls even under the very pangs of death With what contentment does a good man then look upon the good he hath done in his life and with what confidence doth he look over into the other world where he hath provided for himself bags that wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not For though our estates will not follow us into the other world our good works will though we cannot carry our riches along with us yet we may send them before us to make way for our reception into everlasting habitations In short works of Mercy and Charity will comfort us at the hour of death and plead for us at the day of Judgment and procure for us at the hands of a merciful God a glorious recompence at the resurrection of the just Which leads me to the Last consideration I shall offer to you which is the reward of doing good both in this world and the other If we believe God himself he hath made more particular and encouraging promises to this grace and virtue than to any other The advantages of it in This World are many and great It is the way to derive a lasting blessing upon our estate Acts of charity are the best Deeds of Settlement We gain the prayers and blessings of those to whom we extend our charity and it is no small thing to have the blessing of them that are ready to perish to come upon us For God hears the prayers of the destitute and his ear is open to their cry Charity is a great security to us in times of evil and that not only from the special promise and providence of God which are engaged to preserve from want those that relieve the necessities of others but likewise from the nature of the thing which makes way for its own reward in this world He that is charitable to others provides a supply and retreat for himself in the day of distress For he provokes mankind by his example to like tenderness towards him and prudently bespeaks the commiseration of others against it comes to be his turn to stand in need of it Nothing in this World makes a man more and surer friends than charity and bounty and such as will stand by us in the greatest troubles and dangers For a good man says the Apostle one would even dare to die 'T is excellent counsel of the Son of Sirach Lay up thy treasure according to the Commandment of the Most high and it shall bring thee more profit than gold Shut up thy alms in thy store-house and it shall deliver thee from all affliction It shall fight for thee against thine enemies better than a mighty shield and strong spear It hath sometimes happened that the obligation that men have laid upon others by their Charity hath in case of danger and extremity done them more kindness than all the rest of their Estate could do for them and their Alms have literally delivered them from death But what is all this to the endless and unspeakable Happiness of the Next life where the returns of doing good will be vastly great beyond what we can now expect or imagine For God takes all the good we do to others as a debt upon himself and he hath estate and treasure enough to satisfie the greatest obligations we can lay upon him So that we have the Truth and Goodness and Sufficiency of God for our security that what we scatter and sow in this kind will grow up to a plentiful harvest in the other World and that all our pains and expence in doing good for a few days will be recompensed and crowned with the Joys and Glories of Eternity FINIS Bishop Sanderson Juven Vell. Patere Seneca * Tully * Aristides Antonin lib. 10.
favour of God And nothing can be more for the comfort of such persons than to understand aright what the nature of this sin was and wherein the heinousness of it doth consist which I have endeavoured to manifest And if this be the Nature of it which I have declared as it seems very plain that it is then I cannot see how any person now is likely to be in those circumstances as to be capable of committing it And being a sin of so heinous a nature and declared by our Saviour to be absolutely unpardonable there is no reason to extend it beyond the case to which our Saviour applies it which was the resisting of the evidence of the miracles which were wrought for the truth of Christianity by those who were eye-witnesses of them that is by those who had the utmost assurance of them that humane nature is capable of And not only a bare resistance of that evidence but with a very malicious circumstance so as to impute those works which were wrought by the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil This was the case of the Pharisees whom our Saviour chargeth with this sin And no body hath warrant to extend this sin any further than this case and without good warrant it would be the most uncharitable thing in the world to extend it any further That which comes nearest to it both in the heinousness of the crime and the unpardonableness of it is total Apostasie from Christianity after the embracing of it and full conviction of the truth of it And this the Scripture seems to place if not in the same rank yet very near to it And of this the Apostle speaks very often in the Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of unbelief and sin by way of eminence as being the great sin that Christians were in danger of falling into call'd in that Epistle Heb. 12.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin which Christians by reason of the circumstances they were then in were especially subject to And he parallels it with the case of the Jews in the wilderness concerning whom God sware that they should not enter into his rest namely the earthly Canaan which was a type of Heaven Chap. 3. ver 18. And Chap. 6. ver 4 5 6 more expresly For it is impossible that those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they should fall away to renew them again to repentance Where by impossible the least that can be meant is that it is extremely difficult for such persons to recover themselves by repentance And 't is observable that those persons are said to have been partakers of the Holy Ghost by which is meant that they were either endued with a power of miracles by the Holy Ghost or were under the conviction of them as having seen them wrought by others So that this Apostasie may be said in that respect to be a sin against the Holy Ghost So likewise Chap. 10. ver 26 If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the truth that is if we apostatize from Christianity after we have embraced the profession of it as appears plainly from the scope of the Apostles discourse there remains no more sacrifice for sin which expression declares this sin either to be unpardonable or something very like it And at the 29. vers Those persons are said to tread under foot the Son of God and to do despite unto the Spirit of Grace Which signifies that the sin there spoken of is more immediately committed against the Holy Spirit of God St. Peter likewise declares the great danger of this sin 2 Pet. 2.20 If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning St. John likewise seems to speak of this sin of Apostacy and to call it a sin unto death Discouraging Christians rather from praying for those who were fallen into it which gives great suspicion that he looked upon it as hardly pardonable 1 Joh. 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for those that sin not unto death There is a sin unto death I do not say that he shall pray for it Now that by the sin unto death the Apostle here means Apostacy from the Christian Religion to the Heathen Idolatry seems extremely probable from what follows ver 18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not but keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not that is he preserveth himself from Idolatry which the Devil had seduced the world into ver 19 And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wicked one that is is under the power of the Devil And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding to know him that is true that is to distinguish between the true God and Idols And then it follows this is the true God and eternal life Little children keep your selves from Idols Which last caution is a key to the understanding of all the rest and makes it very probable that the sin unto death is Apostacy from Christianity unto Idolatry Otherwise it is hard to imagine how the last clause comes in Little children keep your selves from Idols And this is that sin which of all other approacheth nearest to this sin against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour speaks of and concerning the pardonableness of which the Scripture seems to speak very doubtfully But if it were of the same unpardonable nature yet this can be no trouble to those persons I am speaking of who cannot but know themselves to be far enough from the guilt of this sin As for those other sins which by some are taken to be the sins against the Holy Ghost they are either such as no man is capable of committing as a malicious opposition to the truth when I am convinced and know it to be the truth For this is a contradiction Because to know any thing to be the truth is to believe it to be so and therefore no man can disbelieve it while he believes it to be truth Or else they are such as no man can know he is guilty of in this life as final impenitency which supposeth a man to live and die without repentance Or else such as I think not good man is incident to as a malicious and perverse opposing of the truth after sufficient means of conviction However none of these are that which the Scripture descrihes to be the sin against the Holy Ghost as I have already shewn But still there are two things which usually trouble honest and well-meaning