Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A56746
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A practical discourse of repentance rectifying the mistakes about it, especially such as lead either to despair or presumption ... and demonstrating the invalidity of a death-bed repentance / by William Payne ...
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Payne, William, 1650-1696.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing P907; ESTC R35391
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226,756
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585
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of God as when ye called me wine-bibber and glutton and a friend of Publicans and Sinners but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost if ye use any reproachful sayings against the Spirit of God by which I do my Miracles this shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Neither here nor as some of you vainly expect hereafter but shall be certainly and severely punish'd in both Now here is no mention at all nor the least intimation of those other Sins in which some have placed this Sin against the Holy Ghost as in final Impenitence which the Pharisees could not then be charged with not Apostacy from Christianity which they had not at all professed nor were by this very likely to do nor denying the Truth for fear of Suffering as in the instance of Francis Spira which is often said to be his Sin nor any of the six Sins in which the Schoolmen have placed it as Envying our Brothers Graces Impugning the known Truth Obstinacy Impenitency Desperation and Presumption which two latter are unluckily put together to make this one Sin when they are so contrary to themselves Whatever mixture there might be of these or any of these or the like Sins in the Minds of the Pharisees who committed this Sin against the Holy Ghost yet those are no more this particular Sin here meant by our Saviour than Pride and Covetousness and other Sins that might go a great way and be no small causes to bring them to this Sin and dispose their Minds for it but St. Mark sets the thing beyond all dispute in chap. 3. ver 28.29 30. where he relates these words of our Saviour thus Verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And then he gives the reason of our Saviours saying all this to them namely because they said he hath an unclean Spirit i. e. a Diabolical and impure one which makes it as manifest as can be desired that this their Sin was their blaspheming and speaking so reproachfully of the Holy Ghost which was in Christ as if that were not the Holy Spirit of God but an unclean and a Devilish Spirit How great and horrid a Sin this was will appear from these four Considerations 1. It tended to destroy the whole Truth of Christianity and consequently to rob the World of all the benefit it has by it There could nothing so malicious be contrived to undermine the Foundation of the Gospel as this assertion of the Pharisees that our Saviour wrought his Miracles by the help of an evil or unclean Spirit for this was to make him a Magician a confederate with the Devil and so to represent his Religion as a work and contrivance of Hell that could tend only to the mischief and destruction of the World For if no good thing could come out of Galilee as in a Proverbial derision they gave out to the People to be sure no good thing could come from Hell and from evil Spirits The Devil would never lend his Power had he been able to promote or establish any thing but a false Religion that should withdraw the World from the Worship of the true God The greatest demonstration for the Truth of Christianity were the Miracles of Christ as he often appeals to them John 10.37 38. John 14.11 Mat. 11.4 and if these were done not by a Divine but a Diabolical Power and by a compact with the Devil they are then the greatest Arguments against it for then it may be only a mystery of iniquity brought into the World by him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 20. as Antichristianism is described 2. It tends not only to undermine the Truth of Christianity but of all Revelation whatever from God The greatest proof and demonstration that can be given to any Prophet that comes from God to reveal his Will to Men is his working of Miracles and satisfying those he is sent to that he has a Divine Authority and Commission by his showing his Credentials from God who would never suffer a Cheat and Impostor to do such mighty works as must necessarily cheat and deceive those that see them Now if notwithstanding that he teach nothing contrary to the Nature of God nor of Good and Evil and yet perform such wonderful Miracles as can be done only by the Finger of God and by a Divine Power if we will still suspect this then we can never be satisfied of the truth of any revelation from Heaven and so the Pharisees did not only undermine Christianity but even their own Law for it might with as much reason be said that Moses and the Prophets who pretended to come from God and wrought Miracles to show they did so yet were only the Prophets and Embassadors of the Devil and did all their Miracles by his Power as of Christ 3. This must proceed from a very spightful temper and malicious humour that made them speak this against their Consciences and the sense of their own Minds Sure they who were eye-witnesses of his Miracles and so had the best and fullest evidence of the truth of them and who heard the excellency of his Discourses and Sermons in which was nothing contrary to the Worship of the true God or the Moral Duties of Religion they must as our Saviour once told them know both him and also whence he was John 7.28 When they must be convinced that he was both an innocent and good Man himself and that his Doctrine commanded the highest Vertue and Goodness and tended to destroy the whole Power and Interest of the Devil in the World they could not surely believe themselves or think this their black charge was true but when they saw the People amazed at his healing a Demoniack and saying Is not this the Son of David Matth. 12.23 And so they feared that they should have lost their Power and Authority together with their Law and that the People should have left them and followed him then they gave out this vile and abominable reflection upon him that he did all this by the Power of the Devil which was the utmost shift that Malice could invent to blind the eyes of others against a Truth which they could hardly be supposed not to see themselves 4. It was the most taunting reproachful Slander against God and his Holy Spirit that could possibly be and therefore is alwayes called Blasphemy which is the most daring provoking and transcendent Crime against God that can be and proceeds from the most contemptuous and scornful most wretched and depraved temper of Mind To slander and calumniate the Son of Man was a great Sin to call a sober and temperate Person a
unlawfully had it power and opportunity for those first Motions and Inclinations are necessary and unavoidable arising from the frame and constitution of our Nature and the Mechanism of our Body Blood and Spirits so that we can no more help or prevent them than we can the senses of Pain and Pleasure or the Appetites of Thirst or Hunger or the Motions and Impressions of outward Objects made upon our Senses and therefore they are not simply evil but good in themselves so far as they are Natural and intended by God to serve the good of the World and of particular Persons and the wise ends of Providence but as they are irregular and inordinate excessive and immoderate and destroy those ends for which God intended them so far they are sinful and when any of those Natural Appetites or Sensual Inclinations grow too strong and unruly and are not kept under the government of Reason or within the bounds of Vertue and Religion then they carry Men to all loosness and wickedness and make them commit Sin and Uncleanness with greediness A good Man may with St. Paul be very sensible and complain of this body of sin and of death and of the law of sin that is in his members of many irregular Appetites and undue Passions and weak and foolish imaginations and unreasonable desires and inclinations of too quick gusts of Sensual things and too much deadness of Spiritual of having too many thoughts and designs for Earthly and present things and too little zeal and affection for things Heavenly that are a thousand times more valuable These are imperfections that are in the best of us and we see that they are so and are very sensible and complain of them but yet we cannot wholly avoid them but after all our thoughts and all our care they still return upon us and the Flesh will lust against the Spirit and there will be a perpetual war and struggle between them but if the Spirit do so far prevail by the helps of Grace and considerations of Religion that it do never yield to any wilful Sin it shall then be rewarded as a Conquerour which though it did not wholly subdue and drive out that homebred enemy yet kept it alwayes under and made it submit to its Government and not keep up an open Rebellion against it Of this I have largely discoursed in the Third Section of the Third Chapter I proceed now to those Sins which are known wilful and presumptuous habitual and reigning in us any one of which is inconsistent with a good State and excludes us out of Gods Favour here and Heaven hereafter such as the Psalmist in the forequoted place prayes against Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me All known and wilful Sins are presumptuous as being done in defiance of a Divine Authority that we know has forbid them and in contempt of God and his Laws to whom we owe all Honour and Obedience and notwithstanding all those threatnings and severe punishments that God has denounced against them He that sins wilfully after he has received the knowledge of the truth of these things there remains nothing for him but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries This is despising the Law of God thus wittingly and wilfully to break it and is sinning with a high hand and a most presumptuous boldness when we choose to do that which we know is most highly displeasing to Heaven and which God has laid all the obligations he possibly can upon us not to do When any such Sin gets dominion over us so that it becomes customary and habitual to us it makes us the Devils slaves and captives at his Will and shows that he is our Master and that we are the Servants of Sin and overcome by that and brought in bondage to it that it prevails upon our Minds above all the Power of Reason and Principles of Religion and that we choose it above all the great things of Heaven and another World that Religion offers to us and think it more desirable than any of those and had rather gratifie a paltry Lust and a foolish Inclination than save our Souls and have all the favour of God that we prefer it before any other good and let it have the ascendant in our Love and Affections above all other things for it is utterly inconsistent with any Love of God or any due regard to him and banishes all Principles of Religion out of our Minds and destroyes all sincerity and uprightness of Heart towards God and abandons us to a state of enmity with him and everlasting destruction hereafter This I have shown is true of every wilful and chosen and known Sin I shall now from the distinction I have given you of these Sins from those of Infirmity Ignorance and Inadvertency make the following Inferences and Remarks 1. That those Sins of Infirmity are to be Repented of i. e. we are to be sorry for them and pray God to forgive them Though they do not destroy our good state nor deprive us of Gods Favour here or Heaven hereafter yet they are such as are to be matter of Trouble and Sorrow and Humiliation to us and we are dayly to pray God to forgive us our Trespasses as Christ has taught us in the Lords Prayer and the Psalmist in the place before mentioned prayes God to cleanse him from his secret faults as well as to keep him back from presumptuous Sins For 2. These are true and proper Sins and though they are not charged upon us to our Condemnation yet this is by the great Favour and Mercy of God and by Vertue of the Gracious Covenant made in Christ with Mankind for otherwise God in Rigour and Justice might punish and condemn us for them The Papists hold a distinction between Sins Mortal and Venial in their own Nature i. e. that some Sins are in themselves damnable and others not which the Protestants have generally opposed for this Reason because all Sin is in it self Mortal and in its own Nature deserves Death as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a breach and transgression of a Divine Law whose sanction is Death but it is pardonable only by Gods Mercy on the account of its circumstances which make it more excusable with a good and merciful God but that it is not of it self venial or so little as not to deserve Punishment they prove from hence that we are bound to pray God to forgive it Now it is pure Grace and Favour for God to forgive and what he is not obliged to and if he is not obliged to pardon it he may punish it were it not for his Mercy and Goodness and the Gracious Covenant he has made with us in the Gospel This should therefore 3. Make us very sensible of Gods infinite Mercy and kind dealing with us by the Covenant of Grace How many innumerable Sins and