too apparently destructive of a good life And I begin 1. With their Doctrines And because I have no mind to aggravate lesser matters I will single out four or five points of Doctrine which they have added to the Christian Religion and which were neither taught by our Saviour and his Apostles nor own'd in the first ages of Christianity And the First which I shall mention and which being once admitted makes way for as many errors as they please to bring in is their Doctrine of Infallibility And this they are very stiff and peremptory in though they are not agreed among themselves where this Infallibility is seated whether in the Pope alone or a Council alone or in both together or in the diffusive body of Christians But they are sure they have it though they know not where it is And is this no prejudice against it can any man think that this priviledg was at first conferred upon the Church of Rome and that Christians in all Ages did believe it and had constant recourse to it for determining their differences and yet that that very Church which hath enjoyed and used it so long should now be at a loss where to find it Nothing could have fallen out more unluckily than that there should be such differences among them about that which they pretend to be the onely means of ending all differences There is not the least intimation in Scripture of this priviledg confer'd upon the Roman Church nor do the Apostles in all their Epistles ever so much as give the least direction to Christians to appeal to the Bishop of Rome for a determination of the many differences which even in those times happen'd among them And it is strange they should be so silent in this matter when there were so many occasions to speak of it if our Saviour had plainly appointed such an infallible Judg of controversies for this very end to decide the differences that should happen among Christians It is strange that the ancient Fathers in their disputes with Hereticks should never appeal to this Judg nay it is strange they should not constantly do it in all cases it being so short and expedite a way for the ending of controversies And this very consideration to a wise man is instead of a thousand arguments to satisfie him that in those times no such thing was believed in the world Now this Doctrine of Infallibility if it be not true is of so much the more pernicious consequence to Christianity because the conceit of it does confirm them that think they have it in all their other errors and gives them a pretence of assuming an Authority to themselves to impose their own fancies and mistakes upon the whole Christian world 2. Their Doctrine about Repentance Which consists in confessing their sins to the Priest which if it be but accompanied with any degree of contrition does upon absolution received from the Priest put them into a state of salvation though they have lived the most lewd and debauched lives that can be imagin'd than which nothing can be more plainly destructive of a good life For if this be true all the hazard that the most wicked man runs of his salvation is only the danger of so sudden a death as gives him no space for confession and absolution A case that happens so rarely that any man that is strongly addicted to his lusts will be content to venture his salvation upon this hazard and all the arguments to a good life will be very insignificant to a man that hath a mind to be wicked when remission of sins may be had upon such cheap terms 3. The Doctrine of Purgatory By which they mean a state of temporary punishments after this life from which men may be released and translated into Heaven by the prayers of the living and the sacrifice of the Mass That this Doctrine was not known in the primitive Church nor can be proved from Scripture we have the free acknowledgment of as learned and eminent men as any of that Church which is to acknowledg that it is a superstructure upon the Christian Religion And though in one sense it be indeed a building of gold and silver upon the foundation of Christianity considering the vast revenues which this Doctrine and that of Indulgences which depends upon it brings into that Church yet I doubt not but in the Apostles sense it will be found to be hay and stubble But how groundless soever it be it is too gainful a Doctrine to be easily parted withall 4. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation A hard word but I would to God that were the worst of it the thing is much more difficult I have taken some pains to consider other Religions that have been in the world and I must freely declare that I never yet in any of them met with any Article or Proposition imposed upon the belief of men half so unreasonable and hard to be believed as this is And yet this in the Romish Church is esteemed one of the most principal Articles of the Christian Faith though there is no more certain foundation for it in Scripture than for our Saviours being substantially changed into all those things which are said of him as that he is a rock a vine a door and a hundred other things But this is not all This Doctrine hath not only no certain Foundation in Scripture but I have a far heavier charge against it namely that it undermines the very foundation of Christianity it self And surely nothing ought to be admitted to be a part of the Christian Doctrine which destroys the reason of our belief of the whole And that this Doctrine does so will appear evidently if we consider what was the main argument which the Apostles used to convince the world of the truth of Christianity and that was this That our blessed Saviour the Author of this Doctrine wrought such and such miracles and particularly that he rose again from the dead And this they proved because they were eye-witnesses of his miracles and had seen him and conversed with him after he was risen from the dead But what if their senses did deceive them in this matter then it cannot be denied but that the main proof of Christianity falls to the ground Well! We will now suppose as the Church of Rome does Transubstantiation to have been one principal part of the Christian Doctrine which the Apostles preached But if this Doctrine be true then all mens senses are deceived in a plain sensible matter wherein 't is as hard for them to be deceived as in any thing in the world For two things can hardly be imagin'd more different than a little bit of water and the whole body of a man So that the Apostles perswading men to believe this Doctrine perswaded them not to trust their senses and yet the argument which they used to perswade them to this was built upon the direct contrary principle that mens senses are to
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
them the unreasonableness of this calumny and that upon these two considerations 1 st That it was very unlikely that the Devil should lend him this power to use it against himself Every kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against it self shall not stand And if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how shall then his kingdom stand 2 dly Our Saviour tells them they might with as much reason attribute all miracles to the Devil There were those among themselves who cast out Devils in the name of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as Origen and Tertullian and Justin Martyr tell us Of these our Saviour speaks and asks the Pharisees by what power they cast them out But they aknowledged that these did it by the power of God and there was no cause but their malice why they should not have acknowledged that he did it likewise by the same power ver 27 If I by Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom do your children cast them out therefore they shall be your judges That is this may be sufficient to convince you malice of to me But if I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God is come unto you That is the Messias is come Because he wrought these and other miracles to prove that he was the Messias And then it follows Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men So that the Pharisees are the persons charged with this sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost And their blasphemy was plainly this that when he cast out Devils by the Spirit of God they said he did it by the power of the Devil they maliciously ascribed these works of the Holy Ghost to the Devil And that this is the ground why our Saviour chargeth them with this sin against the Holy Ghost is yet more plain from St. Mark Mark 3.28 29 30 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 blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation because they said he hath an unclean Spirit That is because the Pharisees charged him to be a Magician and to have a familiar Spirit by whose assistance he did those works when in truth he did them by the Spirit of God therefore our Saviour declares them guilty of this sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost which should never be forgiven So that the nature of this sin did consist in a most malicious opposition to the utmost evidence that could be given to the truth of any Religion Our blessed Saviour to shew that he was sent by God and came from him wrought miracles such as did plainly evidence a divine power and presence accompanying of him For in St. Luke he is said to do them by the finger of God Luke 11.20 By the finger of God that is to do such things as were an undeniable evidence of the divine power and presence And this is the utmost testimony that God ever gave to any person that was sent by him And the Pharisees were eye-witnesses of those miracles which our Saviour wrought so that they could not deny them Yet such was their opposition to him and his doctrine that though they saw these things done by him and could not deny the reality of them yet rather than they would own him to be the Messias and his Doctrine to come from God they most maliciously and unreasonably ascribed them to the power of the Devil And this was the blasphemy which they were guilty of against the Holy Ghost And herein lay the greatness of their sin in resisting the evidence of those miracles which were so plainly wrought by the Holy Ghost and which though themselves saw yet they maliciously imputed them to the Devil rather than they would be convinced by them And this is so very plain that hardly any man that considers our Saviours discourse upon this occasion can otherwise determine the nature of this sin especially if he do but attend to those remarkable words which I cited before Mark 3.29 but he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation because they said he hath an unclean spirit I come now to the III. Third thing I propounded namely in what sense this sin is here said to be peculiarly unpardonable For this our Saviour positively affirms to be in this different from all other sins that it is capable of no pardon I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men And to shew what he means by the not forgiving of it he tells us that eternal punishment shall follow it in the other World Whosoever speaketh a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Which St. Mark expresseth more plainly that it shall bring those who are guilty of it to eternal damnation Mark 3.29 He that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is liable to eternal damnation So that when our Saviour says it shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come he does not intend to insinuate that some sins which are not forgiven in this world may be forgiven in the other but in these words he either alludes to the opinion of the Jews concerning the effect of the highest excommunication the sentence whereof they held not to be reversible neither in this world nor the other or else the reason of this expression may probably be to meet with a common and false opinion amongst the Jews which was that some sins which are not pardoned to men in this life may by sacrifices be expiated in the other and therefore he says it shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor the other And St. Mark more plainly that those who are guilty of it shall never have forgiveness but be liable to eternal damnation So that our Saviour's meaning seems plainly to be this that this sin is altogether incapable of forgiveness I know some have endeavoured to mollifie this matter but I think without sufficient reason Grotius understands the words comparatively that any sort of sin shall sooner be forgiven than this against the Holy Ghost and that our Saviour only intended to express the greatness and heinousness of this sin above others in which respect the pardon of it would be more difficult than of any other sin but yet that the case of such a person is not absolutely desperate But if our Saviour had intended to say that this sin was absolutely
persons but are rather the effects of Melancholy than any reasonable ground of trouble Some think that every deliberate sin against knowledg and after conviction is the sin against the Holy Ghost This is aknowledged to be a very great aggravation of sin and such as calls for a great and particular repentance but does by no means render a man incapable of forgiveness Others are troubled with blasphemous thoughts and those they think to be the sin against the Holy Ghost But this is generally the meer effect of Melancholy And the persons that are troubled with these black thoughts are no ways consenting to them but they rise in their minds perfectly against their wills and without any approbation of theirs And in this case they are so far from being the unpardonable sin that I hope yea and verily believe they are no sins at all but the meer effects of a bodily distemper and no more imputed to us than the wild and idle ravings of a man in a frenzy or a fever And God forbid that the natural effects of a bodily disease should bring guilt upon our souls So that these persons have reason enough for comfort but the misery is their present distemper renders them incapable of it 2. Secondly The other Use I would make of this discourse is to caution men against the degrees and approaches of this sin For if the sin against the Holy Ghost be of such a high nature and so unpardonable then all approaches to it are very dreadful Such as are profane scoffing at Religion and the Holy Spirit of God which dwells in good men Abuse of the holy Scriptures which were indited by the Spirit of God Perverse Infidelity notwithstanding all the evidence which we have for the Truth of Christianity and sufficient assurance of the Miracles wrought for the confirmation of it brought down to us by credible History though we were not eye-witnesses of them Obstinacy in a sinful and vicious course notwithstanding all the motives and arguments of the Gospel to perswade men to repentance Sinning against the clear conviction of our Consciences and the motions and suggestions of God's Holy Spirit to the contrary Malicious opposing of the Truth when the Arguments for it are very plain and evident to any impartial and unprejudiced mind and when he that opposeth the Truth hath no clear satisfaction in his own mind to the contrary but suffers himself to be furiously and headily carried on in his opposition to it These are all sins of a very high nature and of the nearest affinity with this great and unpardonable sin of any that can easily be instanced in And though God to encourage the repentance of men have not declared them unpardonable yet they are great provocations and if they be long continued in we know not how soon God may withdraw his grace from us and suffer us to be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Be ready then to entertain the truth of God whenever it is fairly propounded to thee and with such evidence as thou art willing to accept in other matters where thou hast no prejudice nor interest to the contrary Do nothing contrary to thy known duty but be careful in all things to obey the convictions of thine own conscience and to yield to the good motions and suggestions of God's Holy Spirit who works secretly upon the minds of men and inspires us many times gently with good thoughts and inclinations and is griev'd when we do not comply with them and after many repulses will at last withdraw himself from us and leave us to be assaulted by the temptations of the Devil and to be hurried away by our own lusts into ruin and perdition A SERMON OF CHARITY AND ALMES Acts X. 38 Who went about doing good WHen Almighty God designed the Reformation of the World and the restoring of Man to the Image of God the Pattern after which he was first made he did not think it enough to give us the most perfect Laws of holiness and virtue but hath likewise set before us a living Pattern and a familiar Example to excite and encourage us to go before us and shew us the way and as it were to lead us by the hand in the obedience of those Laws Such is the Sovereign Authority of God over men that he might if he had pleased have only given us a Law written with his own hand as he did to the people of Israel from Mount Sinai but such is his Goodness that he hath sent a great Embassadour from Heaven to us God manifested in the flesh to declare and interpret his will and pleasure and not only so but to fulfil that Law himself the observation whereof he requires of us The bare Rules of a good life are a very dead and ineffectual thing in comparison of a living Example which shews us the possibility and practicableness of our Duty both that it may be done and how to do it Religion indeed did always consist in an Imitation of God and in our resemblance of those excellencies which shine forth in the best and most perfect Being but we may imitate him now with much greater ease and advantage since God was pleased to become Man on purpose to shew us how Men may become like to God And this is one great End for which the Son of God came into the world and was made flesh and dwelt among us and conversed so long and familiarly with mankind that in his own Person and Life he might give us the Example of all that holiness and vertue which his Laws require of us And as he was in nothing liker the Son of God than in being and doing good so is he in nothing a fitter Pattern for our imitation than in that excellent character given of him here in the Text that He went about doing good In which words two things offer themselves to our consideration First Our Saviour's great Work and Business in the world which was to do good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who employed himself in being a benefactour to mankind This refers more especially to his healing the bodily diseases and infirmities of men God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil Intimating to us by this instance of his doing good that he who took so much pains to rescue mens Bodies from the power and possession of the Devil would not let their Souls remain under his tyranny But though the Text instanceth only in one particular yet this general expression of doing good comprehends all those several ways whereby he was beneficial to mankind Secondly Here is his Diligence and Industry in this work He went about doing good he made it the great business and constant imployment of his life I shall propound to you the Pattern of our Saviour in both these particulars I. His great Work and Business in the world was to do good
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